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Student Loans Student Loan Repayment

Your Guide to Student Loan Servicers

Updated Apr 05, 2023   |   8 mins read
Written by Christy Rakoczy  
Updated Apr 05, 2023

Some lenders, including the federal government, offer student loans but don’t administer them themselves. Instead, student loan servicers handle the day-to-day tasks associated with the loan, including collecting payments and providing information and support to borrowers. 

When you borrow federal student loans, you’re assigned a loan servicer that has contracted with the U.S. Department of Education. For private student loans, lenders usually service their own loans, but may contract with a servicer, which will reach out to you when repayment begins.

To change servicers, you need to refinance or consolidate your loans. In this guide, we’ll explain what loan servicers do, how to stay in touch with your loan servicer, and how to change servicers if you’re unhappy.

In this guide:

What student loan servicers do

Student loan servicers handle the administrative tasks associated with student loan debt. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, some of these tasks include:

  • Disbursing funds to you and your school after you have been approved for a loan.
  • Keeping track of your loans while you are in school.
  • Processing student loan repayment.
  • Responding to requests for information from borrowers.
  • Accepting applications to change repayment plans and processing changes when you’re eligible to switch to a different repayment option.
  • Accepting applications for deferment and forbearance and taking the steps necessary to pause payments when you qualify.
  • Maintaining a record of your education loans.
  • Ensuring that your loans are administered in compliance with federal rules and regulations. 

Find out more in our guide to student loan repayment.

>>Read more: Who is my student loan servicer?

Student loan servicers directory

You can learn more about federal student loan servicers—and determine which servicer handles your loans—through the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). You can also see a list of student loan servicers below. 

American Education Services

American Education Services

AES was first established by the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency to service FFEL loans. PHEAA was established in 1963 by the Pennsylvania General Assembly and is now a major federal student aid organization contracted with the Department of Education. 

  •  Email: Secure email after signing into your account.
  •  Phone number: 800-233-0557
  • Address: Send correspondence to P.O. Box 2461, Harrisburg, PA 17105-2461; send payments to P.O. Box 65093, Baltimore, MD 21264-5093.
  • Website: www.aessuccess.org 
  • Full review: AES Student Loans Review

CornerStone

CornerStone

CornerStone is a not-for-profit federal student loan servicer that has been servicing student loans since 1984.

FedLoan Servicing

fedloan-servicing-review

FedLoan Servicing was established to support the Department of Education in servicing federal student loans. It also manages the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program for the Department of Education. 

  • Email: Secure email after signing into your account
  • Phone number: 800-699-2908
  • Address: Send correspondence to P.O. Box 69184, Harrisburg, PA 17106-9184; send payments to P.O. Box 790234, St. Louis, MO 63179-0234.
  • Website: www.myfedloan.org
  • Full review: FedLoan Servicing Review

Granite State

Granite State Student Loans

Granite State was established in 1986 and services both federal and private student loans. It is a not-for-profit federal contractor. For federal student loans:

  • Email: N/A 
  • Phone number: 888-556-0022
  • Address: Send correspondence to P.O. Box 3420; Concord, NH 03302-3420; send payments to P.O. Box 4414, Portland, OR 97208-4414.
  • Website: www.gsmr.org
  • Full review: Granite State Student Loans Review

Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc. 

great lakes logo

Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc. is an affiliate of Nelnet Diversified Solutions. It provides federal student loan servicing for borrowers who obtained loans from the Department of Education. 

HESC/Edfinancial

Edfinancial_logo

Edfinancial is located in Knoxville and has been in the student loan servicing industry for more than 25 years. It provides federal student loan servicing for borrowers.

Mohela

Mohela

Mohela is a student loan servicer with more than 530 employees dedicated to providing support to federal student loan borrowers. 

Navient

Navient has more than 45 years of experience and has serviced more than $300 billion in student loans. More than 12 million customers have their loans serviced by Navient.

  • Email: Accessed via help center after logging into your account
  • Phone number: 800-722-1300
  • Address: Send correspondence to P.O. Box 9635, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18773-9635; send payments to P.O. Box 4450, Portland, OR 97208-4450.
  • Website: www.navient.com
  • Full review: Navient Student Loans Review

Nelnet

Nelnet

Nelnet is headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska, and has more than 2,500 associates who serve customers. Nelnet is not just a loan servicer; it also provides education planning and asset management services. Here is the information for federal student loans serviced by Nelnet:

Oklahoma Student Loan Authority (OSLA Servicing)

OSLA Student Loan Servicing

OSLA has been servicing loans for more than 40 years but has only recently begun acting as a student loan servicer. It was created by the Oklahoma legislature as a public trust in 1972. For Federal Direct Loans:

Other student loan servicers

There a few other student loan servicers aside from those listed above. You can find more information about them in our full review:

Former student loan servicers

Two companies you may have heard of are no longer servicing federal student loans:

  • Aspire Loan Servicing was awarded a contract as a student loan servicer in 2012 but exited the servicing business in 2015.
  • Conduent Education ceased servicing federal loans as of Sept. 1, 2019, and all loans that were administered by Conduent have moved to other servicers.
  • The Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC) used to serve as a lender and servicer for college students in Vermont but transferred it’s loans to Nelnet in August 2016.

Best and worst student loan servicers

LendEDU conducted research to determine the best and worst student loan servicers using Consumer Financial Protection Bureau data on complaints. You can see which companies received the most and least complaints in our report on CFPB Student Loan Complaints. 

Frequently asked questions about student loan servicers