Who owns my student loans?

It’s nearly impossible to stay on top of your debt if you don’t know who owns your student loans.

Knowing your loan balance, monthly payments, and repayment options is essential if you want to pay off loans faster, need to reduce payments, or temporarily stop making them.

Here’s how to find out who your student loans belong to, so you’re prepared for what’s next.

The federal government or a commercial entity owns your student loans.

Private companies hold all private loans. The Department of Education holds most federal loans.

The Ministry of Education and private institutions partner with third parties called loan officers. Loan servicers manage your student loans by processing billing statements, payment requests, and other administrative tasks. If you have questions about your account, they’re the ones you call.

Loan servicers can change often, so keep your contact information up to date to stay up to date on who is handling your loan.

To determine who owns and manages your student loans:

Contact your school. Your college or university’s financial aid office can give you details about who owns your loan. Additionally, you may find that the the school holds your loan.

Pull your credit report. There is no central database for private student loans. Instead, credit reports from TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax contain the latest information about your loan officers, including contact information.

Once you know who owns your student loans, there are a few steps you can take to stay on top of your loan terms and repayment plan:

• Make sure your contact information is up to date.

• Discuss repayment options with your loan manager.

• Ask what additional programs are available to you.

Many federal loan programs offer benefits such as income-contingent repayment and civil service loan forgiveness that you’ll want to discuss with your loan officer.

The federal Perkins loan and Federal Family Education Loans Program or FFELP are excluded from many federal relief programs. Although these are federal loans, they are held by private companies.

If you have an FFELP or Perkins loan, consider consolidate turn them into a direct federal loan to benefit from certain federal relief programs.