How we make money

What we earn and when

Some lenders pay us a fee when a reader clicks through and applies. Nothing on this site costs you money, and clicking a partner link never changes the rate you're offered. Where we link to a lender who pays us nothing, the link works the same way.

What a partner can't buy

• A higher position in a comparison table.
• A better star rating.
• Removal of a drawback from the "what to watch" list.
• A recommendation in an article that wouldn't otherwise be there.

If a partner asked for any of those, we would decline, because a comparison you can't trust is worth nothing to you and therefore worth nothing to us.

How we rank lenders

Ordering is ours and is computed, not curated. Five criteria carry fixed weights: the rate ceiling at 30%, downside protection at 25%, the rate floor at 15%, eligibility at 15% and transparency at 15%. The ceiling outweighs the floor because the floor is a marketing figure most applicants are never offered, and downside protection carries nearly as much because it is the entire cost of leaving the federal system. Figures come from each lender's own published terms, cross-checked against independent reviews, because a lender's disclosure and a comparison site's summary of it routinely disagree. No lender pays for placement and no lender on this site pays us anything at all.

Federal options come first

On almost every page we tell you to exhaust federal options before considering a private loan, and we say plainly what refinancing federal debt costs you: income-driven repayment, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, deferment, forbearance and the death and disability discharge, all gone permanently. That advice reduces how much we earn. It's still the right advice.

Rates and terms

Figures shown for a partner come from that partner and can change without notice. Always confirm the current rate, term and fees on the lender's own site before you apply. If you spot a figure here that's out of date, tell us and we will correct it.

What we will never do

• Ask for your Social Security number, FSA ID or any password.
• Charge you for anything that's free at studentaid.gov.
• Sell your details to a lead broker.
• Claim to be affiliated with the Department of Education or any servicer.