Aidvantage federal student loans are eligible for forgiveness through several programs. Policy changes may occur with future administrations, but the Education Department is actively processing current forgiveness benefits. Available debt relief programs: Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.
Compare the loans listed on your studentaid.gov account with your credit report. Any loans that are listed on your studentaid.gov account are federal student loans. If any loans on your credit reports are not listed on your studentaid.gov account, they are probably private student loans.
There are seven federal student loan servicers: Edfinancial, MOHELA, Aidvantage, Nelnet, CRI, ECSI, or Default Resolution Group. Loan accounts are automatically assigned to a servicer, and any account may be transferred to a new servicer.
Navient was one of the companies that serviced federal student loans by collecting and tracking payments. It stopped servicing federal direct student loans after Dec. 31, 2021. By that point, all federal loans in the Navient portfolio were transferred to another servicer called Aidvantage.
Welcome to Aidvantage!
Aidvantage is here to help you better understand and manage repayment of your federal student loans.
Navient will forgive your remaining loan balance forgiven after 20 or 25 years of making on-time monthly payments, depending on the plan. If you consolidate, you can get credit for time spent in deferment and forbearance.
But now that Navient is no longer a federal loan servicer and FedLoan is history, there's a new “Big Four.” You probably have one of the Big Four loan servicers, which are now EdFinancial, MOHELA, Aidvantage or Nelnet.
Types of federal student loans
Direct Subsidized Loans. Direct Unsubsidized Loans. Direct PLUS Loans, of which there are two types: Grad PLUS Loans for graduate and professional students, as well as loans that can be issued to a student's parents, also known as Parent PLUS Loans.
It's official! Your loans are now serviced by MOHELA.
To learn more and log in to your account, visit servicing.mohela.com. Note: you will log in with the same user ID and password as you do today. On October 21, 2024, MOHELA began servicing your student loans.
Is Navient Federal or Private? While Congress originally created Sallie Mae to support the federal student loan program, it was eventually privatized. Navient is a private company that the U.S. Department of Education once hired to service its federal loans.
Stafford loans are a type of federal student loan that are either subsidized, meaning the government pays the interest while you're in school, or unsubsidized, meaning you pay all the interest. Stafford loans are a type of loan issued under the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP).
In contrast, private loans are made by private organizations such banks, credit unions, and state-based or state-affiliated organizations, and have terms and conditions that are set by the lender. Private student loans are generally more expensive than federal student loans.
Aidvantage is the federal loan servicing unit of Maximus Education. In December 2021, it began servicing loans owned by the U.S. Department of Education that were previously serviced by Navient.
Any borrower with ED-held loans that have accumulated time in repayment of at least 20 or 25 years will see automatic forgiveness, even if the loans are not currently on an IDR plan. Borrowers with FFELP loans held by commercial lenders or Perkins loans not held by ED can benefit if they consolidate into Direct Loans.
Aidvantage is a federal student loan servicer that manages loans. You can reach their customer service department at: 800-722-1300.
Why do loans get switched or transferred to a different servicer? Sometimes, we need to transfer loans from one servicer to another—for example, when a servicer's contract with us ends. Even if we transfer your loans to a new servicer, we (the U.S. Department of Education) still own your loans.
The best way to discover whether your student loan is federal or private is to use studentaid.gov. After you log in with your Federal Student Aid ID, you'll see a list of every federal student loan you borrowed. If you see one of your Navient loans listed there, it is a federal loan.
Your student loan servicer(s) will notify you directly after your forgiveness is processed. Make sure to keep your contact information up to date on StudentAid.gov and with your servicer(s). If you haven't yet qualified for forgiveness, you'll be able to see your exact payment counts in the future.
What happened? Student loans disappear from credit reports 7.5 years from the date they are paid in full, charged-off, or entered default. However, education debt can reappear if you dig out of default with consolidation or loan rehabilitation. Student loans can have an outsized impact on your credit score.