Who Services My Student Loans? Federal and Private Lookup

To find out who services your student loans, log in to StudentAid.gov and open the “My Aid” section of your dashboard for federal loans, or pull your free credit report at AnnualCreditReport.com for private loans. Federal borrowers who can’t get into the portal can call the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-433-3243 and ask a representative to look it up. Both routes are free, and both work whether you’re current on payments, behind, or years removed from school.

Finding Your Federal Loan Servicer

The Department of Education assigns every federal student loan to one of a handful of servicers, and StudentAid.gov is the authoritative place to see which one has yours.1Federal Student Aid. Who’s My Student Loan Servicer? You’ll need your FSA ID to log in. If you don’t have one, you can create it at StudentAid.gov/fsa-id using your Social Security number, name, date of birth, and an email address or phone number.2Federal Student Aid. Creating and Using the FSA ID

Once you’re in, go to “My Aid.” That section lists every federal loan, grant, and subsidy tied to your account, and each loan entry shows the servicer assigned to it. The loan data that used to sit in the separate National Student Loan Data System now lives inside this portal, so you don’t need to check two places.1Federal Student Aid. Who’s My Student Loan Servicer?

Check every entry. Loans borrowed in different academic years, or of different types, may be split across more than one servicer.

As of late 2025, the Department of Education uses the following companies for federal student loans:1Federal Student Aid. Who’s My Student Loan Servicer?

  • Aidvantage: 1-800-722-1300
  • MOHELA: 1-888-866-4352
  • Nelnet: 1-888-486-4722
  • Edfinancial: 1-855-337-6884
  • ECSI: 1-866-313-3797
  • Central Research Inc. (CRI): 1-833-355-4311
  • Default Resolution Group: 1-800-621-3115 (loans already in default)

If the name on your dashboard doesn’t match anyone contacting you, trust the dashboard. That’s the record the Department of Education uses.

Finding Your Private Loan Servicer

Private student loans don’t show up on StudentAid.gov, so you have to reconstruct them from other records. The quickest path is your free credit report at AnnualCreditReport.com, the only federally authorized source for free reports.3Annual Credit Report.com. Getting Your Credit Reports Each open loan will appear with the name of the company currently collecting payments, because lenders report account information to the credit bureaus under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.4Federal Trade Commission. Fair Credit Reporting Act

If nothing on the report looks familiar, three other records can help:

  • The original promissory note you signed when you took out the loan.
  • Bank or credit union statements showing recurring payments to a lender or servicer.
  • The financial aid office at the school you attended, which keeps records of loan disbursements tied to your enrollment.

One boundary to keep in mind. Private student loans carry a state-law statute of limitations on collections, generally three to ten years, after which the lender loses the right to sue you for the debt.5Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Happens if I Default on a Private Student Loan? Federal loans have no such limit. Making a payment or acknowledging the debt in writing can restart that clock in some states, so be careful about how you respond if a collector surfaces on an old private loan.

What Your Servicer Handles Once You Reach Them

Your servicer is the company that manages the loan after it’s disbursed. It processes your payments, tracks your balance, applies each payment to interest and principal, and answers questions about your account. It’s also who you contact to change your repayment plan or request deferment or forbearance.

Servicers evaluate whether you qualify for income-driven repayment, which caps your monthly payment based on earnings and family size. If you enroll, you resubmit income documentation to the servicer every year to stay on the plan.6Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Are Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) Plans, and How Do I Qualify?7Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1098-E, Student Loan Interest Statement8Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 456, Student Loan Interest Deduction

Most federal servicers also offer a 0.25% interest rate reduction if you sign up for autopay, active as long as automatic payments keep going through.9MOHELA. Auto Pay Interest Rate Reduction

To set up online access, you’ll typically need your Social Security number, date of birth, and an email address.10Central Research Inc. (CRI). Create An Account Most servicers use multi-factor authentication, so keep your phone number and email current.

When Your Servicer Changes

The Department of Education periodically reassigns loan portfolios as contracts expire. When that happens, your current servicer sends notice at least two weeks before the transfer, and the Department sends its own separate notification.11Federal Student Aid. So Your Loan Was Transferred – Whats Next?12Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Did You Get a Notice That Your Student Loans Are Transferring to a New Servicer? For older FFEL-program loans, federal regulations require both the old and new servicer to notify you within 45 days of a transfer.13eCFR. 34 CFR Part 682 – Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program Your balance, interest rate, repayment plan, and loan terms all carry over unchanged.

Autopay does not carry over. You’ll need to create an account at the new servicer and set automatic payments up again. Until you do, manual payments are on you. To confirm any transfer notice is real, log in to StudentAid.gov and check whether the dashboard shows the new servicer. Scammers impersonate servicers during publicized transfers, and the portal is the cross-check.

What Happens if You Never Find Your Servicer

Borrowers who lose contact with their servicer tend to stop paying, and the consequences move fast. A federal loan is reported delinquent to the credit bureaus at 90 days past due.14Federal Student Aid / Central Research Inc. (CRI). Credit Reporting That mark stays on your report and drags your score down.

At 270 days, the loan goes into default.14Federal Student Aid / Central Research Inc. (CRI). Credit Reporting Default lets the government garnish up to 15% of your disposable pay without a court order, seize federal tax refunds, and withhold a portion of Social Security benefits.15Federal Student Aid. Collections on Defaulted Loans The remaining balance can also be accelerated, meaning the full amount becomes due immediately. Ten minutes on StudentAid.gov can head all of that off.

Avoiding Scams That Impersonate Servicers

Scammers target student loan borrowers most aggressively during policy changes and servicer transfers. The common scheme is charging fees for things your servicer already does free: changing plans, applying for consolidation, enrolling in forgiveness. The Department of Education and federal loan servicers never charge fees for help with your loans.16Federal Student Aid. Avoiding Student Aid Scams

Watch for these signals:

  • Upfront fees. Any company demanding payment before providing assistance is almost certainly a scam.
  • Requests for your FSA ID password. Your FSA ID carries the same legal weight as your written signature, and sharing it lets a third party make changes to your loans without your permission.16Federal Student Aid. Avoiding Student Aid Scams
  • Pressure to act immediately to “lock in” benefits. Real federal programs don’t work on that timeline.
  • Websites that don’t end in “.gov” asking for account information.

If a call or email claiming to be from your servicer feels off, hang up or close it and contact the servicer directly using the number on your StudentAid.gov dashboard. Never dial the number in the suspicious message itself.