What exactly is a student loan account number? And, more importantly, why do you need to know it?
Your student loan account number is a unique 10-digit number that is given to you by your student loan provider and is used for identifying your federal student loan.
Students can use their student loan account number to look up their payments and see how much of their balance is left. This number is also used to verify a student’s identity when they are using services offered by the loan provider, such as mobile banking or trying to obtain previous statements.
Some financial institutions and banks may ask you for your student loan account number before allowing you to borrow money or approve a new credit card. You’ll also need to know this number if you are considering refinancing those loans.
In addition, your student loan account number is used for tax purposes in order to verify that the student loan on a tax return is yours.
Students who have taken out private loans won’t have a federal student loan identification number. In that case, a student would need to contact the lender in order to get account information. This includes any private student loans that were originally federal ones but were refinanced into a private loan, since those balances would now show in government records as $0.00.
So, how do you find your student loan account number for federal loans?
Steps to Take
The easiest place to find your student loan account number is on the monthly student loan statements sent by your loan provider. You should be able to find it on the upper right or left corner near your name, or somewhere in that vicinity. You can also check your e-mail account if you’re receiving your statements by e-mail.
If you don’t have access to any of your monthly statements, you can log into the Federal Student Aid website using your FSA (Federal Student Aid) ID to see your loan details. This will allow you to see more information about your loan than just the student loan account number.
Don’t have an FSA ID? Not to worry.
More About the FSA ID
The FSA ID replaced the Federal Student PIN in 2015, so students who haven’t taken out new student loans or haven’t logged into the Federal Student Aid website since 2015 might not have an FSA ID yet.
Students who don’t have an FSA ID can create one on studentaid.ed.gov.. Once you sign up for an FSA ID, the federal government will verify your information with the Social Security Administration. Once your information is verified, you will be able to use your FSA ID to obtain information about your federal student loans.
The site, managed by the U.S. Department of Education, can provide a convenient way to get a full picture of all your federal loans, including:
- How many federal student loans you have
- Their loan types
- The original balance on each loan
- Current loan balances
- Interest rates on loans
- Whether any loans are in default
- Loan service provider’s names
- Contact information of the loan service providers
Identifying Lenders
It might surprise you to learn that federal student loans aren’t directly administered by the government. While the government is the lender, these loans are administered by a variety of loan servicers that take on administrative tasks such as sending bills to borrowers, creating repayment plans, and consolidating loans.
It’s important to know which institutions are overseeing your loans so you know where to make payments, which website to go to, who to call with questions, as well as who to reach out to if you need to discuss an alternative payment plan.
As mentioned above, for federal loans you can find information about what institutions are serving your loan when logged on to StudentAid.gov.
The U.S. Department of Education assigns loan to these companies:
- •CornerStone : 1-800-663-1662
- FedLoan Servicing (PHEAA): 1-800-699-2908
- Granite State—GSMR : 1-888-556-0022
- Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc. : 1-800-236-4300
- •HESC/Edfinancial : 1-855-337-6884
- MOHELA : 1-888-866-4352
- Navient : 1-800-722-1300
- Nelnet : 1-888-486-4722
- OSLA Servicing : 1-866-264-9762
Another way to confirm a loan servicer is to call the Federal Student Aid Information Center (FSAIC) at 1-800-433-3243.
As far as private student loans go, the lender is typically a bank or other financial institution. Contact information should be available on the bills and other information that is sent out.
If these documents have been misplaced, the private lender’s information can typically be found on credit reports. You can request one free credit report from each of the three reporting agencies annually— Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
Another way to track down your private student loan lenders is by contacting your college’s financial aid office.
Recommended: How to Find Out Who Your Student Loan Lender Is
Paying Back Student Loan Debt
With federal student loans, there are multiple payment plans available:
- Standard repayment plan: This is a ten-year repayment plan and students who choose this will typically pay less back, over time, than in other plans. This isn’t a good choice if the student is interested in obtaining Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).
- Graduated repayment plan: With this plan, payments increase every two years. This can help students who expect their income to increase, but they would pay more interest over time than if on the standard repayment plan.
- Extended repayment plan: Payments can be made during a period of up to 25 years. This can help with monthly payment amounts, but students will pay back more over the life of the loan than those who use the standard or graduated repayment plans.
- Income-based repayment plan (IBR): There are four different plans where student loan payments factor in the borrower’s income; this can be a good choice for those who plan to use PSLF, but borrowers will typically pay back more than under the standard plan.
PSLF is a forgiveness program that borrowers employed by a governmental or non-profit organization might qualify for. If a student has been denied for PSLF in the past, there is currently a Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to explore.
To pay off student loans more quickly, one option is to make an extra monthly payment or simply put extra money on loans each month. The goal is to put more money on the principal so that the balance goes down more quickly—which in turn will help to lower the interest owed over the life of the loan. It can make sense to contact the lender or loan servicer to ensure that the extra can go on the principal as planned.
Recommended: How Much Do I Owe in Student Loans?
Refinancing Student Loans – Pros and Cons
Another option to consider is to refinance your student loans. There are pros and cons to that strategy, with pros including the following:
- Loans can be combined into one single loan and payment, which can be easier to manage.
- Some private lenders, including SoFi, will consolidate federal and student loans and refinance them into one loan.
- Terms can be adjusted; a longer-term can help to lower the payment, while a shorter one can help to reduce the amount of interest paid back over the loan’s life.
- In addition, there may be choices between fixed-rate and adjustable-rate loans, and a cosigner with good credit and solid income may help the borrower get a better rate.
- Cons of refinancing include:
- Refinancing federal student loans with a private lender means that borrowers will lose access to benefits associated with federal student loans, including income-driven options and loan forgiveness programs.
- Other federal protections that will no longer apply include federal deferment or forbearance where payments may be temporarily paused.
- Most federal student loans have a grace period (often the first six months after graduation) during which you don’t have to make any loan payments. If you refinance your loan soon after graduation, you might lose out on that benefit if your private lender doesn’t honor existing grace periods.
The Takeaway
It’s important to know your student loan account number, which can be found on your federal loan statements or online.
This 10-digit number can be used to access loan information, use other lender services and apps, and help you devise a payment plan.
You may also need this number when applying for a credit card or other loan, and if you decide to refinance your student loan.
Learn More:
This article originally appeared on SoFi.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
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SoFi Student Loan Refinance
If you are looking to refinance federal student loans, please be aware that the White House has announced up to $20,000 of student loan forgiveness for Pell Grant recipients and $10,000 for qualifying borrowers whose student loans are federally held. Additionally, the federal student loan payment pause and interest holiday has been extended to December 31, 2022. Please carefully consider these changes before refinancing federally held loans with SoFi, since in doing so you will no longer qualify for the federal loan payment suspension, interest waiver, or any other current or future benefits applicable to federal loans. If you qualify for federal student loan forgiveness and still wish to refinance, leave up to $10,000 and $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients unrefinanced to receive your federal benefit. CLICK HERE for more information.
Notice: SoFi refinance loans are private loans and do not have the same repayment options that the federal loan program offers such as Income-Driven Repayment plans, including Income-Contingent Repayment or PAYE. SoFi always recommends that you consult a qualified financial advisor to discuss what is best for your unique situation.
More from MediaFeed:
What student loan borrowers want to know about Biden’s executive order
President Joe Biden ran his campaign on a platform that included strong student loan reform promises. After he was officially sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on Jan. 20, he signed an executive order that extended the pause on payment of federally held student loans for nine months.
This is an extension of the original COVID-19 legislation under the CARES Act and means that borrowers who have federally held student loans do not need to pay these loans until at least Sept. 30, 2021, and that interest will not accrue on these loans during the pause. This includes parents and guardians who hold Direct PLUS loans. This executive order does not apply to private education loans
Related: How Biden’s stimulus plan may affect the economy, stocks and interest rates
DO NOT USE
Though President Biden has said that he supports student loan cancellation as an extension of COVID-19 relief, his recent executive action did not involve debt forgiveness.
Some Democrats in Congress are urging the president to cancel student loan debt via executive order. But it’s expected that he will not bypass Congress that way. Instead, he has made it known that he favors cancelling up $10,000 in federal student loan debt through legislation.
One reason for taking the Congressional path: Some experts say that an executive order cancelling student loans would run into legal challenges. On the other hand, student loan reform has become a bipartisan issue in the last several years, so a student-debt cancellation measure put forth in Congress may have support on both sides of the aisle.
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Two figures for student loan forgiveness have been bandied about: $10,000 and $50,000. Certain Democrats in the House (including Maxine Waters of California, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Alma Adams of North Carolina) and the Senate (including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and now Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York) back the higher amount.
But President Biden endorsed $10,000 on the campaign trail, and more recently, his administration has repeated that amount when talking about student loan cancellation. The majority of Americans agree with him: 56% of adults polled by Morning Consult said they supported forgiving $10,000 in school debt while only 46% supported forgiving $50,000 (survey subjects could support both to explain why the two percentages don’t add up to 100).
Though forgiveness gets a lot of ink, Biden’s plan for student debt reform involves addressing more than current borrowers. It also seeks to help make college affordable to future generations. Here’s what students, past, present, and future — and their parents — may expect in the upcoming administration and beyond.
Ta Nu/ istockphoto
In addition to cancelling $10,000 of federal student loan debt, President Biden promised other student loan reform when he was on the campaign trail. Many of these promises would likely need to be brought before Congress and may face opposition.
Whether or not these campaign promises are enacted, student loan reform will likely be a continued topic of discussion and legislation for the next several years. Here are some highlights of Biden’s campaign proposals:
- Public colleges and universities would be free to those who make under $125,000 a year.
- Two years tuition-free at community colleges or accredited training programs.
- Eliminating loan payments and interest for people making under $25,000 a year.
- People making over $25,000 would pay 5% of discretionary after-tax income above $25,000 toward student loans. The debt would be forgiven after 20 years. Currently, Pay as You Earn (PAYE) and Revised Pay as You Earn (REPAYE) plans are set at 10% discretionary after-tax income. This plan would also be automatic opt-in, which is different than what it is today. Biden also proposes that forgiven loans would not be treated as taxable income. Today, any forgiven debt is treated as taxable income.
- Permitting student loan debt, including private student loan debt, to be discharged during bankruptcy.
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Right now, borrowers who have federally held student loans can still pay their loans and take advantage of 0% interest to pay down their loan principal. As noted earlier, payments aren’t due and interest won’t accrue through the end of September 2021.
Additionally, borrowers who are in default will not have their wages garnished during the pause. The Department of Education has also stopped the collection of defaulted loans from tax refunds and Social Security benefits.
If you are rehabilitating a defaulted loan, payments are not due during the pause.
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People who have federal student loans may apply for a Direct Consolidation Loan. With consolidation, your interest rate would be the weighted average of current loan interest rates rounded up to the nearest one-eighth of a percentage point.
Of course, during the recently extended payment pause and waiver of interest, your interest rate is zero. So consolidating now will not affect your interest rate until the payment suspension ends.
So why consolidate? One advantage of a Direct Consolidation Loan is that it can make federal loans easier to manage as the borrower will have a single loan with one payment. Also, consolidating is one way to get out of default (if you missed payments before the pandemic-related payment freeze).
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Borrowers may consider refinancing their student loans to take advantage of a low-interest rate environment and potentially save money over the life of their loan.
Since refinancing involves taking out a new private loan, it may make sense for people who have private student loans. The federal payment holiday does not apply to them – and their original private loan did not have special benefits such as federal forbearance options and income-driven repayment plans.
On the other hand, people with federally held student loans do not have to make payments until at least the beginning of October 2021 under the new action. Refinancing comes with the loss of certain federal benefits.
Plus, there is the possibility of having some of their loan forgiven, should Congress approve the legislation. (That said, it is not clear if forgiveness would apply to private loans, too.)
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If you are graduating this year, you will have a grace period (typically six months) before payments are due. Since the payment holiday is set to expire at the end of September 2021, it will not affect you unless President Biden extends it again.
As far as forgiveness goes, stay tuned! If legislation does pass, it is not known yet whether it will apply to all federal loans or to private loans, too. It’s also not known if it will be limited to undergraduate school debt or possibly cover graduate school debt for certain public sector workers.
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As students plan for college, they may wonder how the Biden administration’s plans for student loans affect them. The answer: It’s too soon to tell.
Student loans now account for more than 40% of outstanding consumer debt in America, with student loan debt doubling in the past decade. Student loan debt is not just a personal issue that affects individuals, the impact of student loan debt has become a national issue that affects the country’s economy.
As you’re considering student loans to pay for school, it’s a good idea to inform yourself as much as possible. Speak with your school’s financial aid office, understand the terms and conditions of any loans you take on, and have an idea of what repayment might look like in the future.
It may be helpful to understand federal loan forgiveness programs as they exist now, such as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF), which provides loan forgiveness for people who work in qualifying public service jobs and meet additional criteria.
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Student loan reform, coupled with the pressures the COVID-19 crisis put on educational institutions, may mean that undergraduate education looks different in the future. But it’s impossible to know what that new higher education world may look like.
Depending on how far away their children are from going to college, some parents may continue with their current savings plan–or they may want to consider diversifying their savings vehicles.
For example, while a 529 savings plan is a tax-advantaged way to save for higher education, it specifies the educational expenses that the savings can cover (without incurring a penalty). On the other hand, a retail investing account or a Uniform Gifts to Minors Act (UGMA) or Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA) account does not have such tax benefits, nor limitations.
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School debt reform is on the horizon, though what shape it will take is far from clear – as is when it would materialize. So far, President Biden has signaled that he’d prefer any reform to be bipartisan and done through legislation. When it comes to student loans, he used his executive powers on his first day in office only to extend the payment and interest holiday through the end of September 2021.
Staying on top of the news can help current and future student loan borrowers make the right choices for them. For graduates, informing themselves about refinancing student loan options can help, too.
Learn more:
This article
originally appeared on SoFi.com and was
syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO REFINANCE FEDERAL STUDENT LOANS PLEASE BE AWARE OF RECENT LEGISLATIVE CHANGES THAT HAVE SUSPENDED ALL FEDERAL STUDENT LOAN PAYMENTS AND WAIVED INTEREST CHARGES ON FEDERALLY HELD LOANS UNTIL THE END OF SEPTEMBER DUE TO COVID-19. PLEASE CAREFULLY CONSIDER THESE CHANGES BEFORE REFINANCING FEDERALLY HELD LOANS WITH SOFI, SINCE IN DOING SO YOU WILL NO LONGER QUALIFY FOR THE FEDERAL LOAN PAYMENT SUSPENSION, INTEREST WAIVER, OR ANY OTHER CURRENT OR FUTURE BENEFITS APPLICABLE TO FEDERAL LOANS. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION.
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IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO REFINANCE FEDERAL STUDENT LOANS PLEASE BE AWARE OF RECENT LEGISLATIVE CHANGES THAT HAVE SUSPENDED ALL FEDERAL STUDENT LOAN PAYMENTS AND WAIVED INTEREST CHARGES ON FEDERALLY HELD LOANS UNTIL THE END OF DECEMBER DUE TO COVID-19. PLEASE CAREFULLY CONSIDER THESE CHANGES BEFORE REFINANCING FEDERALLY HELD LOANS WITH SOFI, SINCE IN DOING SO YOU WILL NO LONGER QUALIFY FOR THE FEDERAL LOAN PAYMENT SUSPENSION, INTEREST WAIVER, OR ANY OTHER CURRENT OR FUTURE BENEFITS APPLICABLE TO FEDERAL LOANS. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION. Notice: SoFi refinance loans are private loans and do not have the same repayment options that the federal loan program offers such as Income-Driven Repayment plans, including Income-Contingent Repayment or PAYE. SoFi always recommends that you consult a qualified financial advisor to discuss what is best for your unique situation.
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