CornerStone No Longer Servicing Federal Student Loans

CornerStone was one of the companies that serviced federal student loans by collecting and tracking payments. It was overseen by the Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority, or UHEAA, a state government agency. In October 2020, it announced it would no longer be servicing federal student loans and all loans in its portfolio were transferred to FedLoan Servicing. However, in December 2022, FedLoan Servicing's contract also expired, and it transferred the loan portfolio to MOHELA.

Your student loan servicer can help you:

• Register for online access to your account. Once you have access you can contact your servicer, access your monthly billing statements and pay bills.

• Enroll in autopay. Your servicer can deduct your payments automatically from your bank account. Signing up for autopay will reduce your interest by 0.25 percentage point.

• Sign up for income-driven repayment. You can request income-driven repayment, which limits your student loan payments to a percentage of your income, by completing a paper form with your servicer. (You can apply online on studentaid.gov and then recertify your income each year online as well.)

• Process deferment and forbearance requests. Your servicer can help you temporarily stop making payments or reduce your payment amount if you qualify. This helps you stay in good standing to avoid default. But during any periods of deferment or forbearance, interest will continue to build.

• Process monthly payments and extra payments. Your servicer will track and collect your payments. If you want to make additional payments, you can instruct your servicer (online, by phone or by mail) to apply extra payments to your current balance. Otherwise, it may apply the additional amount to next month’s payment instead.

» MORE: Federal student loan servicers: Who are they and what do they do?

Your loan servicer is assigned by the U.S. Department of Education when your loan is disbursed to your college for the first time. The name of the company sending you a federal loan bill every month is your servicer. If your loan payments haven’t begun or you’re not sure which company is your servicer, log in to My Federal Student Aid to find out. You can also get in touch with any of the loan servicer contact centers by calling 1-800-4-FED-AID.

Servicers are there to help you, but they may offer choices that are best for the company, not the borrower. That means they can’t change how payments are processed and may not suggest the most beneficial repayment option for you. It’s most important to know your repayment options so you can know the right questions to ask.

Am I stuck with my servicer until my loans are paid off?

Loans are sometimes transferred from one servicer to another by the Department of Education.

Prior to servicing contracts ending, borrowers should do the following:

• Download and save your payment history from your online account or request a copy from your servicer.

• Update your contact information with your most recent address, phone number and email address.

You’ll be notified when a loan servicing transfer happens, and you’ll manage payments with the new servicer. All servicers deliver the same options and programs, but customer service may differ from one to another.

Otherwise, you are likely to remain with your servicer unless you act to switch servicers. Use this tool to find out what might work for you.

The federal student loan servicers

Learn more about each of the federal loan servicers, including what they can do and how to contact.