Skip to main content

​
Student Loans Vertical Overview + Prefill Integration (Flow-Oriented)

Student Loans integrations use Prefill API only. The partner collects user inputs, sends them to Credible to prefill the appropriate prequalification form, then redirects the user into Credible’s experience using a short-lived link. This section explains the student loans customer journey, why cosigners matter, and how partners should design the integration flow. (Detailed field-level specs are intentionally omitted here.)

​
What the Student Loans Category Is

Student loans are used to finance education-related expenses (tuition, fees, housing, books, etc.). In Credible’s student loan experiences, borrowers typically fall into two core paths:
  • In-school borrower: the student is applying for a new loan while enrolled (or about to enroll).
  • In-school cosigner: the student applies with a cosigner to improve approval odds and/or pricing.
The integration goal is to reduce friction by prefilling known user data and sending the user to the correct Credible form.

​
Why Cosigners Are Critical (How to Think About It)

For in-school student lending, cosigners are often decisive because many students have:
  • Limited credit history
  • Lower or no income
  • Thin credit files and limited repayment history
A cosigner can materially change outcomes:
  • Approval likelihood increases
  • APR and terms may improve
  • Users with marginal eligibility can become eligible
Product implication for partner UX: you should treat cosigner support as a first-class path, not an edge case. If a user indicates low income, limited credit, or is early in school, you should proactively steer toward the cosigner flow.

​
Prefill Integration Model

​
What you do

  1. Collect user info + simple metadata (where the CTA is placed and which flow to enter).
  2. Send a single prefill request from your backend.
  3. Redirect the user using the returned link.

​
What Credible does

  • Routes the user into the correct prequal form (based on flow).
  • Displays a confirmation message that their information was prefilled via your partnership.
  • Continues the application experience and lender matching within Credible.

​
End-to-End Flow

+------------------+         +------------------+         +---------------------+
| Partner Frontend |         | Partner Backend  |         |   Credible Site     |
+------------------+         +------------------+         +---------------------+
        |                             |                             |
        | 1) User enters basics       |                             |
        |    (school, amount, etc.)   |                             |
        |---------------------------->|                             |
        |                             |                             |
        | 2) Backend POST Prefill     |                             |
        |    (meta + data)            |---------------------------->|
        |                             |<----------------------------|
        |                             |  { uuid, link (short TTL) } |
        |                             |                             |
        | 3) Redirect user to link    |                             |
        |---------------------------------------------------------->|
        |                             |                             |
        | 4) Credible shows correct   |                             |
        |    student loan prequal form|                             |
        |    + "prefilled" message    |                             |
        |                             |                             |
        | 5) User completes flow      |                             |
        |    (may add cosigner)       |                             |