Method: where every figure comes from and how the ordering is produced
Every rate on this site is copied from the lender's own published rates page, with the date it was read. Nothing is estimated, and no third-party figure is used anywhere.
Every ordering is by one computed number — interest over the life of a $30,000 loan over 10 years at the top of the published range, ascending — and listing position is not for sale.
The formula, in full
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.
What is added and what is not
Added: the top and the bottom of the range the lender publishes, the repayment terms it lists, its published minimum and maximum loan, and an origination fee where it states one.
Not added: the rate you are actually offered, autopay or loyalty discounts beyond what the lender says is already in the range, future movements of a variable rate, late or returned-payment fees, and anything the lender prices only after an application. Every figure on this site is a computation from a published range, not a quote.
Why the top of the range, and not the bottom
Lenders advertise the bottom of the range. The bottom is available to the strongest credit files on the shortest term with autopay; everyone else lands somewhere above it, and no lender publishes where. The top of the range is the only published number that bounds what you could be offered, so that is the number we sort by. We print the floor beside it, and the gap, so that you can see how much of the answer the lender's underwriting decides rather than the lender's name.
How lenders get on this site
We include every lender or marketplace in student loan refinancing that publishes a rate on its own website for the United States, plus the largest that do not, marked as such. No lender can pay to be included, excluded, or moved. We do not own, operate, or hold a stake in any lender listed. The ranking formula is: interest over the life of the loan at the top of the published range, ascending. We do not accept referral arrangements that change any ordering.
Four reasons a figure can be missing
These are not the same thing and this site does not mix them:
- The lender publishes only a starting rate (6 products). “From 4.45%” has no top, so the ceiling cannot be computed. We print the floor and say that the ceiling is not published.
- The lender shows a rate only after you apply (3 rows). We quote that wording.
- We could not read it (0 rows). The page draws its figures with scripts that did not run when we retrieved it, or refused our checker. That is our limitation and it is labeled as ours, not held against the lender.
- The balance or term is outside the lender's published limits. The cell says n/a rather than computing a loan the lender says it does not make.
How ties are broken
Interest at the ceiling, ascending. If two products are equal, the lower top-of-range APR goes first. If those are equal too, alphabetically by lender. That is the entire sort key. There is no score, no weighting, no editorial adjustment and no lender input.
What is not in the sort key
Commission. Whether a lender runs an affiliate program at all. Whether we have applied to it. Brand size, review counts, hardship options, cosigner release. The disclosure page names every program we are in.
Fixed and variable are not the same number
Each lender's fixed and variable products are held as separate rows in the table and computed separately. Rankings between lenders use the fixed product where the lender publishes a full range for it. A variable range is computed exactly as printed on the day it was read; it says nothing about where the rate goes later, and we do not model that.
Autopay, and why we do not adjust
Most lenders print their 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 an adjusted figure cannot be checked against the lender's page.
Currency
All figures are in US dollars. Student loan refinancing in this form is a United States product; there is no second market on this site.
How often this is re-checked
Every figure carries the date it was read. The whole dataset was last refreshed on 2026-08-25. Any figure older than 90 days is automatically labeled “not re-checked since” on every page it appears on — that label is generated, not written by hand. Rates move; a figure here is what the page said on the date shown.
What we do not do
We do not apply for these loans, and no page here claims otherwise. There are no ratings, no stars, no badges and no “editor's choice”. We have never been paid for placement and we do not sell listings, reviews or leads. We do not collect your details and we do not pass anyone's details to a lender. Nothing here is financial advice.
The data itself
The whole dataset is published at data.json under CC BY 4.0, with the source URL and check date attached to every row. If a figure here is wrong, tell us and it will be re-checked and re-dated.
This site is 153 pages, generated from 22 rows of data by one script. 24 of 36 products carry enough published detail to compute with.
Related
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.