CommonBond no longer exists as a student loan lender. The company stopped issuing private student loans in April 2022, ended its student loan refinance programme in May 2022, and wound down its lending business entirely in September 2022. You cannot apply for a CommonBond loan today, and no new CommonBond rates are being published anywhere. If you landed here looking to refinance, skip to the live alternatives below. If you already have a CommonBond loan, your account moved to Firstmark Services.
Last reviewed August 2026. CommonBond figures on this page are historical and are shown only for context.
CommonBond is dead. Existing loans are alive and serviced by Firstmark Services. If you want to refinance private student debt in 2026, compare Splash Financial, SoFi, Earnest and LendKey instead. If your loans are federal, think very hard before refinancing at all, because refinancing converts them into a private loan and you permanently lose every federal protection attached to them.
What happened to CommonBond
CommonBond launched in 2012 as a New York lender aimed at graduate borrowers, built around student loan refinancing and, later, private student loans. It was one of the better known names in the refinance market for most of the 2010s. Then rates moved, funding got expensive, and the company pivoted.
| Date | What changed |
|---|---|
| April 2022 | CommonBond stopped offering private student loans to new borrowers. |
| May 2022 | The student loan refinance programme ended. No new refinance applications accepted. |
| September 2022 | CommonBond wound down its lending business entirely. The brand is no longer an active lender. |
| Today | Existing CommonBond student loans are serviced by Firstmark Services. Borrowers make payments there, not to CommonBond. |
So if you are reading an old CommonBond review quoting rates in the 2% to 6% range, those numbers are from a lender that has not made a loan since 2022. Ignore them. They are not offers you can take.
Already have a CommonBond loan? Here is what to do
Your loan did not disappear when the company wound down. Loan balances get sold or transferred to a servicer, and yours went to Firstmark Services. Nothing about your original promissory note changed. Your balance, your rate, your term and your payoff date are the same as the day you signed.
Three things worth doing:
- Log in to your Firstmark Services account and confirm your balance, rate and next due date match your original CommonBond paperwork.
- Re-enrol in autopay. Autopay rate discounts do not always survive a servicing transfer, and a missed transfer notice is a classic way people accidentally go delinquent.
- Download and save your original loan documents while you still can.
- Do not keep sending payments to an old CommonBond address or portal.
- Do not assume the debt was cancelled because the lender shut down. It was not.
- Do not pay anyone who cold-calls offering to “resolve” your CommonBond loan for an upfront charge.
If your old CommonBond rate is high by 2026 standards, refinancing it with one of the lenders below is a legitimate move, because it is already private debt. You are not giving up anything federal by moving it.
Read this before you refinance federal student loans
Refinancing federal student loans with any private lender permanently converts them into a private loan. You give up Public Service Loan Forgiveness, all income-driven repayment plans, federal deferment and forbearance rights, federal discharge provisions and any future federal relief. That is irreversible. There is no path back into the federal system afterwards.
A lower rate is not worth that trade for most federal borrowers, especially anyone working in public service, anyone with unstable income, or anyone who might need an income-driven payment. Refinancing makes the most sense for private loans, or for high-earning borrowers with stable income who will never use a federal benefit. If you are unsure, read should I refinance my student loans first.
CommonBond alternatives that are actually lending in 2026
These are refinance lenders and marketplaces still open to new applications. Rates below are the ranges each company publishes and they move, so treat them as a starting point and check your own rate. Every one of these does a soft credit pull to show you a rate, so you can compare several without damaging your credit.
A marketplace rather than a single lender. You fill in one form and Splash shows you offers from multiple refinance lenders and credit unions, which is the closest thing to a direct replacement for shopping CommonBond against its rivals.
Because Splash routes your application to several lending partners, the rate and the servicing experience depend on which partner ends up funding the loan. Read the offer you are given, not the headline range.
The lender that most CommonBond borrowers ended up comparing against back in the day, and it is still originating refinance loans. Direct lender, so you deal with one company from application through repayment.
Earnest lets you pick a precise term rather than being forced into standard 5, 7, 10, 15 or 20 year buckets, which is useful if you are targeting a specific monthly payment.
Variable rates shown include the autopay discount. Variable rate loans are not available in Alaska, Illinois, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio, Tennessee or Texas.
LendKey is a marketplace of community banks and credit unions rather than a balance sheet lender. Your rate and terms are set by whichever partner institution approves you, and that partner services the loan afterwards.
Because pricing comes from the partner lender rather than LendKey itself, there is no single published rate range to quote here. Run the soft pull and compare the actual offer against the others on this page.
Side by side
| Lender | Type | Fixed APR | Variable APR | Minimum | Fees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Splash FinancialMarketplace | Multiple partner lenders | 3.99% to 11.24% | 4.74% to 11.24% | $5,000 | None |
| SoFiDirect lender | Lends and services directly | From 3.99% | Not listed here | $5,000 | None |
| EarnestDirect lender | Custom loan terms | From 4.45% | From 5.88% | Not listed here | None |
| LendKeyMarketplace | Credit unions and community banks | Set by partner lender | Set by partner lender | Set by partner lender | Set by partner lender |
| CommonBondClosed | No longer lending | Not available | Not available | Not available | Not available |
Where a cell says “not listed here” it means we have not verified a current published figure for it, not that the lender has no such figure. Check it on the lender's own rate page before you apply.
Is refinancing even the right move for you?
- Your loans are private, so there are no federal benefits to lose.
- Your credit and income have improved meaningfully since you first borrowed.
- Your current rate is well above what you are being quoted now.
- You have stable income and an emergency fund, so you can absorb a rough month without needing a forbearance.
- Your loans are federal and you are pursuing, or might pursue, PSLF.
- You rely on an income-driven repayment plan to keep payments affordable.
- Your income is seasonal, commission based or otherwise unpredictable.
- You are extending the term purely to lower the payment, which usually raises total interest paid.
If your real problem is the size of the balance rather than the rate, refinancing is the wrong tool. Read how to pay off student loans and how to get out of student loan debt instead. And if you are still in school and looking to borrow rather than refinance, start with the best private student loans after you have exhausted federal aid.
CommonBond FAQs
Is CommonBond still in business?
Who services my CommonBond loan now?
Did CommonBond shutting down cancel my loan?
What is the best CommonBond alternative for refinancing?
Will refinancing hurt my credit score?
Can I refinance federal student loans?
I am new to all of this. Where should I start?
Bottom line
CommonBond is a closed chapter. It stopped lending in 2022 and it is not coming back, so any page still quoting CommonBond rates is quoting a lender that cannot lend to you. If you have an old CommonBond balance, check it at Firstmark Services and re-enrol in autopay. If you came here to refinance, run a soft pull with two or three of the live lenders above and compare real offers. And if the debt in question is federal, the honest advice is usually to leave it exactly where it is.
