Citizens Review

Citizens Bank View Rates

Suitable For?

Student loan refinancing with Citizens is suitable for borrowers who are paying higher interest rates and want to refinance at current lower rates. Refinancing is also suitable for borrowers who want to consolidate multiple loans into one monthly payment.

Loan Features

Citizens offers student loan financing with these features:

• Fixed-rate financing from 2.24% to 8.90% APR
• Variable-rate financing from 2.97% to 9.15% APR
• Loan refinanced from $10,000 and up

The Application Process

You can apply online for the Education Refinance Loan in 15 minutes, with three easy steps:

1. Complete the application on your computer or mobile device. You can choose to add a cosigner to help you qualify, or to get the best rate.
2. Select a fixed or variable rate loan with the number of years you would like to take to pay it off.
3. Sign (with your cosigner, if applicable), and accept.

Loan Eligibility Requirement

To get student loan refinancing from Citizens, you must meet these requirements:

• Age of majority in state of residence (unless qualifying cosigner applies)
• Credit qualification
• Not currently enrolled in school
• For applicants with an Associate’s degree or no degree, must have made at least 12 qualifying payments after leaving school
• U.S. Citizen, permanent resident, or eligible non-citizen with qualifying cosigner

You may be able to have someone cosign with you if you do not meet all the requirements.

Repayment Terms

You can choose to pay off your loan in 5, 7, 10, 15 or 20 years. The faster you pay off your loan, the less total interest expense you will pay.

Fixed-rate student loan refinancing starts as low as 2.24% APR, and variable-rate financing starts at 2.97%. 

The lowest interest rates apply to a 5-year repayment term and require the Loyalty and Automatic Payment discounts.

How Safe Is It? 

As one of the nation’s oldest and largest financial institutions, with total assets of $187 billion, Citizens Financial Group offers a safe, full-service banking experience. Citizens works to continually enhance and maintain security standards and procedures. They use state-of-the-art security technology, including Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology to transfer your information across the Internet to them.

You can help protect the security of your personal information by downloading the IBM Security Trusteer Rapport software. The download is free.

Help & Support

You can find help from Citizens in any of these ways:

• Call 1-800-600-0008 for questions about your application, or 1-866-999-3767 for questions about your student loan, 8:00 am to 7:00 pm Monday through Friday and 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Saturday.
• Message customer service via online chat.
• Visit one of 1,000 branches in 11 states in the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest regions. 
• Connect with Citizens on Facebook and Twitter.

Summary

Refinancing with Citizens combines the convenience and speed of online lending, with the security of dealing with one of the oldest and largest banks in the country. You can get competitive interest rates on your student loan refinance while consolidating multiple loans or removing a cosigner, if applicable. If you are paying a higher interest rate on your loans, refinancing at lower rates can lower your monthly payment and save you thousands of dollars over the life of your loan.

Physical Address

Citizens’ corporate headquarters are at:

One Citizens Plaza

Providence, RI 02903

Citizens Bank View Rates

Methodology

This review was created with information from:

• Company website
• Using the company matching tool/quiz

Disclaimers

1. Student Loan Rate Disclosure: Variable interest rates range from 4.99% - 15.51% (4.99% - 15.47% APR). Fixed interest rates range from 3.49% - 15.49% (3.49% - 14.99% APR).

2. Get My Rate: Selecting “Get My Rate” only requires a “soft credit pull” which does not affect your credit score. Submitting a full application will result in an inquiry on your credit report.

3. Citizens Undergraduate Booked Loans from 10/1/2023 through 9/30/2024 were 4 times more likely to be approved with a qualified cosigner.

4. Multi-Year Approval: Funds available for future use are subject to a soft credit inquiry at time of your next request to verify continued eligibility. After we make the initial Loan to you, you must continue to meet eligibility criteria to obtain additional funds under the Multi-Year Approval feature.

Terms and conditions are outlined in the promissory note. Multi-Year Approval borrowers have a 99% approval rate on future requests for additional funds. The additional funds approval rate is based on the percentage of approved Multi-Year borrowers from Citizens between October 1, 2023 and October 1, 2024. The approval rate represents only borrowers who had previously accepted the Multi-Year Approval offer. Please Note: International students are not eligible for Multi-Year Approval.