Free refinancing math · no account
Monthly payment and lifetime interest, at your current rate versus the offered one. Nothing you enter is stored or shared — the result is yours.
Same term for both, so the comparison isolates the rate.
Add your balance and the offered rate above to see the comparison.
Standard amortization at fixed rates, same term on both sides. Education, not advice: your real decision also depends on PSLF eligibility, forbearance protections, and variable-rate risk. No commissions, no referral fees — no lender pays us anything if you refinance.
The math above is the short version. The Refinancing Decision — from the pslf & loans curriculum — covers the decisions behind it. Free to read.
Create a free account to keep your numbers between visits.
Figures use 2026 rules (IRS, HHS, and federal loan program values) · reviewed August 2026.
Yes, permanently. The moment federal loans are refinanced into a private loan they stop being federal, and there is no way to convert them back. That ends eligibility for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, income-driven repayment, federal deferment and forbearance protections, and federal death-and-disability discharge. For a physician with a realistic PSLF path, the tax-free forgiveness at payment 120 is usually worth more than the interest a lower private rate saves — which is why ruling PSLF out is the first step, not an afterthought.
Refinancing fits when three things are all true: you have ruled out PSLF and income-driven forgiveness (typically because you work, and plan to keep working, for a for-profit employer), the offered rate is meaningfully below your current weighted rate, and your income is stable enough that losing federal payment flexibility is a cost you can carry. Physicians who meet all three can save five figures of interest; physicians who meet two of the three often regret the third.
Because interest is charged on the balance every month for the life of the loan, a rate difference compounds across the whole term. On a large physician-sized balance, one percentage point commonly moves lifetime interest by more than ten thousand dollars per hundred thousand borrowed on a ten-year term — the exact figure depends on balance and term, which is what this calculator computes.
Both reduce lifetime interest, but they work differently. A lower rate reduces the cost of every month at no cash-flow price. A shorter term reduces the number of months interest accrues, but raises the required monthly payment. Lenders often quote their lowest rates on their shortest terms, so a quoted rate is really a rate-and-term package — compare offers at the same term to see the true rate difference.
Private-to-private refinancing can be repeated whenever a better offer appears, usually at no cost beyond the application. The only one-way door is the first move from federal to private — that is the decision that cannot be undone, and the reason it deserves more scrutiny than any later refinance.