Laurel Road Banking Review: Pros And Cons

Laurel Road is the digital bank brand of KeyBank and they offer student loans, checking accounts, and a high-yield savings account worth considering.

Combining your banking with your students loans can provide a way to save on your loans over time.

Laurel Road gives you the option to lower your student loan refinance rate with their Loyalty Checking account. You can also earn cash rewards with qualifying direct deposits. 

Let’s take a look at what Laurel Road has to offer and how competitive it is with other banks that offer similar services and features.

What Is Laurel Road Banking?

Laurel Road is a full-service online bank without any monthly fees. It specializes in giving you cash rewards for certain deposits and refinancing your student loans. 

You wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell from the website, but Laurel Road is a digital banking platform that caters to health professionals who want to take out student loans or refinance their existing ones. They are best for borrowers who want to refinance during their medical or dental residency.

What Does It Offer?

Laurel Road is a digital bank that offers an entire suite of products, including mortgages, personal loans, credit cards, high-yield savings, as well as educational resources to help you figure out how to best manage your student loans. 

They provide ways to help you better understand and manage your loans, offering a number of services such as student loan forgiveness consultation, public service loan forgiveness, income-driven repayment, and refinancing. 

Laurel Road helps medical professionals pay off their loans faster with special pricing and perks available when you sign up for multiple products. 

For the purpose of this article, we will focus on the student loans and refinancing, but explore their checking, savings, and personal loans as well.

Refinance Your Student Loans

By signing up for a Laurel Road Linked Checking account and setting up qualifying deposits, you could refinance your student loans at a lower variable APR. 

The site offers a helpful table that shows variable and fixed rates based on qualifying deposits to your Laurel Road linked checking account.

Keep in mind the exact rates vary depending on your unique situation and credit. These are current rates offered by Laurel Road. 

As of this writing you can earn a $200 cash bonus with $2,500 in direct deposits. 

You can also check your rate in less than five minutes. 

Read our full Laurel Road student loans review here.

Checking Accounts

There are two types of checking accounts offered: 

• Laurel Road Linked Checking: Access student loan refi rates as low as 4.49% variable Annual Percentage Rate (APR) when you set up qualifying monthly direct deposits.
• Laurel Road Loyalty Checking: Earn rewards each month, including a $20 cash reward for every month you make qualifying ACH direct deposits for 12 months only and $10 for every month after that for as long as your account is open. Plus, as of this writing, you can earn a $200 welcome bonus.

High-Yield Savings

Laurel Road offers a competitive high-interest yield savings account that currently gives you 5.15% APY on your entire balance. 

There aren’t any monthly fees or minimum balance to worry about. Your money is also FDIC-insured, which means up to $250,000 of your money is safe in case the bank goes under.

Mobile App

Access your finances with your mobile phone, they offer both Android and iOS apps so you can do things like check your balance, pay bills, and deposit checks. You can also send and receive money through Zelle.

Personal Loans

Laurel Road has personal loans that allow you to borrow up to $45,000 and with an APR range of around 8.99% to 23.25%. The amount you qualify for is based on your credit and financial standing. 

There are no origination fees, which can save you even more money when you need funds for things like relocation, home renovation, or credit card debt consolidation. Laurel Road loans are serviced by KeyBank, which acquired Laurel Road in 2019.

Are There Any Fees?

A benefit of Laurel Road is the low amount of fees. There are no application or origination fees when you apply for personal loans or refinance your loan. There are no fees if you want to pay off your loans early. (This does not apply to mortgages, which have the standard closing costs, fees, and expenses when you close on your home. These also include other expenses that come with closing on a home such as appraisal, credit report, and title fees.)

Keep in mind if you pay your loans late, you will be charged a 5% late fee of $28 if you don’t make a payment within 15 days of the due date. 

Banking customers can enjoy no monthly maintenance fees and no ATM fees with access to over 40,000 fee-free machines.

Returned checks will cost you $20 per check fee, if you have insufficient funds in your account.

How Does Laurel Road Compare?

What sets Laurel Road apart is the ability to tap into potentially lowering your student loans by refinancing and linking your account to a Laurel Road Linked Checking. However, there are a few other competitors that have similar offerings. 

For example, PNC also offers discounts on your loan refinancing if you open banking accounts - and PNC has a very competitive savings account right now.

SoFi is another popular option, but we don't recommend SoFi to our readers.

How Do I Open An Account?

The application process for refinancing your existing loans can be done completely online. Here’s what to expect when you open an account.

• Authorize a soft credit pull to determine your estimated rates. Soft pulls won’t affect your credit and give you an idea of what you qualify for.  

• Upload the necessary documents to the online dashboard and authorize a hard credit pull. This finalizes the application. If you’re approved, you’ll receive your final rates and terms at this stage.

• Select your loan type and e-sign your documents on the dashboard.

• You start to make payments a month from your disbursement date.

Is It Safe And Secure?

Laurel Road is owned by KeyBank, which provides bank-level security for your financial information. Additionally, KeyBank is a Member FDIC. That means your funds are protected for up to $250,000. 

How Do I Contact Laurel Road?

Laurel Road Banking offers an option to email them through a form or you can email help@laurelroad.com. There’s also a chat icon on their site to help you reach customer service. 

For general inquiries call 833-427-2265. You can reach out between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. Monday through Friday.

For mortgage application questions, call 877-801-4686 between the hours of 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m./ET Monday through Friday. Or email mortgage@laurelroad.com.

Is It Worth It?

Laurel Road Banking offers a unique opportunity to tap into lower interest rates on student loan refinancing with bundling their Linked checking account. 

For those specifically in the medical field, it could be a great opportunity to take advantage of lower rates, plus Laurel Road doesn’t offer any origination fees and are light on fees in general.

However, there are plenty of other banking solutions out there if you’re not interested in taking out a student loan or refinancing your existing ones. Check out our favorite free checking and high-yield savings accounts.

Laurel Road Banking Features