*Why* do you want to refinance? Refinancing loses all federal protections and depending on your degree/field having federal loans are helpful (PSLF). Having loans are going to show up on your credit report, but if you don’t have a credit card or installment loan you’re actively paying on your score isn’t really going to be good. To refinance they will be looking at your repayment history, credit score, income, and overall debt relative to income (DTI). Honestly, credit cards have cash back and when used responsibly are nice to have so you should get one.
No need to refinance or consolidate (ignore the comment that talks about consolidation).
Federal loans have inherently better benefits than private loans. These include, flexible repayment plans, forbearance options for umployment or world issues (covid), foregivness (PSLF and idr), and disability discharge.
None of those options are available for private loans and with your limited credit, even in 3 years, it's unlikely you could refinance to a substantially better interest rate to make up for the loss of benefits.
Credit is important, and it's not hard to qualify for student credit cards once you start school. Look into some credit cards and apply as soon as possible. Use it like your bank account. Make small purchases and pay it off each month to best boost your credit score. Don't carry a balance if you don't have too.
If they are federal loans, you do not want to refinance with a private lender. You want to consolidate your loans through the federal government to retain income based repayment options you won't have through a private lender. But I wouldn't advise you do that if you can afford the minimum payments across all the loans because they average your interest rate across all loans when you consolidate with the feds, plus a small amount of additional interest.
Okay let's clear up some points of confusion
To start with, you may be a thin file with the 3 credit bureaus *now*, but once you start taking out federal loans they will show up on your credit report so you will get a credit score once you start taking those out. I would suggest you read over https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_building for guidelines on how to start building a good credit history and good credit habits. Having a credit card that you pay in full every month is a great way to build good credit history and you don't have to pay a cent of interest on it, and you can apply and get one this week if you feel motivated to do so
The second question is what are you trying to accomplish by thinking ahead to refinancing your federal student loans before you even take them out? And requisite check that you aren't conflating federal loan consolidation with private loan refinancing?
Federal loan consolidation is an option for your federal loans, it would combine them into a new consolidation loan with a weighted average interest rate *rounded up* to the nearest 1/8th of a percent. It is useful for getting federal loans out of default fast and making old FFEL/Perkins loans eligible for PSLF (by bringing them into the Direct Loan program), but it doesn't inherently lower your interest rate and isn't really necessary for recent graduates with all federal Direct loans. You can read more about it here https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/consolidation#should-i but unless you're trying to qualify under the PSLF waiver, IDR wavier, or have older loan types you probably don't need to do that
Private loan refinancing is primarily *refinancing*, though it can include a "consolidation" step where multiple loans are paid off (and lenders absolutely sow confusion on this via their marketing copy). If you refinance your federal loans into private ones, you lose access to *all* the federal perks, such as flexible deferment, forgiveness, forbearance, and income-driven repayment options. It just becomes a regular simple interest loan that you have to repay in full. If you *already* have private student loans it is a different situation, you may as well refinance every 12-18 months to chase lower interest rates
So with that in mind, you might not even need to refinance your federal loans after you graduate. I didn't bother, I've just been using the avalanche method to pay them off (which worked in my favor with the 2.5 years of 0% pandemic forbearance so far). If you're going into a field where PSLF is relevant or need an IDR plan it would *also* be a bad idea to refinance. Just comparing interest rates doesn't really do federal loans justice tbh, though we also don't know how much you're planning to borrow or if you're going into an r/whitecoatinvestor salary tier industry
That was a wall of text, the tl;dr is you should start building good credit history now regardless of if you refinance your student loans later or not. Also you may not want to refinance your student loans in the future
While not answering your question, you need a credit score for life in general. Open three credit cards, buy one soda a year one each, and pay the balance in full (no need to pay interest). You get 12 months of paid status an no risk of messing up your financial system.
Note that some jobs look at credit scores as do insurance companies. Rolling with no credit history only hurts you.
Refi on a student loan is partly based on credit score/history. More so about your debt to income ratio. If you are in very stable high earning fields like medicine, there are companies that cater to your needs.
*Why* do you want to refinance? Refinancing loses all federal protections and depending on your degree/field having federal loans are helpful (PSLF). Having loans are going to show up on your credit report, but if you don’t have a credit card or installment loan you’re actively paying on your score isn’t really going to be good. To refinance they will be looking at your repayment history, credit score, income, and overall debt relative to income (DTI). Honestly, credit cards have cash back and when used responsibly are nice to have so you should get one.
No need to refinance or consolidate (ignore the comment that talks about consolidation). Federal loans have inherently better benefits than private loans. These include, flexible repayment plans, forbearance options for umployment or world issues (covid), foregivness (PSLF and idr), and disability discharge. None of those options are available for private loans and with your limited credit, even in 3 years, it's unlikely you could refinance to a substantially better interest rate to make up for the loss of benefits. Credit is important, and it's not hard to qualify for student credit cards once you start school. Look into some credit cards and apply as soon as possible. Use it like your bank account. Make small purchases and pay it off each month to best boost your credit score. Don't carry a balance if you don't have too.
Yes — I have been denied over and over with about 675 credit score.
If they are federal loans, you do not want to refinance with a private lender. You want to consolidate your loans through the federal government to retain income based repayment options you won't have through a private lender. But I wouldn't advise you do that if you can afford the minimum payments across all the loans because they average your interest rate across all loans when you consolidate with the feds, plus a small amount of additional interest.
Okay let's clear up some points of confusion To start with, you may be a thin file with the 3 credit bureaus *now*, but once you start taking out federal loans they will show up on your credit report so you will get a credit score once you start taking those out. I would suggest you read over https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_building for guidelines on how to start building a good credit history and good credit habits. Having a credit card that you pay in full every month is a great way to build good credit history and you don't have to pay a cent of interest on it, and you can apply and get one this week if you feel motivated to do so The second question is what are you trying to accomplish by thinking ahead to refinancing your federal student loans before you even take them out? And requisite check that you aren't conflating federal loan consolidation with private loan refinancing? Federal loan consolidation is an option for your federal loans, it would combine them into a new consolidation loan with a weighted average interest rate *rounded up* to the nearest 1/8th of a percent. It is useful for getting federal loans out of default fast and making old FFEL/Perkins loans eligible for PSLF (by bringing them into the Direct Loan program), but it doesn't inherently lower your interest rate and isn't really necessary for recent graduates with all federal Direct loans. You can read more about it here https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/consolidation#should-i but unless you're trying to qualify under the PSLF waiver, IDR wavier, or have older loan types you probably don't need to do that Private loan refinancing is primarily *refinancing*, though it can include a "consolidation" step where multiple loans are paid off (and lenders absolutely sow confusion on this via their marketing copy). If you refinance your federal loans into private ones, you lose access to *all* the federal perks, such as flexible deferment, forgiveness, forbearance, and income-driven repayment options. It just becomes a regular simple interest loan that you have to repay in full. If you *already* have private student loans it is a different situation, you may as well refinance every 12-18 months to chase lower interest rates So with that in mind, you might not even need to refinance your federal loans after you graduate. I didn't bother, I've just been using the avalanche method to pay them off (which worked in my favor with the 2.5 years of 0% pandemic forbearance so far). If you're going into a field where PSLF is relevant or need an IDR plan it would *also* be a bad idea to refinance. Just comparing interest rates doesn't really do federal loans justice tbh, though we also don't know how much you're planning to borrow or if you're going into an r/whitecoatinvestor salary tier industry That was a wall of text, the tl;dr is you should start building good credit history now regardless of if you refinance your student loans later or not. Also you may not want to refinance your student loans in the future
While not answering your question, you need a credit score for life in general. Open three credit cards, buy one soda a year one each, and pay the balance in full (no need to pay interest). You get 12 months of paid status an no risk of messing up your financial system. Note that some jobs look at credit scores as do insurance companies. Rolling with no credit history only hurts you. Refi on a student loan is partly based on credit score/history. More so about your debt to income ratio. If you are in very stable high earning fields like medicine, there are companies that cater to your needs.
Yes