SoFi Student Loans Reviews

1. Unfortunately, the representative at SoFi lied to me re student loans not accruing interest. Currently, under SoFi all of my student loans at the moment are accruing interest. This switch from federal to private loan repayments was based on a lie and has cost me thousands of dollars.

2. My loan was transferred to a partner company, Mohela, as it is a student loan. As a result, I am currently having two work with two bureaucracies, two policies and two systems. When I have an issue, a representative from one company blames the other company and vice versa. This lack of accountability and transparency is beyond frustrating. One SoFi representative even tried to argue with me and tell me that the loan is solely under Mohela. My monthly bill has the SoFi logo and the Mohela logo on top of it. Therefore, this representative was clearly lying to me and trying to blame the other.

3. The first and most stressful year of my doctorate studies was made even worse due to SoFi/Mohela's policy and required documentation. Despite the fact that my status as a student did not change throughout the semester and throughout the year, I was required to provide verification of enrollment every three to four months. This verification process would not be in sync with the bill generating process, thereby resulting in me getting a high bill every three to four months in which I would have to make a call to ensure that SoFi/Mohela received my school enrollment verification and that I would, in turn, get a revised bill.

During this very stressful time for me, I had to make continuous calls to resolve these issues and make sure that I was not penalized for any potential late payments due to the fact that the company may not have received the documentation before the bill was generated. By the time the issue would be resolved, it would start all over again a month later due to the need to requirement of illustrating the fact that I was a student.

4. Over the summer, I was not "officially" enrolled in classes and the University provided me with a small stipend. However, as I could not provide "official" enrollment verification, I had to file for unemployment. As such, I had to create an account, talk with a career counselor, and illustrate that I was trying to find a job. Of course I was not trying to find a job as I was returning to school in the fall. This farce of an endeavor cost me hours of my time and created such a paperwork mess.

5. This last one really flummoxed me. Fall classes ended December 31. Spring classes started January 21. SoFi/Mohela sent me a bill that was generated December 22 and was due on January 16. I sent them half a payment in addition to paperwork verifying enrollment for spring semester. However, according to SoFi/Mohela, because spring semester started after the bill was due, I needed to pay the entire bill. Despite the fact that my status as a student did NOT change from December to January, I magically earned $200 more dollars within a two week timeframe to pay the entire bill. Once more, after countless of hours on the phone calling SoFi and Mohela, I just paid the extra $200 and will not eat for the next two weeks.

My level of frustration and anxiety related to these issues over the past year and a half are incredibly high. Not only has this affected my studies but it has also affected my mental health, especially as I am someone with an impeccable on-time payment history and really amazing credit. I regret transferring my loan to them and would vehemently NOT recommend this company to anyone.

Neither my friend nor I had seen the bonus deposited after completing the W2 form (which I had to call back and be instructed to do – as this was not clear either). I was told today that the application started from the mailer was the one that was completed and that there is NO WAY to now receive the bonus. How is it that nothing can be done to correct this? The loan is fully funded and when I asked to speak to someone who could correct this I was told multiple times that nothing could be done. I understand that it is only $100, but I called multiple times to be sure that I was going through the correct process. And that’s just the point – it’s only $100. How can SoFi not be able to make this right?

In 2016, I found SoFi after an exhaustive internet search. I was impressed with their customer service, their low APR (variable), and the ease of the application. The customer reviews that I read were stellar. Their mission statement is to empower members to accomplish their goals and achieve financial independence. This was in line with my own life goals.

I applied and was approved for a low variable interest rate refinanced student loan. I submitted my active duty documents to ensure that the Service Members Civil Relief Act would cap my variable interest rate at 6%. SoFi indicated that they would honor the SCRA and I was very happy with the partnership. I set up automatic payments (in fact, I made payments that were over the minimum amount). Every time the Fed bumped up the interest rates, I would get an email from SoFi that my interest rate was increasing. Fine... this is what I signed up for. When my rate finally neared 6%, I got a letter from SoFi stating that they would no longer honor my military service because I entered into a financial agreement with them AFTER I joined the military. This was a huge slap in my face.

I was a loyal customer of theirs for 3 years. I referred others to them because of their customer service. That all ended when I received this notification. As a contrast, I just signed up for an American Express card. They sent me a letter stating that they would do better than the 6% interest rate cap due to my active duty status. They lowered my interest rate to 0%. My complaint with SoFi is this: they disrespected me as a customer and they disrespected me as an active duty military member. They went away from their mission statement and they disavowed their own values by putting their members second.

My first payment to SoFi is due on 12/9. They expect me to make a payment, even though the payoff check was never sent to the previous lender. I am now expected to make payments to two separate lenders for the same loan. SoFi has not given me a timeline for when this will be resolved. I am incredibly frustrated and want a solution. I can't afford to make payments for this loan twice.

In my case, not everything went right. I was providing all the requested verification documents. Every time I submitted what I thought was the full set, I'd get a notice asking me for more. On maybe the 4th back-and-forth there, there was a request for yet another new document, along with a message that I should call in about my application. When I called, the agent told me I would need a cosigner, because I have not worked my current 1099 contracting job for long enough. I'm a grown man, and I'm not about to ask my parents to cosign student loans for me.

I'm incredulous. The first reason is because of my background. I have a graduate degree from a prestigious university in a high-demand field. My work history is practically continuous in the same field, up until my layoff earlier this year. At that time, I switched from W-2 to 1099 employment, with no interruption in income. That income amounts to $90-100k per year, and I live in a low-cost area. My credit score is above 800.

But, if those are the requirements, okay. But, then, why not tell me so in advance? I told you up front how long I've been at my current gig. Instead, they got me to put hours of work into the application, giving them reams of personal data they apparently never needed. One suspects the process is designed to extract as much data as possible from the applicant before they might think to withdraw the application. More than that, they did a hard inquiry on my credit (twice, apparently), when it apparently never would have mattered. Hope I still have that 800+ credit score next month!

ER Doc.

I have yet to receive any acknowledgment of my email. But now I have a hard-knock on my report which gives me concern about trying to find someone else to get these loans refinanced to a lower rate so my daughter can afford to pay them back. It's obvious that no humans are reviewing these applications, merely computers.

I remind all readers here that my daughter has been a customer in good standing for over 3 years on her original loan. Never missed a payment. I spoke to loan specialists, managers etc. All have been very well trained in robotic answers. Promises of callbacks were never honored. It is a shame that companies such as SoFI are allowed to exist and prey on students. This company is a prime example as to why students will never get out of debt in our country. The Attorney General of California should investigate them.

My credit report expired before I can finish my application and they had to do another hard pull on my credit report and I was then informed that they changed their policy and no longer refinance international student loans, so I had two hard pulls on my credit, wasted 6 months of communication and paper work, all for nothing. Commonbond.com had higher rates but I refinanced my loan inside one week when it took over 6 months with SoFi and still got nothing out of it. Would recommend Commonbond over SoFi any day.

Now, after all the requests were satisfied, SoFi denied the loan. Root cause: even if both parents (married/joint tax) have validated incomes, only one can be a co-signer even if both incomes combined will support the responsibility of a cosigner. SoFi admits to being a "young" company. And they are right- young meaning, inexperienced, unseasoned, disrespectful (of time) and just an unwise choice for credit funding. The alternative: CollegeAve apparently does not have the same baggage and has proceeded. SallieMae is available but with higher interest rates. I do NOT recommend SoFi for student tuition credit funding.

1) Poor dashboard design: the dashboard always told me I missed a document which I did not, after making several phone calls, representatives could add certain sections, e.g. pay stubs, thanks to my persistence to keep calling customer service trying to understood why, what’s missing.

2) The experience with customer service was terrible - like everyone else mentioned: no matter how much I say to a representative who seemed to jot down notes and understand my concerns, when you talked to them again, you had to tell them your situation again. Also poor altitude, once the live chat added a section to me, and I refreshed my page, it still did not show up (maybe due to latency), when I asked why I still did not say it, the person typed in an very impatient manner, reload your page! I reloaded my page again, and saw it, I said thank you, the person just closed the chat window wanting to end the conversation immediately without asking if anything else she can help with. This was rude.

3) Underwriting know nothing: on the requirement, they say if you are under H1B work visa, you need to have minimum 2 years left on your visa. But I bet SoFi did not give any training to these underwriters on how to verify visa expiration date. Each H1B visa holder has 6 years in total, I have at least 2.5 years left and with green card approaching I-140 stage, I could even get extended for unlimited years until I get my green card. My attorney also provided additional letter to explain everything. But with each employer, you only get 3 years at once, and I used 1.5 years with my company, they just did this simple calculations and assumed I only have 1.5 years left. They just rejected me for not knowing how to verifying how many years left on my visa. They really need to learn immigrant policies well before opening this business. Wasting my time!

We did try 45,000 and two days later were denied again but they can't really explain why. It's proprietary. In the course of two weeks We've spoken to at least 8 different people and nobody could answer questions with any kind of knowledge of what they were even doing. This is a company full of data entry people who don't know how to do anything but input information and see what the computer spits out. They don't underwrite loans, they recite computer generated information with no idea of what any of it means. I've finally decided if you have a six figure loan amount and a 200,000 or higher income you might be approved. They are not out to help the average, or above average borrower. Elite borrowers are what they are after.

After a frustrating 2-3 weeks of back & forth with SoFi due to "missing documents", I get declined for reasons unfathomable and vague. Mind you, I spoke with multiple representatives along the way, always having to repeat facts that I had mentioned previously to someone else. They would call me at work up to 3x daily to ask for more and more forms. I hung in there because a hard pull had already been done that brought my credit score down 7 points. Perhaps my salary needs to be $600k+ or my credit score needs to be a perfect 850... Who the hell knows. I'm just happy they stopped calling me incessantly and wasting my time. If you're applying, may the odds be ever in your favor.

I am a freelance worker at a great commercial studio, I go by a day-rate and get paid monthly, so my paystub may not look like everyone else's but it is still valid. I was transferred over to a manager and he explained to me that it wasn't just they couldn't find my employers name, but "there is a system of checks and balances in place that's been working for them for a long time now, and it just can't verify your income". I sent them my paystub from this past Friday that I got off of ADP, and it still wasn't good enough. I asked if there was anything else I could send to prove that I'm employed and that I'm actually at work right now, even while writing this review, and he said no.

There wasn't any other form I could send them to prove I'm making money in order to pay for my rent, loans and basically just to live. He did tell me though I could try to apply again with a different paystub (subject myself to a third hard credit pull, only to have the same awful results with no way to resolve any of this). He said he would never discourage me from applying for a consolidation. Of course he wouldn't, it's his job not to. So thanks for nothing!

Since I am not the primary income-earner in my household, I was not surprised to learn that I would need a co-signer. My husband gladly agreed to co-sign for me, and we were on our way; that is, until a few weeks later when I went to check in on our applications and it appeared that on Sofi's end, we still needed to provide documents, however on our end, it showed that all required documents had been submitted and our application was being reviewed. I called SoFi Customer Service, and the gentleman I spoke with said that he would inquire with the tech team and call me back within 48 hours. 48 hours came and went- with no phone call.

I checked our applications again and saw that we needed to provide more information, although it was unclear what exactly we were missing. I called customer service (again) and was informed by Tori that I needed to provide my home address. I was stunned since I have never been asked to do this before. I inquired as to why this information was required, explaining that I was fearful of providing my physical address and the reason behind that fear. She said she would check with the underwriting team and get back to me.

The following day, another customer service representative (Tori) sent me an email stating that I would have to provide my actual home address. I called back, asked to speak to Tori, and was transferred to Jonah. I gave him a brief rundown, and asked what the legal basis was for requiring us to provide a physical home address. He put me on hold, came back and said that we had to provide it. I said that we provided an address and that a that a hard credit pull was already done on both myself and my husband, and the address we provided WAS our address.

He stated, "are you stating that you live at such and such an address?" to which I replied, "no I do not actually reside there but it is the only address we have ever needed to provide to anyone". Jonah then had the audacity to reply with "you're not giving me a straight answer". I ignored the comment and we circled around this insanity for 20 more minutes until he stated that Sofi needed our physical address to prove that we resided in California. I was completely befuddled by this since we provided a plethora of documentation that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that we lived, worked and paid taxes in the state of California. In fact, it would be impossible to prove otherwise.

After pointing this out to Jonah, I called him out for essentially calling me a liar. He said that I must have misunderstood. I encouraged him to check the recording since I am certain that I did not misunderstand what he said, and we ended the conversation shortly thereafter. However, it occurred to me in the hour that followed that Jonah's explanation didn't actually make sense and I wanted to obtain a clearer answer.

I called again, and asked to speak to someone that was above an account specialist, and was transferred to Josh. I asked Josh if he wouldn't mind explaining what Jonah was referring to when he stated that providing a physical address would verify that we lived and worked in the state of California. Josh informed me that the information Jonah provided me "wasn't exactly correct". If you listen to the recording, you will hear Josh say something to the effect of "I'm not going to go into it now but our policy is that we need to have your physical address”. I again asked why and this time I was told that it was to “prove identity of the applicant”.

We all know this is a load of horse poop. I explained to both Jonah and Josh that due to privacy concerns, it is impossible to determine where my physical address is regardless if I provided it or not. I presented this question to Josh: How can Sofi prove that we are not simply landlords who pay the utility bills for the home in which the services are provided? It was a question he could not answer. After consulting with an attorney, I felt satisfied that this was an insane request. While I am aware the request is not illegal, it is also not state law that we have to put our safety at risk for reasons that SoFi refuses to disclose.

My husband makes north of $300k a year, holds two Masters Degrees (I hold one Master’s Degree), we own property and are active members of our community. We cannot recall a time (even when purchasing our home) where the requirements to obtain a loan were so inconceivably difficult. What made our decision to go elsewhere easier to make was the fantastic luck we had in finding the terrible reviews SoFi had. Nearly every single review indicated that high earners were put through similar insanity, only to be subjected to multiple requests for documentation, rude customer service representatives, humiliation and loss of time; only to rejected in the end. It's unfortunate that I didn't read these reviews earlier as it would have saved us time and aggravation.

Unfortunately, I had already created a second application based on what they had initially said, so I called them to deactivate that one. The guy that took my call ended up accidentally deactivating my original application -- the one that they finally had added the discount to! After all that trouble to get that discount added, this guy just deleted it. He just said that I will have to reapply and there was nothing else they could do. I spoke to the manager, who didn't have anything else different to say, and I was very upset by this situation. Fast forward a couple more weeks, and I'm STILL having issues with them adding the proper rate discount onto my application.

And when I called to find out what was going on with my application, the woman who took my call sounded annoyed and did not know what I was talking about. In addition to all these issues, this company accidentally emailed me SOMEONE ELSE'S Letter of Direction document, filled with all their personal information, how much their loan was, and what school they went to. This is absolutely crazy and it genuinely makes me worried if I can even fully trust this company with my refinancing, let alone my personal information. If I could give this company negative stars, I would. I would never recommend SoFi to anyone based on my negative experiences.

They tell me the error is with the pay stub, it is an online print out and not "stub". I explain this is 2018, and we do not receive a paper paycheck, so she says she will fix the error and re-process. Next week, the same thing happens. I call and speak with someone on the phone. Another week goes by, I e-chat again. I call AGAIN. Then I speak to a supervisor named EARL. He ASSURES me he will resolve this issue and call me TOMORROW, he states he is getting in touch with the person in charge of my loan.

That was over 3 weeks ago and I NEVER heard from him. After a week of not hearing from him, I call again. I speak with a lady who assures me that she will email EARL and a customer service rep to have them reach back out to me. I never heard from anyone. Another WEEK goes by and I hear from KIM, who has apparently been in charge of my loan the entire 2 months. She states she NEVER HEARD FROM SUPERVISOR EARL, and she had no clue what was going on with the situation, or why my loan process was not complete. IF SHE DOESNT KNOW, WHO DOES? She called me on MONDAY, it is FRIDAY, she assured me she would call me THE NEXT DAY, and I havent heard from her either.

So, after 2 months, 2 e-chats, 3 phone calls, 1 supervisor, 1 loan processor, I have NO LOAN and the same error message regarding my husband's paycheck that I had 2 months ago. At this point, they want me to resubmit a MORE RECENT paystub, since it has been 2 months since the last upload. Because we uploaded the most recent at the time it was requested, there is no reason to submit a newer one, since their company is the reason it has been 2 additional months (Supervisor EARL agreed). I really dont know if this company has any money to loan, or how they stay in business. After reading the other reviews, I can see that I am not the only one, which is the opposite of what KIM told me on the phone.

Their customer service phone numbers, for all three loan departments, have never worked. I do not receive replies to my emails. The only way I was able to get in contact with someone was to call Mohela (their partner company) and ask to be transferred. I was connected with someone for no more than 4 minutes when they dropped the call. They told me my only option is to reapply online, which gives only the slightest reduction to my interest rate. When comparing my amount of debt, my income, and credit score to other recent graduates, I should be able to qualify for a MUCH lower interest rate. I feel I am held hostage by SoFi, and am wasting money on them every month.

My representative called me earlier today (after never responding to the message I sent him on April 6) asking to consent yet again and said they have not yet completed a hard credit check. After sorting out their technical issues (realizing that I had consented and that they had run my hard credit check back in March), SoFi (not my representative) sent me an email about being declined. I would not recommend SoFi for anyone looking to refinance their student loans or any other loans.

A few days later no call. Just an email saying I’m denied for the most insane reason. Too many credit inquiries. I kid you not. Called in and was put on hold 7 times before a “manager” came on. This manager's name was Dan from customer service. He was terrible. Would not give me his phone number, full name, or his boss’ name after my repeated attempts. He kept trying to pawn me off by saying, "We will look into it and give you a call. I promise sir." I know how they work and was confident they wouldn’t. I was promised to get a call and emails within 48 hours from Dan himself. Never got them and it’s 5 days later. Think about that... They try to be a millennial based business with their marketing platform, community events etc but failed the most important aspect... good service and intelligent employees. Don’t waste your time. Was approved same day with Earnest AND better rate.

Every call has resulted in a different documentation requests (which we have followed to the letter), requests asking for the SAME financial documents, and we keep going round-and-round with no resolution. We have given up at this point, and are going with a competitor. Buying a house was less of a hassle than this $60K loan consolidation.

To make a long story short, this company is a good idea in theory, but needs substantially better-trained employees and better clarity about various policies. They repeatedly communicated on the phone that they had all materials they needed to process the loan, but then failed to process it within their unpublicized 60 day time limit. A customer service person acknowledged we had been given bad information and the failure was their fault, but that we would have to start the application over from scratch (and thus have a 2nd hard credit pull for each of us), with no guarantee that they would process things correctly this time.

I don't know if this place is so new that they just don't have their act together, or if they decided they wouldn't be making enough $$ of my husband's refinance and decided to not process it or what, but it was a giant, unprofessional waste of time. I cannot imagine working with this place over the course of a loan would be better or a positive experience in general.

Word to the wise; Do not use this company, especially if you are a small business owner. They are clueless, inadequately trained & managed. I do not blame "the front line people" rather the management of this poorly run company. Do not be sucked in by their commercials & advertising speaking of ease of use! They are nowhere close to easy to deal with & should not be trusted.

Where is the awesome customer service they brag about in this behavior? I'm told I need to go back online and apply a second time to refinance - I said, “Hell no. Let me speak to a manager.” Waited about 10 minutes - shocker a manager is not available to take your call. The child from customer service asks me, “What do you want to do?” I said to myself - "You are going to stop wasting your time and refinance with a company that treats you like a person and not a money tree or a number or an idiot." And I haven't looked back. Eat my dust SoFi!!