ELFI Review

Bank-direct refinancing with the strictest eligibility here, from a lender whose refinance program was the subject of a 2025 Justice Department settlement.

About ELFI

Bank-direct refinancing with the strictest eligibility here, from a lender whose refinance program was the subject of a 2025 Justice Department settlement. ELFI is offered by Education Loan Finance, a division of SouthEast Bank and currently holds an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 across 2,269 user reviews. It falls into the Student Loan Refinancing category and tends to be the strongest fit for high-income graduates with strong credit who want a bank to lend directly.

Editorial grade: C (composite score 59/100).

Highlights

Fixed from 4.29% APR and variable from 4.74% APR, current as of 14 August 2026
Terms from 5 to 20 years, minimum loan $10,000
Lent by SouthEast Bank, a state-chartered Federal Reserve member
No application fee, no origination fee, no prepayment fee

What we like

A chartered bank lends directly rather than arranging it through someone else
Trustpilot 4.9 across 2,269 reviews
Its own terms warn against refinancing federal loans more plainly than any competitor here
Genuinely zero fees at origination

Where it falls short

SouthEast Bank paid $1.5 million in January 2025 to settle a Justice Department claim that the ELFI refinance program discriminated. From 2015 to 2021 it auto-denied graduates of schools whose default rates crossed thresholds the bank set, and Black applicants were up to 4.3 times more likely to be excluded
No cosigner release at all. ELFI's own answer is to refinance again
No grace period. Principal and interest begin the month after disbursement

Fees, minimums, and rates

Monthly fee: No application, origination or prepayment fee. Late charge lesser of 5% or $50. Minimum to open: $10,000 minimum loan. Rates and promotional offers change often, so we re-verify every listed number on a rolling schedule and stamp the review with the date of the most recent check.

How we reviewed it

Our bank-account reviews weight APY (30%), fees (20%), access and convenience (15%), account features (15%), trust and safety (10%), and customer support (10%). We open and fund every account to verify rates, check transfer speeds, and test the mobile app on both iOS and Android. For this review of ELFI, our editors funded an account, walked through the full onboarding flow, and compared the experience to the other products in the Student Loan Refinancing shortlist. Scores are not influenced by affiliate relationships — partners cannot pay for better rankings, and our rubric is the same for every brand.

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Read our full editorial methodology and advertiser disclosure for more on how we fund our testing and why that matters for the reviews you read here.