If you have federal student loans, it’s important to know who your student loan servicer is. You will need to reach out to them in case you have any questions or need any help with your loans. Here’s what you need to know about student loan servicers.

What is a student loan servicer and what do they do?

A student loan servicer is a company that handles your federal student loans.

Federal student loans are funded by the U.S. Department of Education. You apply for federal student loans through the FAFSA (Free Application For Federal Student Aid). The Department of Education assesses your application and determines your eligibility for student loans. They don’t manage your loans, however.

Once the Department of Education has transferred the funds to you or your college, they assign your account to a student loan servicer. This is an organization that acts as a middle-man between you and the Department of Education. They handle all matters related to your federal student loans, from collecting your payments to following up in case of non-payment. Your student loan servicer will also help answer any questions you have regarding managing your loans.

Every federal student loan you take will be assigned to a separate student loan servicer. That means you could have multiple servicers, depending on the number and type of loans you’ve taken. If your parents take a Parent PLUS loan, they will have a separate loan servicer.

You cannot choose a loan servicer. The Department of Education has nine approved servicers. They will assign one of these nine to you and send you the name and contact details when the funds are disbursed. Sometimes, for some reason or another, the federal government may end its contract with a servicer. In that case, they will transfer your account to another servicer and let you know about the change.

List of federal student loan servicers

These are the nine loan servicers that currently manage federal student loans along with their website and phone numbers. If you’re wondering who your student loan servicer is, it will be any one of these listed below. You will receive a notification if your loan servicer changes.

• Aidvantage – 1-800-722-1300
• FedLoan Servicing (PHEAA) – 1-800-699-2908
• ECSI – 1-866-313-3797
• Edfinancial  – 1-855-337-6884
• OSLA Servicing   – 1-866-264-9762
• Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc. 1-800-236-4300
• Nelnet – 1-888-486-4722
• MOHELA  –  1-888-866-4352
• Default Resolution Group – 1-800-621-3115 – Students who are deaf or hard of hearing can use this phone number 1-877-825-9923

How do I find out who my servicer is for federal student loans?

As we said earlier, you cannot choose your loan servicer for your federal student loans. The federal government will assign one to you. They will send you your servicer’s name and contact details at the time of disbursing your funds. By the time you graduate, you will likely have multiple loan servicers assigned to you over the four or more years in college. You’ll have a different organization for every loan. It’s impossible to remember the names of all your loan servicers and which one is managing which loan. So how do you know who your student loan servicer is? There are a couple of different ways you can do this.

One way to find out who is your student loan servicer is by logging into your Federal Student Aid account. You would have received an FSA ID when you submitted your FAFSA. You’ll need the FSA ID to log into your account.

When you access your FSA account, you’ll find all your service providers listed along with their contact details. Alongside each loan, you’ll also find details such as loan amount, start date, type of student loan, interest rate, accrued interest, and repayment term for that loan. So, in addition to identifying your servicer, you can also get an overall idea of your total student loan debt.

If you’ve just started college and only recently received your first federal student loan, you may not find any loan servicer listed. That’s okay. Sometimes, it takes a little while for the federal government to finish assigning servicers to all borrowers. Generally, when this happens, the organization assigned to service your loan will get in touch with you and introduce themselves. If you don’t hear from anyone after a month, log into your FSA account and check again.

Another way to find out who is your student loan servicer is by calling the Federal Student Aid Information Center (FSAIC).  Their phone number is 800-433-3243. You’ll need to give them your FSA ID before they give you any details regarding student loans. This is to make sure that they aren’t giving this sensitive information to anyone other than you.

‘Who is my loan servicer’ on the StudentAid website has more information related to this question.

One thing you should know is that a loan servicer may change at any time. This could happen if an organization decides not to renew its contract with the federal government. Or if the federal government decided to terminate the contract for any reason. If this happens, another organization will be assigned to service your loan. Ideally, you should receive this notification but sometimes things get lost in the mail. As a best practice, it’s always a good idea to check your FSA account for updated information before reaching out to your loan servicer.

How do I find out who my servicer is for private student loans?

Generally, private lenders handle all matters related to the loan in-house. They do not outsource loan management to external loan servicers. Instead, they have their own staff who handle every aspect of loan management, from assessing applications to following up on repayments.

Why do I need to know who is my servicer?

There are several reasons for this. The main one is your loan servicer is your one-stop resource for any help or information you need regarding your federal student loans. They will work with you to manage your student loan repayments.

Your loan servicer will help you understand where and when to send the payments. They will also give you tips and advice on how you can lower the cost of your loans. For example, they may help you set up automatic withdrawals for better loan management.

Your loan servicer will also work with you on repayment options. You may want to switch from a standard repayment plan to an income-based repayment plan depending on your monthly income. Or maybe you need to apply for deferment or forbearance or you want to find out if you qualify for loan forgiveness. Your loan servicer will help you with all of this. They will help you understand your options and choose the best one depending on your financial circumstances.

To avail of all this help, you first need to know who your student loan servicer is. Here’s a detailed list of what you can do through your loan servicer:

• Update your personal and contact information – This is very important if you’ve moved residence or changed your email address after taking the loan. Your lender will need a way to contact you for various purposes. You could miss important time-sensitive notifications if you don’t update your contact details.
• Inform the servicer about a change in education status – You will need to notify your servicer if you transfer to another school, drop below half-time enrollment, or return to school after graduating. Each of these affects your loan differently.
• View accrued interest and outstanding balance on each federal student loan – This can be very useful for creating a budget based on your income and ongoing expenses.
• Change your repayment plans – You may want to extend or reduce your loan term depending on your monthly income.
• Apply for deferment or forbearance – You may need this if you’re struggling financially and need some time to shore up your finances.
• Get help with managing any aspect of your loan, whether it is monthly payments or changing the loan term.
• Get any of your loan-related questions answered.

Your loan servicer will go out of their way to help you with your federal student loans. Their main priority is to get their money back and the only way to do this is by making it easy for you to pay it back. If you mismanage your loans or can’t afford to repay the money, they have to deal with the headache of getting it back. To avoid this scenario, they will do everything they can to help you better manage your loan.

Last but not least, this loan assistance is complimentary. You don’t have to pay your loan servicer to help you.  It is part of their customer service towards student loan borrowers and is offered free of cost.

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