Direct lender · United States

MEFA student loan refinance rates: the interest at the top of the range

MEFA publishes a fixed range of 6.20% to 8.99% APR. At the top of that range, a $30,000 loan over 10 years costs $15,584 in interest over its life; at the bottom, $10,330. The gap between the two is $5,254.

The minimum loan is $10,000; a smaller balance cannot be refinanced here on the published terms.

What does the lender publish?

MEFA publishes the products below on its own rates page; the last column quotes the conditions in the lender's words.

Source: MEFA rates page. checked 2026-08-25
Product	Published APR range	Terms	Minimum loan	Origination fee	Interest at the ceiling, $30,000 over 10 years	Gap to the floor	As published
Fixed	6.20% to 8.99% autopay basis not stated	7, 10, 15 years	$10,000	not stated	$15,584	$5,254	"6.20% – 8.99% APR". No autopay wording on page. Minimum $10,000. "In most cases, there are no fees associated with refinancing your student loans." Loans must have been used at "an eligible, not-for-profit, degree-granting college or university (as defined by MEFA)". https://www.mefa.org/refinance returned 404; no variable option shown.

Lenders do not publish on the same basis. Most print the range with a 0.25 point autopay discount already taken off; some print it before the discount; some do not say. We print the figure as published and label the basis where the lender states it. We do not add or remove the discount, because a figure we adjusted could not be checked against the lender's page.

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Ownership: not stated in the provider's published documentation (checked 2026-08-25).

Whether the range includes the autopay discount: not stated in the provider's published documentation (checked 2026-08-25).

Autopay discount: not stated in the provider's published documentation (checked 2026-08-25).

Maximum loan: not stated in the provider's published documentation (checked 2026-08-25).

Origination fee: not stated in the provider's published documentation (checked 2026-08-25).

How does the term change the interest?

The table re-computes a $30,000 loan at each repayment term the lender lists, at both ends of the published range.

Interest paid over the life of a $30,000 loan, by repayment term, at the top and the bottom of the published range. “n/a” means the lender does not list that term, or the balance is outside its published minimum or maximum. checked 2026-08-25
Product	5 years	7 years	10 years	15 years	20 years
Fixed, at the ceiling	n/a	$10,532	$15,584	$24,738	n/a
Fixed, at the floor	n/a	$7,056	$10,330	$16,154	n/a

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How that is worked out

monthly rate = APR / 1200 payments = years x 12 monthly payment = balance x monthly rate / (1 - (1 + monthly rate) ^ -payments) interest over life = monthly payment x payments - balance + origination fee at the ceiling = the same, with the top of the published range at the floor = the same, with the bottom of the published range the gap = interest at the ceiling - interest at the floor

Nothing else is added. The rate you are offered, any lender-specific discount you do or do not qualify for, and variable-rate movements are not in any figure on this site, because they depend on you and on the future. Where a lender states an origination fee it is added once. The published range is used exactly as printed: where the lender says the range already includes its autopay discount, we say so and do not add it back. The full method is at Method.

Is there an origination fee?

MEFA mentions fees without publishing an origination fee amount. checked 2026-08-25

An origination fee that the lender states is added to the interest figure once. Late fees, returned-payment fees and anything charged only in some states are not, because the rates page does not price them for a given borrower.

Who makes the loan?

Who owns or funds this lender is not stated on its own site in a form we could confirm from a primary source. We have left it blank rather than repeat what other sites say.

Where this leaves you

If the worst case is what matters, Brazos's ceiling works out at $9,949 on the same basis — compare the two.
Do not decide yet if the gap of $5,254 between the floor and the ceiling is larger than the difference between lenders, which for most pairs on this site it is — what the advertised rate leaves out.

Who this page is not for

This is not a review. We have not borrowed from MEFA, we hold no opinion on its service or its underwriting, and nothing here is a recommendation or a rate you will be offered. It answers one question: what the published range turns into in dollars over the life of the loan.

Sources

MEFA rates page — every figure on this page. checked 2026-08-25
data.json — the row behind this page, with the source URL and check date on every figure.

Written by Kaz (pen name). Figures are copied from the sources' published pages on the dates shown. We have not used these products. Corrections: contact form.