Student Loan FAQs

A private student loan is a financing option for higher education in the United States provided by a private lender.

The ELFI Private Student Loan program can cover up to 100% of your school-certified cost of attendance. The cost of attendance typically includes tuition, books, supplies, room and board, transportation, and personal expenses. The minimum you can borrow is $1,000.

You do not need to be a full-time student, but you must be enrolled in a Bachelor’s, Master’s or Doctoral degree program and be attending classes at least half-time. Check out our full eligibility requirements to learn more.

Both federal and private student loan products are financial tools to assist you in paying for college. As a general rule, we recommend that you complete your FAFSA and take advantage of grants, scholarships, and other federal loan products first before exploring private student loans.

ELFI Private Student Loans do not have early payment fees or service fees, so the primary driver of cost is the annual interest rate. Paying your loans off faster will reduce the amount of interest you pay and save you money. Some of your options for faster repayment are:

• Making payments while in school. Interest accrues from the point the loan was taken out, so beginning to make payments, even if just interest only or partial payments, will reduce the amount of interest added to your loan while you are in school.
• Select shorter loan terms. Generally, shorter loan terms have a lower interest rate than longer loan terms. Selecting a shorter loan term with a lower interest rate can lead to savings.

SouthEast Bank is a chartered bank, headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee. The management team has over 30 years of experience in commercial banking and student loans. Education Loan Finance, a division of Southeast Bank, was created to provide lower cost student loan options to borrowers nationwide.

Education Loan Finance has three decades of experience in the student loan industry, and throughout that time, we have established a track record of customer service and integrity. Each applicant is assigned a Student Loan Advisor, who is dedicated to helping you throughout the application process.

The minimum loan amount is $1,000 for a private student loan with ELFI. The maximum loan size is the amount approved by the school for qualified education expenses for the requested academic period.

Our entire application process is online, so completing your application can be done in a matter of minutes. Once you have submitted your application, you’re assigned a Student Loan Advisor who will be available to answer any questions.

Once we have your application and your documentation, we send the loan application information to the school for certification. Your school will verify your enrollment status, academic progress, and your financial aid package to confirm the amount of the loan. Once the school has certified the amount, you must complete your application by accepting your loan terms, and then we will send the funds directly to your school on your behalf.

Yes, we ask the school to verify SAP during the school certification process. Each school has a SAP policy for financial aid purposes. Compliance with your school’s SAP policies means that you have to have good enough grades and complete enough classes (credits, hours, etc.) to show progress of completing your degree or certificate in a time that’s acceptable to your school. You can check your school’s website or ask someone in the financial aid office if you need clarification on your school’s SAP policies.

To speed up your private student loan application, you will need to have the following documents:

If applying with or without a cosigner

• Paystubs documenting the last 30 days of payment (if employed)
• Government-issued Identification

Your cosigner should also provide

• Paystubs documenting the last 30 days of payment (if employed)
• Government-issued Identification

Potentially, some additional documents may be required depending on the source of your income or your cosigner’s income. Your ELFI Student Loan Advisor will contact you with details should this be the case.

During prequalification, which provides you with preliminary rates and terms that you may qualify for, Education Loan Finance will perform a “soft credit inquiry.” A soft credit inquiry will not affect your credit score. However, once you choose your loan product and submit an application, Education Loan Finance will request to view your full credit report, which will show up as a hard credit inquiry. These inquiries are common among lenders and necessary for Education Loan Finance to make a final rate and product offer.

You don’t need a cosigner when applying for an ELFI Private Student Loan as long as you qualify on your own. If you have limited credit history and income, a cosigner with good credit history and income can improve your chances of obtaining a private student loan.

Submit your private student loan application before the start of an academic year or semester during the financial aid process. Your school will be required to certify the loan during the application process, so keep that in mind when planning your finances for college.

Education Loan Finance offers both fixed and variable interest rates. Fixed interest rates will not change from year to year, but variable interest rates will fluctuate based on the LIBOR index or the Prime Rate of Interest (see paragraph below for clarification), which may increase or decrease over the life of the loan.

Please Note: New variable rate ELFI loans applied for after 7:00 PM EST on January 7, 2022, will use the Prime Rate of Interest appearing in the Money Market section of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) as the benchmark rate index. Borrowers who have an existing variable rate ELFI loan(s) that use the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) as the benchmark rate index will continue to have LIBOR as the benchmark rate index on their loans. ELFI will notify borrowers with existing variable rate loans originated prior to 7:00 PM EST on January 7, 2022, of the expected change from LIBOR to an alternative benchmark rate index in the future.

No. Education Loan Finance still has to go through the underwriting process to determine if a borrower is eligible for a loan. Prequalification does not automatically qualify you for a final offer.

Education Loan Finance’s variable rate loans are based on either the 3-Month LIBOR or the Prime Rate of Interest (please see below for clarification). The interest rate on an Education Loan Finance variable rate loan may increase or decrease as the 3-Month LIBOR index or the Prime Rate of Interest increases or decreases. These indexes can be found in resources like The Wall Street Journal.

Please Note: New variable rate ELFI loans applied for after 7:00 PM EST on January 7, 2022, will use the Prime Rate of Interest appearing in the Money Market section of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) as the benchmark rate index. Borrowers who have an existing variable rate ELFI loan(s) that use the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) as the benchmark rate index will continue to have LIBOR as the benchmark rate index on their loans. ELFI will notify borrowers with existing variable rate loans originated prior to 7:00 PM EST on January 7, 2022, of the expected change from LIBOR to an alternative benchmark rate index in the future.

Yes. Borrowers who take out a variable rate loan will never have their rate exceed 18.00% APR.*

Rates are subject to change without notice, until a Student Loan Approval Disclosure is provided by Education Loan Finance. After receiving a variable rate loan, the rate is subject to change quarterly on January 1st, April 1st, July 1st, and October 1st if the loan uses the LIBOR index rate or monthly if the loan uses the Prime Rate of Interest as the rate index. For more information about how variable rates are calculated, please view the Application and Credit Agreement.

There are no application, origination, or prepayment fees.

If Education Loan Finance does not receive any part of a payment within ten days after the due date, there is a late fee of 5% of the past due amount or $50, whichever is less. The borrower may be charged $30 for any payment (including electronic payments) that is returned unpaid for any reason.

ELFI does not require you to do anything extra to get the best rate we can offer. All borrowers are required to make payments with an electronic or digital transfer. Therefore the auto pay discount is already reflected in your approved interest rate.

If you choose the deferred repayment option, full principal and interest payments can be deferred as long as the student remains enrolled at a post-secondary institution at least half-time. For undergraduate and graduate loans, full principal and interest payments would begin six months after the student graduates or drops below half-time enrollment. To learn how different repayment options can affect your monthly payment amount and what you might pay overall for the loan, check out our repayment options and examples page.

Factors that determine monthly payments include the amount of the loan, the type of loan product, the term of the loan, and the type of interest rate (fixed or variable).

American Education Services (AES) is the third party loan service provider that Education Loan Finance currently partners with to service your student loans. Once you accept your loan, AES will reach out to you to set up an account that you will use to make monthly payments.

Repayment depends on the loan option you select. ELFI offers Immediate, Fixed, Interest-Only, and Deferred repayment options.

For Immediate, Fixed, and Interest Only, repayment options begin after the loan has been funded (typically 30-45 days from the date your loan was approved). For deferred, repayment will begin six months after you graduate or are not at least a half-time student.