Refinance break-even comparison
Compare your current loan against a refinance offer on the numbers you enter: monthly payment, total interest, and the month the offer's cumulative cost — fees included — falls below the current loan's. Your numbers stay in your browser.
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Comparison
| Current loan | Offer |
|---|
A comparison, not a recommendation. This does arithmetic on nominal dollars: fixed payments, fees at closing, nothing reinvested. Refinancing a federal loan with a private lender ends the federal loan's protections — income-driven plans, PSLF, and federal forbearance. Your servicer's and lender's figures govern.
Assumptions and how the comparison works
- Every payment is on time and in full; the current loan is amortized over the months you enter at your rate.
- Origination fees are paid at closing and count against the offer from month 1.
- Totals are nominal dollars. Nothing is reinvested; no discount rate is applied.
- Break-even is the first month the offer's cumulative cost including fees is below the current loan's, over whichever term is longer.
- The threshold rate is the offer rate at which total cost ties; the threshold fees are what the entered offer can absorb before it stops paying for itself.
Worked example
$200,000 at 8.07% with 120 months left, refinanced at 5.75% over 120 months with $1,500 in origination fees.
| Current loan | Offer | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly payment | $2,434 | $2,195 |
| Total interest | $92,075 | $63,446 |
| Total paid | $292,075 | $263,446 |
| Paid off after | 10 yr | 10 yr |
Including $1,500 in fees, the offer's cumulative cost falls below the current loan's in month 7 (0 yr 7 mo) and saves $27,129 in total. It stops paying for itself if the offer rate rises above 7.95% or fees rise above $28,629.
What the comparison does
Each loan is amortized at its own rate over its own term. The offer's cost starts one step ahead because of the fees, then usually falls below the current loan's as its lower payment compounds. Break-even is where the two cumulative lines cross. A longer offer term lowers the monthly payment but adds months of interest, so it can look cheaper per month and still cost more in total; a shorter term does the reverse.
Refinancing a federal loan
Refinancing a federal student loan with a private lender ends the federal loan's protections: income-driven repayment, PSLF eligibility, and federal forbearance. The federal plans changed in 2026; compare them on the loan repayment comparison before pricing a private offer. This page compares two loans on their own terms; it doesn't weigh those protections.