After graduating or resuming your loan payments after forbearance, you may discover your loan servicer has changed. This can happen and you may be left wondering how to find your student loan servicer.
The responsibility is on you to find who services your student loans. Unfortunately, if you send payments to the wrong servicer, it may cause you to miss a payment with the right servicer. The good news it’s easy to find who your student loan servicer is for your federal loans.
What is a Loan Servicer and What Do They Do
A student loan servicer is a company that collects payments, responds to customer service inquiries, and performs other administrative tasks associated with maintaining a federal student loan on behalf of a lender. A servicer may also perform the same services for private student loans.
The student loan servicer’s job is to act as the go-between you and the lender. The lender may be the federal government, a private lender, bank, or another type of financial institution.
A loan servicer is contracted to do the following:
- Communicating with you about your student loans and payments.
- Collecting your monthly student loan payments.
- Provide assistance in answering questions about your student loans.
- Give information about your benefits, federal loan benefits, or other private loan benefits.
- Process and administer the Income-Based Repayment plans for federal loans.
- Educating borrowers about loan forgiveness programs and certifying them.
- Assisting lenders with deferment or forbearance.
Who Services Federal Student Loans
The US Department of Education keeps a database of all federal student loans through the National Student Loan Database (NSLD.gov). Through the NSLD.gov you can review your federal student loan history, account balances, status, and the loan servicer. Your federal student loans are assigned a servicer by the US Department of Education.
With the NSLDS, you can find:
- type of loans
- original balances and outstanding balances
- interest rates
- loan statuses such as in repayment, deferment, or forbearance
- repayment history
- and the servicer who is assigned your federal student loan
How to Access the NSLDS
You will need to have your Federal Student Aid (FSA ID) ID number. This is the FSA ID you used when you first completed your FAFSA or Free Application for Federal Student Aid. If you cannot remember your FSA ID, you can request the information to be sent to you.
How to Contact Your Student Loan Servicer
You will need information that verifies your identity such as your account number, name, social security number, addresses, and phone numbers.
- Contact your loan servicer when you have changes to your name, address, phone, or email.
- Unable to make a loan payment due to a work shortage or job loss
- During a period of long-term financial distress or family medical situations
- Anytime you have a question about your student loans such as payoffs, loan forgiveness, deferment, income-based repayments, or forbearance benefits.
How to Find Servicers for Your Private Student Loans
With private student loans, you’ll need to do a bit more work starting with pulling your credit report. Get your free report from AnnualCreditReport.com or you can use a free credit tool like Credit Karma.
The credit report will help you see your lenders and get the contact information. You can use that information to contact the lender directly.
List of Federal Student Loan Servicers
Nelnet
www.nelnet.com
1-888-486-4722
Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc.
www.mygreatlakes.org
1-800-236-4300
Navient
www.navient.com
1-800-722-1300
FedLoan Servicing (PHEAA)
myfedloan.org
1-800-699-2908
MOHELA
www.mohela.com
1-888-866-4352
HESC/EdFinancial
edfinancial.com/home
1-855-337-6884
CornerStone
www.MyCornerStoneLoan.org
1-800-663-1662
Granite State – GSMR
www.gsmr.org
1-888-556-0022
OSLA Servicing
www.osla.org
1-866-264-9762
Debt Management and Collections System
myeddebt.ed.gov
1-800-621-3115
You can access a full list of student loan servicers at the Federal Student Aid website.
