Last Updated on December 15, 2022
Student loans are a common financial aid option for students. While it’s important to understand how student loans work, it’s also important to know which lenders offer the best terms for borrowers.
Best Banks To Get Student Loans From
In this article, we’ll discuss the best banks to get student loans from. We’ll explain what makes them the best, and how you can use them to get the most out of your student loan experience.
5 Best Private Student Loans for May 2022
If you’ve exhausted all your scholarship, grant, work-study, and federal student loan options and still need money for school, private student loans can be a good option.
Since most private student loan lenders require good credit, we recommend adding a creditworthy cosigner to your application to improve your chances of approval. A cosigner can also help you receive a lower interest rate, which will reduce the overall cost of your loan.
In the table and reviews below, you’ll find the best private student loans amongst our partners, based on hours of research into rates, repayment terms, unique benefits, and more.
Compare the best private student loan lenders
| Lender | Best for | Rates (APR) | Our Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Best Overall | 1.19% – 12.99% | 5.0 | View Rates |
 | Best for Cosigners | 1.13% – 12.59% | 4.8 | View Rates |
 | Best for No Fees | 0.94% – 12.78% | 4.3 | View Rates |
 | Best for Forebearance Flexibility | 1.64% – 12.76% | 4.7 | View Rates |
 | Best for Member Benefits | 1.20% – 11.23% | 4.1 | View Rates |
Reviews of the five best private student loans
Check out the reviews below for an in-depth explanation as to why we selected each lender as one of the best private student loans. If you’re interested in learning more about a specific lender, you can jump to that review by clicking on its name in the list below.
- Best overall: College Ave
- Best for cosigners: Sallie Mae
- Best for forebearance flexibility: Ascent
- Best for member benefits: SoFi
- Best for no fees: Earnest
College Ave
Our Pick: Best Overall
5.0 LendEDU Rating Disclosures
Why It’s One of the Best
College Ave is our choice as the best overall lender for the second year in a row because it has competitive rates, lets you choose your repayment term, and can cover up to 100% of your school-certified cost of attendance.
Variable Rates
1.19% – 11.98% APR
Fixed Rates
3.49% – 12.99% APR
Loan Amounts
$1,000 – 100% of school-certified cost of attendance
College Ave is an online student loan lender based out of Wilmington, Delaware. The lender’s sole focus is to make a college degree more attainable by helping students and parents afford the rising cost of higher education.
When you borrow with College Ave, you’ll get to take advantage of its Multi-Year Peace of Mind™. Thanks to this benefit, 90% of undergraduate borrowers are approved for additional loans for future years when applying with a cosigner.
That’s not the only benefit of College Ave. It also allows you to select your repayment term and explains how the term and plan you choose impacts the long-term cost of your loan.
Are you interested in applying for a loan with College Ave? You can get an instant credit decision in just three minutes by clicking here.
Sallie Mae
Our Pick: Best for Cosigners
4.8 LendEDU Rating
Why It’s One of the Best
Sallie Mae is our choice as the best for cosigners due to its short cosigner release period. Cosigners can be released from a Sallie Mae student loan after the borrower makes just 12 consecutive on-time monthly payments.
Variable Rates
1.13% – 11.23% APR
Fixed Rates
4.25% – 12.59% APR
Loan Amounts
$1,000 – 100% of school-certified cost of attendance
Sallie Mae, the most widely known student loan lender, is based out of Newark, Delaware. When it was founded, it was a government entity in charge of servicing federal education loans. Then, between 1997 and 2004, Sallie Mae transitioned into a fully privatized bank and began offering private student loans.
Today, Sallie Mae controls the largest share of the private student loan market. It’s also expanded its product offering to include credit cards, savings accounts, and more.
Sallie Mae borrowers can enjoy benefits including four months of free Chegg® study help, Multi-Year Advantage, and no origination or application fees. With Multi-Year Advantage, returning undergraduate students with a cosigner have a 95% approval rate for a future loan.
Are you interested in applying for a loan with Sallie Mae? You can apply and get a credit decision in about 15 minutes by clicking here.
Earnest
Our Pick: Best for No Fees
4.3 LendEDU Rating
Why It’s One of the Best
When Earnest says it doesn’t charge any fees, it means it. There are no origination, application, prepayment, or late payment fees.
Variable Rates
0.94% – 11.44% APR
Fixed Rates
3.24% – 12.78% APR
Loan Amounts
$1,000 – 100% of school-certified cost of attendance
One of the main benefits of taking out a loan with Earnest is that there are no fees. Many lenders market their student loans as having no fees to apply, but this only refers to origination and application fees. With Earnest, you won’t be charged any fees to apply, plus you won’t be charged for paying off your loan early or for any late payments.
In addition to no fees, Earnest offers several other benefits, like a longer than average grace period and the ability to skip a payment once per year.
Are you interested in applying with Earnest? You can find out if you’re eligible in just two minutes by clicking here.
Ascent
Our Pick: Best for Forbearance Flexibility
4.7 LendEDU Rating
Why It’s One of the Best
Ascent allows borrowers experiencing financial difficulty to enter temporary hardship forbearance for up to 24 months. Other options include administrative and natural disaster forbearance.
Variable Rates
1.64% – 9.23% APR
Fixed Rates
4.78% – 12.76% APR
Loan Amounts
$2,001 – $200,000
Repayment Details
Ascent is an online student loan lender based out of San Diego, California. Its student loan offering is unique compared to other lenders in that it offers three different options. These options include its traditional cosigned loan, non-cosigned credit-based loan, and non-cosigned future income-based loan.
Borrowers looking for repayment protection will be happy to know that Ascent offers several deferment and forbearance options. Ascent’s college loans include active-duty military deferment, in-school deferment, and residency or internship deferment.
For those dealing with financial difficulty, loans include temporary hardship forbearance, administrative forbearance, and natural disaster or declared emergency forbearance. All three of these options will extend the repayment term on your loan.
Are you interested in applying with Ascent? You can prequalify and check your rate with no impact on your credit by clicking here.
SoFi
Our Pick: Best for Member Benefits
4.1 LendEDU Rating
Why It’s One of the Best
SoFi members enjoy a wide range of benefits, including a 0.125% rate discount, career coaching, unemployment protection, and more.
Variable Rates
1.20% – 11.23% APR
Fixed Rates
4.23% – 10.66% APR
Loan Amounts
$5,000 – 100% of school-certified cost of attendance
SoFi is a mobile-first online personal finance company based out of San Francisco, California. It made a name for itself in 2012 as the first company to refinance both federal and private student loans. Since then, it has expanded into nearly all consumer lending markets with over $50 billion in loans funded.
Without a doubt, one of the biggest draws to borrowing from SoFi is the wide range of benefits available to its members. These benefits fall into three categories: money, community, and career.
Money benefits include financial planning advice from credentialed advisors, referral bonuses, and member rate discounts. Community benefits include attending networking events, dinners, and happy hours. Career benefits include tools to help you earn a raise, personalized career advice, and an unemployment protection program.
Are you interested in applying for a loan with SoFi? You can prequalify without impacting your credit in minutes by clicking here.
How we chose the best private student loans
Since 2014, LendEDU has been reviewing private student loan lenders to determine the best in the industry. Our most recent evaluation consisted of 12 of our partners, including several of the largest in market share.
Here are the seven categories that we reviewed to score each lender:
- Interest rates: The rate on your loan is the most significant indicator of how much your loan will cost over time. We valued lenders that offered low rates and discounts.
- Repayment: Most borrowers will spend years repaying their student loans, and because of this, offering flexible repayment options was an important factor in our evaluation. Lenders that had borrower-friendly terms scored the highest.
- Loan amount: When you take out a student loan, you want to make sure that the loan can cover all your expenses. Lenders that cover up to the total cost of education were scored highest. Important note: You should only take out what you need. Small student loans are available to avoid borrowing more than you need.
- Cosigner benefits: Most estimates have over 90% of new private student loans including a cosigner. Lenders that allowed cosigners to be released from the loan were valued above those that didn’t.
- Fees: No private lender charging origination, application, or prepayment fees is eligible to be featured on this page. However, there are other fees that lenders may charge, such as late payment fees. The fewer fees charged by a lender, the better they scored.
- Better Business Bureau (BBB) rating: The BBB rates businesses between an A+ and F on how likely it is to interact with its customers. For student loan borrowers who will likely have a question or two during the life of their loan, this is a valuable rating to reference. The higher the rating a lender received, the better they scored.
- Benefits: To stand out amongst their competitors, most student loan lenders offer unique benefits and rewards. These benefits can include a free subscription, a graduation reward, unemployment assistance, and more. Lenders that provided benefits that helped borrowers better control the cost of their loan were scored highest.
Once we scored each lender, we then determined who was the best for different situations. If a lender wasn’t the best for anything, or they didn’t allow borrowers to choose between in-school or deferred payments, they were not included on this page.
Is a private student loan a good option for you?
Federal student loans are limited to a certain amount each year of undergraduate study. If you need to borrow more, your options might include federal Parent PLUS loans, private student loans, and some states have loan programs for residents or students in the state.
With all loans, you should understand your budget once you graduate. Once you pay for your basic necessities such as housing, food, and transportation, you should have enough left over to pay the monthly student loan payments from your expected starting salary. If it looks like this will be a problem, more student debt may not be the answer to pay for your college expenses.
Be sure you and your family compare all the costs and repayment options for the various student loan choices.
How to decide which private student loan is the best for you
While our evaluation of our private student loan partners was created as a starting point for students and their families to find the best private student loan, we recommend you do your own research as well.
When looking for a private student loan, comparing your options is the most important thing you can do. By doing this, you’ll be able to find an affordable loan that comes with borrower-friendly repayment terms. Here are the steps we recommend taking to find the best private student loan:
- Compile a list of student loan lenders that you’re interested in. Ideally, you’ll want to choose between reputable companies that have demonstrated an ability to support borrowers during repayment.
- Review the eligibility requirements for each lender. All private lenders have their own unique eligibility requirements. Make sure you’re eligible with a lender before applying to limit unnecessary hard credit checks. Remember, we recommend adding a cosigner to your loan to improve your chances of approval, but that cosigner is on the hook to pay back your loan if you are unable to. If you and your cosigner don’t meet the eligibility requirements, you should remove that lender from consideration.
- Review the loan terms. Make sure you understand what happens if you were to die or become disabled during the loan term. The lenders in our reviews all allow loan discharge for death or disability, but not all lenders have this feature. If you borrow from a lender that doesn’t allow for forgiveness due to death or disability, students should consider inexpensive life insurance to protect their cosigners. Although private student lenders do not have the same income-driven repayment plans as federal student loans, they might have forbearance programs if you lose your job during the repayment period. It can be helpful to understand those programs up-front.
- Get quotes from the lenders you’re eligible with. While most lenders display an interest rate range on their website, the only way to know the rate you’ll receive is by prequalifying or submitting a complete application. Make sure to utilize soft credit checks when possible to reduce the total number of hard credit inquiries on your credit report.
- Compare your quotes. Once you’ve received a rate estimate from each lender, compare your offers to see which lender offers you the lowest rate. Make sure to consider other factors like the repayment term, borrower protections, and unique benefits as well.
- Choose a lender. The lender you borrow from should offer you the most affordable loan, with borrower protections that help you in times of need during repayment. Once you select a lender, you can submit your application and wait for the lender to inform you of your next steps.
