Hanna Renaldi's Blog: How Do I Know Who My Student Loan Servicer Is?

Student loan servicers manage loans on behalf of the federal government and private lenders. They process payments, help borrowers switch repayment plans and work with struggling borrowers to postpone their payments through deferment or forbearance.

If you have federal loans, your servicer will generally get in touch with you once your first loan has been disbursed to you. But many borrowers don’t wish to contact their servicers until later, when their first post-grad student loan payments come due.

If you’ve forgotten who your servicer is, the government recently assigned you a new one or you don’t remember hearing from the company at all, here’s how to figure out who you’ll be working with so you can start the student loan repayment process strong.

Step 1: Create your FSA ID.

On May 10, 2015, the government introduced the Federal Student Aid (FSA) ID. It replaced the FSA PIN, a four-digit number federal loan borrowers used to use to fill out the FAFSA and log into other Federal Student Aid websites. If you haven’t visited one of those websites since May 10, you’ll have to create a new FSA ID.

Besides using your FSA ID to view your loan details, you can use it to apply for a Direct Consolidation Loan or an income-driven repayment plan directly through the government if and when you’re ready.

Step 2: Log into the National Student Loan Data System.

Once you create an FSA ID, you can view your loan details on the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). While you’re able to look at your loan balances on the My Federal Student Aid website (the one that pops up after you create your FSA ID), the NSLDS is a more robust federal database, since it includes information about your loan servicers that My Federal Student Aid doesn’t.

Visit NSLDS Student Access and click on “Financial Aid Review.”

After accepting the site’s terms and conditions, you’ll be prompted to enter your FSA ID. On the next page you’ll find a chart, called your “Aid Summary,” which lists your loan types, amounts and the dates they were disbursed.

Step 3: View your student loan and servicer information.

Click on the numbers in the blue boxes, to the left of the “Type of Loan” column, to bring up more details about each of your loans.

At the bottom of the page, you’ll see a box labeled “Servicer/Lender/Guaranty Agency/ED Servicer Information.” The company to the right of the label “Current ED servicer” is your student loan servicer.

In the example above, it’s Navient (the student loan servicing company affiliated with Sallie Mae). If Navient is your servicer, that’s whom you’ll make your loan payments to, and whom you’ll contact with questions. Additional servicers you might work with include FedLoan Servicing (also known as PHEAA), Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc. and Nelnet. You can find a full list of servicers at NerdWallet Student Loan Central.

Step 4: Call your loan servicer.

Communicate often with your servicer so you avoid missing payments and potentially defaulting on your loans. Call the phone number listed on the NSLDS, and make sure the company has your current email address, mailing address and phone number so it can get in touch with you.

When speaking with a representative from the company for the first time, don’t hang up until you know the answers to these questions:

Which of my loans does this servicer manage?
What is the total current balance on each of these loans?
What are their interest rates?
What repayment plan am I on?
How much do I owe each month?
Am I eligible for income-driven repayment, which would lower my monthly payments and qualify me for loan forgiveness later on?
When is my monthly bill due?
How do I pay it?

The takeaway

It can be confusing to repay your federal loans to a private company. But remember that student loan servicers are there to help you stay current on your loan payments, which means working with you any time you’re worried you can’t afford them. Knowing who your servicer is — and not being afraid to contact them — is the first step toward getting ahead of your loans.

Brianna McGurran is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Email: bmcgurran@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @briannamcscribe.