Defaulting

Defaulting on student loans is a serious matter and should be addressed as soon as possible. DO NOT be afraid to contact your lender or collection company; they are there to assist you in finding the best way to pay off your student loan, regain your financial aid eligibility and straighten out your credit record. In order to regain eligibility for financial aid and get back on track with credit bureaus, some important options are available:

• Pay the defaulted loan in full.
• Rehabilitation of the defaulted loan, meaning students can agree with their loan servicers on an affordable repayment plan, which would allow repayments to occur over 9-12 consecutive months. Once the 9-12 payments are made, default information will be removed from the student's credit records.
• Some loan servicer(s) allow consolidation of defaulted loans, though some consolidation lenders will require students to make satisfactory repayments on their loans for a specific period of time before consolidation can be considered.

Important Note:

Federal Direct Loans (also called Direct Stafford Loans) are funds which must be repaid to the United States Department of Education. Unlike private loans, student loans cannot be forgiven and places the borrowers in debt until the balance of the loan is fully repaid. Columbia College highly recommends that students only request loans as a last resort, as defaulting on a student loan can lead to serious consequences for the borrower in the future. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to the Columbia College Financial Aid Department.

For more information on federal loans, please visit the Federal Student Aid website or the Student Loan web page.

What is a Loan Servicer

A Loan Servicer is the company that is assigned to collect payments on a loan, respond to student questions and inquiries, and perform other administrative task needed to maintain loans.

Student Loan Servicers send out monthly billing statements.  It is extremely important to be in contact with your Servicer/s.

Who is My Servicer

If you are not sure who your Servicer is you can always get that information from www.nslds.ed.gov.  Log in using your FSA ID and get the name and number of your Servicer.

List of servicer:

 

Servicer	Contact
Cornerstone	1-800-663-1662
ESA/ED Financial	1-855-337-6884
FedLoan Servicing (PHEAA)	1-800-699-2908
Great Lakes Educational Loan Services	1-800-236-4300
MOHELA	1-888-866-4352
Nelnet	1-888-486-4722
Navient (formally Sallie Mae)	1-800-722-1300