Calling Your Student Loan Servicer? It Pays to Prepare
ELIZA HAVERSTOCK
If you need free, personalized guidance about your federal student loans, want to switch repayment plans, or are dealing with misleading or incorrect bills, there’s one place to call: your student loan servicer. But these days, ringing up your servicer isn’t guaranteed to resolve your issue. In the face of an unprecedented return to student loan repayment last fall, servicers had to staff up quickly with limited resources. And borrowers have reported hours-long hold times, misleading advice, incorrect or late billing statements and other shortcomings from their servicers. As a result, the White House has withheld more than $9 million in servicer pay as of January for “failing to meet contractual obligations.” “This is not the point where you can rely on the servicers 100% to give you the most accurate up-to-date information you will need if you’re a borrower,” says Alpha Taylor, a National Consumer Law Center staff attorney focused on student loans. Though issues like billing errors and long hold times are largely out of your hands, you can still take action to have an efficient, helpful call with your student loan servicer. Here’s how to prepare for a servicer call that gets results. IDENTIFY YOUR SERVICER The federal government contracts with a handful of private companies, called servicers, to manage student loan repayment. You’re assigned a servicer when you first take out your student loans. Servicers send monthly bills, collect your payments and help you keep your loans in good standing by providing support and guidance. To determine which servicer is yours, log in to your account on StudentAid.gov. You can also get in touch with any of the loan servicer contact centers by calling the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 800-4-FED-AID.
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