I'm running into a frustrating problem when trying to refinance my private student loans. My private loan payments are the single biggest payment I make each month, and by refinancing I could cut them in half without increasing the lifetime cost of the loans.

However, even though my credit score is good (750+), I've been rejected by two different lenders for having a very high DTI ratio (55%). The reason this is so frustrating is that *if* I could get the refinancing approved my ratio would drop to 40-42%. Getting a cosigner is not an option for me. I should also point out that I've never missed a payment on my current loans.

I've been trying to think of ways to get around this, and the best I've come up with are:

- Just wait until a promotion hopefully brings my ratio down to an acceptable level

- Get a gig job to increase income and bring down the ratio.

- Move in with my parents for a month or so so that my rent is taken out of the equation. Side note: could I reasonably say my rent is 0 if my parents paid for my rent?

All of these options have various downsides, so I just wanted to see if there is anything I'm missing?