Best of Awards 2024 - Best Private Student Loan Overall

Best Private Student Loan Overall

How we picked the student loans to evaluate:

NerdWallet reviewed 26 banks, credit unions and online lenders offering student loans and student loan refinancing. We included the top 10 lenders by market share and the top 10 lenders by online search volume, as well as lenders that serve specialty or nontraditional markets. Some lenders are NerdWallet partners, but this did not influence our selection of the winner.

How we chose the winner:

NerdWallet scored lenders that offer a private, in-school student loan product for the presence of 40 features across multiple categories. Categories were scored and weighted as follows:

Features that enable faster repayment, such as availability of extra payments or biweekly payments via autopay — 15%.
Disclosure of rates, fees and underwriting requirements, such as minimum credit scores and income standards — 20%.
Availability to a wide range of borrowers, such as part-time and independent students — 15%.
Flexible payment options, such as grace periods and available forbearance that are longer than standard — 30%.
Customer support, such as a detailed website FAQ and in-house customer service — 20%.

After those calculations, the financial institution with the highest weighted score that is widely available to borrowers in all 50 states is selected as the winner.

How we verified our data:

NerdWallet writers and editors sent a comprehensive list of more than 50 questions to all lenders we reviewed. We cross-checked fees, rates, policies and other key features on each financial institution’s website. If a lender’s website was missing information, we contacted a representative directly for confirmation.

Why this lender made the list:

College Ave scores top marks amongst private student loan lenders for its fast repayment and payment flexibility features and wide variety of customers served.

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