June 2021

Laurel Road, a digital lending platform and a subsidiary of KeyBank, announced a new credit card on June 22. The Laurel Road student loan repayment card offers 2% cash back if you use your rewards to pay off student loans from most lenders. The no annual fee card also offers some impressive perks and a solid welcome bonus, putting it on par with some of the best cash back credit cards on the market.

How the Laurel Road student loan repayment card works

The Laurel Road Student Loan Repayment Card isn’t the first credit card to offer a better repayment rate if you use your cash back to pay off student loans. All three credit cards issued by Sallie Mae give you 25% more value if you redeem your rewards to pay off student loan debt.

However, even with this bonus, the maximum value you would get with Sallie Mae cards is around 1.56% when using rewards for student loan payments.

In contrast, the new Laurel Road card doubles the value of your rewards to 2% if you use your cash back to pay off student loans. In addition, 95% of federal and private loan departments participate, so most student loan borrowers can take advantage of this impressive advantage. (You can check the fine print on the card’s website to make sure your lender or service agent is listed.)

The card also offers impressive incentives for new cardholders. For starters, you’ll earn $ 500 on any qualifying student loan after spending $ 5,000 in the first 90 days of opening the account. You’d be hard pressed to find a better welcome offer on another credit card with no annual fee, assuming you can afford to spend $ 5,000 in three months.

You will also receive a 0% introductory APR for 12 months on balance transfers made within the first 60 days of account opening. After that, the APR variable drops from 13.99% to 22.99%, depending on your creditworthiness.

Should you request this card?

The Laurel Road student loan repayment card is far from the only 2% cash back credit card available, and you can use the cash back you get with any credit card to pay off your debt. student loan.

But the 2% reward rate combined with the $ 500 welcome bonus might be enough to make this card worthwhile if you have a lot of student loan debt.

If you don’t have a student loan, or if you have very little left on your balance, this might not be as appealing because once you pay off your student debt, you will only get back 1% on your student loan. all.

Manhattan’s 10 biggest home loans on record in May totaled $ 1.84 billion, more than double the April total.

More than half of that total came from a pair of commercial mortgages on office towers in Midtown – the seventh time in nine months that the CMBS market has produced Manhattan’s largest recorded loan.

Here are the borough’s biggest mortgage loans in May:

1 & 2) Durst extinguisher | $ 769 million, $ 331 million

The Durst Organization refinanced 1133 Sixth Avenue and 114 West 47th Street with a single-borrower CMBS transaction totaling $ 1.1 billion. The 10-year fixed-rate, interest-only loans came from Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo. Bank of America is also the largest tenant of the two properties, at 506,000 square feet. Other notable tenants include the NBA Players Association and piano maker Steinway & Sons.

3) Merchant mortgage loan | $ 185 million

The group behind the 170-unit condo tower at 537 Greenwich Street in Hudson Square landed a $ 185 million loan from stock of 137 unsold units from China Merchants Bank. The project was developed by Strategic Capital, the investment arm of China Construction America, Forum Absolute Capital Partners and Cape Advisors. Funding takes a $ 215 million Bank OZK construction loan granted in 2017.

4) Safe harbor | $ 108 million

AIG granted $ 107.7 million loan for Harbor Group International recapitalization 55 Broadway in Lower Manhattan, which also saw the investment of new equity to remove Paramount Group’s preferred stake in the 32-story office building. The owner signed four leases in January, and AIG’s loan includes up to $ 8.4 million in future financing for lease costs.

5) Laub loan | $ 95 million

Laub Realty refinanced a mixed-use property at 261-275 avenue d’Amsterdam on the Upper West Side with a 10-year, $ 95 million CMBS loan from Morgan Stanley. The 12-storey property has 134 rental units, of which 67 are at market rates, 60 are rent-stabilized and seven are rent-controlled, according to a Kroll Report. The building’s 21,000 square feet of retail space is occupied by tenants, including Chipotle and Capital One.

6) Knight of Development | $ 80 million

Hong Kong-based Lion Knight Limited provided $ 80 million to refinance an eight-plot development site owned by Arris Properties Group, to 143-163, 60th Street East. The site was previously owned by Kuafu Properties, whose managers split in 2016. Previous renderings envisioned a 1,240-foot tower on the site that would be the tallest on the Upper East Side. The new debt replaces a $ 100 million loan granted by OZK Bank in 2017.

7) Magnum FiDi | $ 75 million

Ben Shaoul’s Magnum Real Estate has secured a $ 74.9 million inventory loan from Ares Commercial Real Estate for 30 unsold condominium units at 140 West Street in the Financial District, also known as the Verizon Building or 100 Barclay. Magnum and its partner CIM Group acquired the top 21 floors of the 31-story building in 2013 and converted it into 157 condos.

8) (tie) Bankruptcy buy | $ 70 million

Signature Bank provided a $ 70 million loaned to Madison Realty Capital for its $ 153 million acquisition of a bankrupt 15-building apartment portfolio previously owned by Raphael Toledano. A subsidiary of Toledano’s Brookhill Capital owed Madison about $ 140 million, of which $ 124 million was used to purchase the buildings in 2016, interest and legal fees.

8) (tie) Fresh water | $ 70 million

Vanbarton Group has refinanced the 24-story office building at 160 Water Street in Lower Manhattan with a $ 70 million loan from Brookfield Real Estate Financial Partners. Vanbarton, a spin-off of Emmes Asset Management, acquired the 480,000 square foot building for $ 165 million in 2014, with a Loan of $ 99.6 million by JPMorgan Chase.

10) Debt of Naftali | $ 61 million

Bank Hapoalim provided $ 102.7 million in construction financing, including $ 61 million in senior debt, to the Naftali Group for a 12-unit condominium project at 1165 Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side. The 13-story, 62,700-square-foot development will include two duplex penthouses and three full-story residences, as well as 3,750 square feet of retail space on the ground floor.

Contact Kevin Sun