Student Loan Repayment Checklist INFORMATION FROM THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Be an informed borrower by learning about your loans and what to do for a smooth repayment experience. As you work through this checklist, you’ll find out how to make payments and figure out which repayment plan is best for you; and you’ll know what to do if you’re having trouble making payments or think you might be eligible for loan forgiveness.
Remember: You never have to pay for help with your student loans!
BEFORE YOU GRADUATE OR LEAVE SCHOOL Review your federal loan history. Get your loan history by logging in to "My Federal Student Aid"— you’ll need to create an FSA ID if you don’t already have one. As you review your information, note the following: • The current loan balance and interest rate for each loan. • The loan type (depending on when you went to school and what loan programs your school participated in, you may have loans from different federal student loan programs; the types of loans you received can affect what benefits are available to you). • The name of the loan servicer for each loan (a loan servicer is a company that handles the billing and other services on your loans; generally, you’ll have one servicer for all your federal student loans, but there is a chance you could have more than one). Get to know your loan servicer. Your servicer helps you with your student loans — for FREE! It’s important that you know who your loan servicer is and how to contact them because you will eventually be making your loan payments to your servicer. Take this opportunity to save your servicer’s phone number in your phone. Create an online account on your servicer’s website . You can find the most detailed and up-to-date information about your loans, make your payments, and manage your loans (for example, change repayment plans or apply for a deferment) on your loan servicer’s website. When you create your account, be sure your contact information is correct.
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