Which Is The Best Student Loan Servicer

Table of Contents

Tin Yous Choose Your Pupil Loan Servicer?
Large Four Federal Student Loan Servicers in the United States Ranked
- one. Corking Lakes Higher Education Corp.
- 2. Nelnet, Inc.
- 3. AES/PHEAA (FedLoan Servicing)
- iv. Navient Solutions, LLC.
Smaller Federal Educatee Loan Servicers in the United States Ranked
- i. OSLA (Oklahoma Student Loan Authority)
- 2. Granite Country Management & Resource
- 3. EdFinancial Services/ HESC
- 4. MOHELA
Why Your Student Loan Servicer May Alter In 2021
How To Deal With Your Pupil Loan Servicer

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Student loans are a reality for many Americans. Over 43.ii million student borrowers have an boilerplate debt of over $39,351 each. If you currently have a federal student loan or you're planning to have ane, y'all'll have to work with a student loan servicer.

A student loan servicer is a private visitor used by the government to manage your student loan payments. Fifty-fifty if the money you're borrowing is coming from the federal regime, these educatee loan servicers are the "middlemen" that collect and runway your payments. They are also responsible for helping you manage your payments and requite you the best advice so you can repay your loan diligently.

In this commodity, we will talk virtually the different federal student loan servicers and how they rank based on latest data (up to 2021) from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or CFPB. We will also talk about why your student loan servicer may change in 2021 or 2022.

Can You Choose Your Educatee Loan Servicer?

Shut-up Of Person Manus With Rubber Stamp And Canonical Student Loan Application

No, you cannot cull your pupil loan service when yous first take out a federal student loan. This is non like getting a credit card or a car loan where y'all accept the flexibility to cull your lender or decide where to borrow your funds.

In that location used to be 9 student loan servicers that the U.S. Department of Teaching works with to service federal educatee loans. However, one of these companies chosen Cornerstone (UHEAA) terminated its contract with the federal authorities in October 2020 effective immediately. Currently, there are 8 student loan servicers for federal direct student loans.

Since these are all different companies, the level of service will be dissimilar depending on which student loan servicer you're assigned to. Yes, you read that right – you will be "assigned" a student loan servicer when you lot kickoff take out your loan.

When you get assigned a student loan servicer, you don't have a option but accept that servicer. The only way you lot can switch to a servicer you want out of the eight pupil loan servicers accredited by the federal government is to go through debt consolidation. Debt consolidation is the process of combining multiple federal student loans into one new federal direct loan. This could brand information technology easier for you to manage your payments and extend the term of the loan.

I of the reasons yous could be reading this article is considering you lot are planning to consolidate your debts. During the consolidation process, you take the option to switch to a student loan servicer of your pick. However, this is not applicable if you're just taking a federal student loan for the very offset time.

Large 4 Federal Student Loan Servicers in the United States Ranked

Out of the 8 student loan servicers used past the Department of Instruction for federal educatee loans, 4 companies get around ninety% of the loans. The remaining x% are distributed to the remaining 4 smaller student loan servicers.

The four companies getting the bulk of pupil loans are often referred to every bit the "Big Four". If y'all're applying for a federal pupil loan for the commencement fourth dimension, the chances of going to one of these student loan servicers are evidently much college. Yet, just because these are the bigger companies, does not necessarily mean that they are better.

To come up up with our rankings, we looked at the total complaints filed by consumers to the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database from when data became bachelor in 2015 upwardly to 2021, in relation to the number of borrowers they have. Using the number of complaints available makes this ranking data driven, rather than subjective.

Equally the number of borrowers are concentrated on the Big Four, they will logically have more complaints than the rest of the four smaller servicers. So in guild to make a (somehow) off-white comparison, we decided to list and rank the Large Four student loan servicers separately from the 4 smaller companies. You can so look at the number of complaints every bit a basis to see how each company performs. Nosotros included screenshots from the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database to brand information technology easier for you to come across a snapshot of the available data. Note: this screenshot is static. To become dynamic information based on your selection y'all will need to access the link in a higher place.

i. Keen Lakes Higher Pedagogy Corp.

Number of borrowers: viii million approx.

Number of complaints: 1,042

Number of complaints per 100,000 borrowers: 13

Being the second largest federal student loan servicer, it is actually surprising to annotation that Swell lakes just tallied 13 complaints per 100,000 borrowers. While Groovy Lakes is non a perfect company, their complaint record is notwithstanding much better than the other iii big student loan servicers. Some other interesting indicator to note is that in the first quarter of 2021, Neat Lakes still had zip complaints filed to the CFPB.

2. Nelnet, Inc.

Number of borrowers: vi.half dozen million approx.

Number of complaints: two,949

Number of complaints per 100,000 borrowers: 45

Out of the Big Four, Nelnet is the smallest with but 6.6 1000000 borrowers. Nelnet is short for National Education Loan network which was founded in 1978. Its headquarters are in Lincoln, Nebraska. Nelnet had a full of almost iii,000 complaints, which is almost iii times the number of complaints that Slap-up Lakes had. Nelnet also received 96 complaints already in the first quarter of 2021. Yet, despite this, it still has the 2d-lowest number of complaints per 100,000 users among the Big Four.

iii. AES/PHEAA (FedLoan Servicing)

Number of borrowers: 8.4 million approx.

Number of complaints: 7,366

Number of complaints per 100,000 borrowers: 87

More popularly known as FedLoan Servicing, AES is the largest federal student loan servicer in America with over 8.four million student borrowers. Being the largest, it is also one of the well-nigh complained about student loan servicers with a full of seven,366 complaints. In the first quarter of 2021, AES received 154 complaints already.

4. Navient Solutions, LLC.

Number of borrowers: seven 1000000 approx.

Number of complaints: xvi,097

Number of complaints per 100,000 borrowers: 230

Navient Solutions LLC services approximately 7 1000000 student loan borrowers, making it the 3^rd largest student loan servicer. Unfortunately for Navient, it is notorious for having the near complaints filed to CFPB. Navient logged 230 complaints for every 100,000 borrowers. If you lot compare that to Great Lakes' number of 13 per 100,000 borrowers, that's actually a bad number. In the first quarter of 2021, Navient already received an overwhelming 205 complaints.

Smaller Federal Educatee Loan Servicers in the United States Ranked

With most of the federal educatee loans serviced past the Big Four companies, the remaining are split up between the other smaller student loan servicers. There used to be five smaller companies until 1 company (Cornerstone) terminated its contract in 2020.

At present, there are 4 small federal educatee loan servicers that manage the remaining 10% of federal educatee loans. Every bit in that location is no available data on how many borrowers each servicer currently have, we volition rank them based on the number of complaints that they have received.

Number of complaints: 47

Oklahoma Student Loan Say-so or OSLA is one of the most sought-afterward student loan servicers for federal student loans. Since 2015, it has merely had 47 complaints filed to the CFPB. It also has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. The advantage of having a smaller student loan servicer is that because in that location are fewer borrowers, y'all are likely to become amend customer service.

2. Granite State Direction & Resources

Number of complaints: 69

Known but every bit Granite State or GSM&R, this is another small student loan servicer used past the Section of Education. The company was established in 1986 and serviced both federal and private student loans. Based on CFPB information, Granite State only received 69 complaints since 2015.

3. EdFinancial Services/ HESC

Number of complaints: 206

EdFinancial Services is a company founded in 1988 and is based in Knoxville. The CFPB data shows that it received 206 complaints, which is more than 4 times the number of complaints OSLA received. In the outset quarter of 2021, information technology already received half-dozen complaints.

4. MOHELA

Number of complaints: 378

MOHELA is short for Missouri Higher Instruction Loan Authority. The bad news for MOHELA is that information technology has the almost CFPB complaints at 378 of the 4 smaller student loan servicers. Simply like EdFinancial, MOHELA already received 6 complaints in the outset quarter of 2021.

Why Your Pupil Loan Servicer May Change In 2021

As explained in the earlier section, you are non allowed to choose your student loan servicer. Y'all have to stick with the servicer yous are assigned to unless you determine to become through debt consolidation. If y'all apply for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), y'all volition exist transferred to FedLoan Servicing which handles this process so you really take no choice but to exist switched to FedLoan. Another choice is to refinance your loan with a private lender, however, take annotation that you will lose federal benefits including loan forgiveness and income-driven repayment plans.

If you lot're frustrated with your current loan servicer but you're not really looking to consolidate your loan, in that location'south still hope. There is a huge possibility that you could go transferred to some other educatee loan servicer in the next 2 years.

According to a Forbes article, the Section of Teaching announced in June 2020 that it has signed new contracts with v pupil loans servicers that will all eventually back up federal student loan customers. While there will be 5 servicers, the goal of the Department of Education is to simplify the repayment process past using one platform for all borrowers.

These companies are:

EdFinancial Services LLC
F.H. Cann & Associates LLC
MAXIMUS Federal Services Inc.
MOHELA
Texas Guaranteed Educatee Loan Corporation (Trellis Company)

If you accept a student loan from Navient, Nifty Lakes, Nelnet, or FedLoan, you may non see any alter until the end of December 2021. While student loan borrowers whose servicers are Granite State, OSLA, MOHELA, or EdFinancial may not run into whatever modify until 2022.

Depending on your current pupil loan servicer, these upcoming changes could spell expert news for you or it could be bad news if yous're assigned to a low-performing servicer. The new platform, however, could potentially lessen problems faced by student loan borrowers.

How To Bargain With Your Pupil Loan Servicer

No pupil loan servicer is perfect. Even if you're assigned to the best servicer, you could notwithstanding face difficulties in the future. If you lot are not satisfied with their service, you tin file a complaint to the company or CFPB, switch servicers through consolidation, or consider private refinancing.

Earlier you make up one's mind on consolidation or refinancing, it is wise to wait until 2022 when the new servicers take over. You wouldn't want to become through the process of debt consolidation or giving up your federal benefits in refinancing if your servicer is going to change anyway without you having to practise anything.