ELFI Education Loan Finance Student Loan Refinance Review
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Education Loan Finance (“ELFI”) is a division of SouthEast Bank, based in Tennessee. The company offers student loan refinancing, as well as consolidation of federal and private student loans and parent loans. No application or origination fees are applied, and pre-payment penalties are not charged.
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Customer Comments & Reviews
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HORRIBLE COMPANY. Bait and switch. They do a process similar to SOFI or Lendkey and they make you click a box so you can see your rate and they make a HARD PULL on your credit.
DO NOT USE
I have been trying to help my son refinance his student loans with this company for months! I've given them all the info that they have requested but they never get back with me when I email or message them! It's been a VERY frustrating process. They must not want my business very much. My credit score is 850. My son and husband's are in the 800s as well and he co-signed for the loan. Don't waist your time with this company as they don 't seem to value a good customer who wants to do business with them. VERY DISAPPOINTED! Even when I got a manager involved he apologized for the lack of communication and then he did the very same thing!
This company does not train their customer representatives appropriately. I was assured that I was eligible to refinance with them, despite living outside the country. So, despite having a credit rating of 800+ and having a cosigner with a similar rating, I was ultimately rejected because I live outside of the country. I contacted them about the issue, and was told that they 'were sorry', and that they did not care that my credit rating and that of my co-signer would take a hit for the hard credit check. Do not be fooled by the kind and polite customer service reps at this company. Management does not mind needlessly dragging people's credit ratings through the mud.
I had the same experience as a previous commenter. Excellent credit score, well-paying job, on-time payments...and it was suggested that I solicit a cosigner. I had to email ELFI to confirm that I did indeed need to add a cosigner to move forward, after my application sat there for several weeks without being processed.
After adding my fiance (who has an even better credit score and even better paying job), they rejected the application via an email to my fiance -- not to me, the actual applicant. They cited a high debt to income ratio, but neither of us have a high debt to income ratio and oddly enough, my fiance had not yet even submitted any of his documents.
The confirmation email you receive after completing the application states that a loan officer will be assigned to you and will contact you directly within the next 24-48 hours, however nobody ever contacted me and I had to call customer service, ask for the loan officers contact information and contact him instead when I had questions. Although I received a pre-approval, have a credit score in the 'excellent' category, no history of late payments, a debt-to-income ratio under 18%, and an annual salary above $72k, ELFI will not refinance my $30k student loan without a co-signer, citing my debt to income ratio as their reasoning. I am not sure what else they are looking for in an... Read More
Our Partner
- Low-interest rates and a variety of repayment options
- Consolidate both federal and private student loans
- APRs start at 2.69% (variable) and 3.09% (fixed)
- Repayment terms of 5, 7, 10, 15, and 20 years
- Get a $100 bonus when you accept the loan offer within 30 days of application date
