If you've ever dealt with student loans, you know the stress they can bring. They’re a lifesaver for covering tuition and living costs, and some of them even come with perks like subsidized options and grace periods that make paying them back less daunting. In this video, I’m going to explore the world of student loans. I’ll go over which loans and lenders have the lowest rates; I’ll talk about College Ave and Sallie Mae and what they offer, including their pros and cons.
By the end of this video, I aim to give you a clear understanding of which loans might be best for your particular case. If you find this review interesting or helpful, please like this video and subscribe for more honest reviews. And just to be upfront, I’m an affiliate of the companies I discuss, but my recommendations are honest and based on my thorough research.
------------------------------------------------ College Ave - Features and Benefits ------------------------------------------------
First on my list is College Ave, an online student loan portal that arranges loans through different banks. What I like about College Ave is their easy prequalification process that doesn’t involve a “hard credit check,” so it won't affect your credit score. Their website is user-friendly and full of helpful information about scholarships and loan financing. They offer loans starting as low as $1,000 up to your full tuition and have refinancing options for existing student debt.
As a private lender, they offer both fixed and variable rate loans, with fixed rates starting at 4.29% and variable rates at 5.59%. To qualify, you need to be at least 16 years old, have a social security number, and be enrolled in an eligible school. Undergraduates and international students will need a cosigner. The benefits of College Ave include flexible terms and options to save on the lifetime cost of the loan by making minimum payments while still in school. However, their maximum rates can be quite high, up to 16.85% for variable and 16.69% for fixed rates for undergraduates.
------------------------------------------------ Sallie Mae - Features and Benefits ------------------------------------------------
Next, let’s talk about Sallie Mae, a well-known name in student loans. Unlike College Ave, Sallie Mae started as a federal student lender and now offers loans for undergraduates, graduates, trade schools, and part-time and international students. They don’t have a pre-qualification process, so applying will affect your credit score. Sallie Mae offers fewer options for repayment and loan terms compared to College Ave, but they don’t charge any loan application fees.
For undergraduates, their fixed rates start at 4.25% and go up to 15.49%, while variable rates start at 5.37% and can reach 15.70%. To apply, you need basic personal information, details about your school and its total cost of attendance, and possibly a cosigner to secure better rates. Sallie Mae provides loan terms of 10 or 15 years for undergrad and career training, 15 years for graduate programs, and 20 years for medical or dental school. They also offer repayment plans where you can pay interest or a set amount of $25 while still in school, or defer payments until after graduation.
Hope you enjoyed my Best Student Loans | How to Choose the Best Rated Student Loan in 2025 Video.
If you've ever dealt with student loans, you know the stress that they can bring.
They can be a lifesaver for covering tuition and living costs.
And some of them even come with perks like subsidized options and grace periods
that make paying them back less daunting.
So in this video, I'm going to explore the world of student loans.
I'll go over which loans and lenders have the lowest rates.
I'll talk about College Ave and Sallie Mae and what they offer.
I'll also get into some of their pros and cons.
By the end of this video, I will do my very best to leave you with a clear understanding
of which loans might be the best for your particular case.
And if you find this review interesting or helpful,
you can show your appreciation by liking this video and subscribing
if you haven't already to see more of my reviews.
Just to be upfront, I'm an affiliate of pretty much all the companies that I talk about,
including these student loan providers.
But my recommendations wouldn't mean much if I didn't give you my honest opinion, as I always do.
Not to mention that since I'm an affiliate of all of them,
whichever one you end up choosing really won't affect me.
But if at any point you decide to try either College Ave or Sallie Mae,
use the affiliate links that I left down in the description,
they won't cost you anything and you might even get a bit of a discount,
which you wouldn't get if you went directly to their website.
Without further ado, let's jump right into it.
Right, so you generally can't go wrong with the first one on my list,
which is College Ave, an online student portal that arranges loans
and provides financial services for students using a few different banks,
meaning they arrange lending for you, but don't actually do the lending themselves.
And the reason why I like them is that there is a really,
really easy pre-qualification process right on their website
that doesn't use a hard credit check that would reflect badly on your credit history.
So you don't have to worry about it affecting your credit score.
Then once you get pre-qualified, all the deals that you're approved for
and that you can get will show up right there on your website.
And only after you see your options will you go through the formal application,
which will affect your credit score.
So if you type in all the information right, you can see all your options really fast
without it negatively affecting your credit, which not all services offer.
Okay, so when it comes to their website, College Ave is really, really easy to use
and is really packed with a lot of helpful information about scholarships and loan financing.
They offer loans starting as low as $1,000 going all the way up to your full tuition.
They also have refinancing options if you already have student loan debt,
which could help you pay less on that debt or even pay it off a lot faster.
Now, College Ave is a private lender,
which means they can offer both fixed rate and variable rate loans.
And if you don't know the difference, a fixed rate gives you predictable
and unchanging monthly payments.
And at College Ave, they start at 4.29%.
But a variable rate changes based on market conditions
and College Ave starts them at around 5.5%.
So in terms of qualifying for a loan from College Ave,
you have to be at least 16 years old, have a social security number,
and be enrolled in an eligible school.
For undergrads and international students, you also need to have a cosigner.
And it doesn't take more than three or four minutes to check if you qualify
and at what rates you can get.
Then you'll be given a choice of loans for undergrad, grad, career, parent,
or refinancing your existing student loans.
Then you choose your loan term and your APR or interest rate.
Once your loan is approved by College Ave,
they then check in with your school to confirm that you're enrolled
or that you've been accepted,
that the loan that you're asking for doesn't actually cost more
than their cost of attendance,
and if you meet the school's academic progress guidelines.
And lastly, if it all checks out,
College Ave will send the money directly to your school.
Now, the benefit of being financed through College Ave
is that along with having pretty flexible terms,
they offer a number of ways you can save on how much you pay
on the lifetime total of your loan,
starting off with making minimum payments while you're still studying.
If you're able to make minimum payments while you study,
it shows them that you take your responsibility
of paying back your loan seriously,
and they reward you by lowering your interest terms slightly.
Also, you have the option of paying the interest charges each month
while you're still in school,
or you can pay a flat rate of 25 bucks a month.
On the other hand, you can go for a deferred payment
where you don't make any payments until after you finish school,
but you'll end up paying more interest over the lifespan of your loan.
So I mentioned the fixed and variable rates,
and the reason I recommend College Ave
is that they're all about students and getting you the best deal possible.
They also have lower than average starting rates
compared to other lenders in the industry,
but their maximum rates are also much higher than averages for student loans,
going up to 16.85% on variable
and 16.69% on fixed interest rates for undergraduates.
But their loans are structured to help you pay off your student loans
as fast as possible,
so they encourage you to start paying while you're still studying,
and those low starting rates are also there to help you get out of debt faster.
And at this point, I just want to reiterate,
if you decide that you want to try out College Ave,
check out the affiliate link that I left down below.
It doesn't cost you anything.
You might even get a bit of a discount,
Okay, so the next company has a name
that's very, very familiar to a lot of Americans,
which is Sallie Mae.
They're a private student loan provider
that started out as a federal student lender in the 70s.
Nowadays, they offer both undergraduate and graduate loans,
as well as loans for trade schools,
and they also fund part-time and international students as well.
Now, compared to College Ave,
Sallie Mae has fewer options when it comes to repayment,
and even fewer choices for loan terms.
And although they don't charge you any loan application fees,
they don't have a pre-qualification process like College Ave does.
So when you fill out their online application,
it will actually reflect on your credit history.
So my advice is that you do your best to check and see if you qualify
before you go through the process,
because you don't want it to affect your credit score negatively.
Right, so to apply, you'll need to give them some basic personal information
and details about your school and the semesters that you plan to get funded.
You also need to know what your school's total cost of attendance is,
which means all related expenses including tuition,
but also stuff like meals, equipment, and books,
which is information you can get from the school's website.
And just like College Ave and a lot of other lenders,
your loan can't be more than whatever your school has calculated
as the cost of attendance.
Now, if you have a scholarship or a cosigner,
you'll need to supply that information as well.
However, you don't necessarily need to have a cosigner,
but most students who don't have a cosigner
will need the credit history needed to get a loan beforehand.
But in any case, even if you can get approved without one,
having a cosigner can get you a lower interest rate,
so it is worth checking out if a parent or another adult
with a good credit history would be willing to cosign you for you.
Okay, so once you've filled in all these details,
Sallie Mae will give you a document called a Loan Application Solicitation Disclosure
with a pretty detailed breakdown of the rates, terms,
and repayment plans that apply to your case.
If it works for you and you decide to go ahead,
then Sallie Mae works directly with your school to disperse the funds right to them.
Now, when it comes to loan terms or how long you have to pay the loan back,
Sallie Mae has fewer options than College Ave.
They offer either 10 or 15 years for undergrad and career training loans,
15 years for MBA, law, and graduate school loans,
and 20 years for medical or dental school loans.
Their minimum loan amount is $1,000,
and the maximum is 100% of your school certified expenses
with a standard late repayment fee of $25.
Which brings us to repayment plans, where you have three choices.
You can pay interest or a set amount of $25 per month while you're still in school
and during the six-month grace period after you finish,
or you can start paying after you finish studying and the grace period is up.
Obviously, it's best to pay as much as you can while you're still studying if you're able to.
That being said, the most important thing is the rate.
And Sallie Mae offers a bunch of different rates because,
like I mentioned, undergraduate rates for College Avenue.
Let's see how Sallie Mae compares in that respect.
So for fixed undergraduate rates, Sallie Mae starts at 4.25%,
a bit lower than College Ave, and it goes all the way up to 15.49%,
which is quite a bit lower than College Ave's highest rate of 16.69%.
And when it comes to variable rates, Sallie Mae starts at 5.37%,
and their maximum rate is 15.7%,
which is also quite a bit lower than College Ave's maximum rate.
At the end of the day, it all depends on how you plan to pay off your student loan
and what your personal needs are.
Now, in my opinion, if you want more loan options and better variable starting rates,
I would definitely recommend Sallie Mae.
But if you want more repayment options and more choices for loan terms,
you should go with College Ave.
And whichever one you choose, both are really, really solid,
reliable options that offer some of the best rates in the business.
Okay, so that's all for this review.
If you found this video helpful or interesting,
give it a thumbs up and subscribe to see more videos like this.
And as I mentioned earlier,
if you do decide that you want to give either of these two lenders a try,
check out the links down in the description.
They don't cost you anything, you won't pay a dime,
and you might even get a bit of a discount,
which you wouldn't find by going directly to their website.
And as always, I enjoy hearing your thoughts,
and I'll try to get back to any questions or comments
you leave down below as fast as I can.
And finally, guys, thank you so much for watching.
Good luck in college, and I'll see you in the next video.
