Loan ownership is important when it comes to Student Loan Refinancing because we’re currently unable to transfer the ownership of a student loan from one primary borrower to another. This includes moving a loan from parent to child (or vice versa) or moving a loan from one spouse to another. While the loan may have been taken out to pay for your education, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the loan originated with you as the primary borrower. In the case of Parent Plus loans, the loan often originated with the parent as the primary borrower.
While we can’t transfer loan ownership from one primary borrower to another, we can refinance loans that have been co-signed. This allows clients to not only refinance loans in their own name but also consolidate and include loans where they were the cosigner. The new loan can either be solely owned by the new primary borrower (previous cosigner) or co-owned by the new primary borrower and a new cosigner (or, if the original borrower becomes the new cosigner, the roles can effectively be swapped in the refinancing process).
To determine loan ownership, our team will look at the ECOA codes associated with the loan as shown on your Experian credit report. Codes showing 1, 2, or 7 denote that the applicant is usually the primary borrower of the loan (with the exception of ECOA code 2, which may sometimes show the applicant as a cosigner). ECOA code 5, on the other hand, signifies that the applicant is a cosigner on the loan. We support ECOA codes 1, 2, 5, and 7 for refinance requests. The best way you can confirm how a loan originated is by contacting your current loan provider or by viewing your free yearly report from Experian.