Navient Transfers Student Loan Portfolio: What Borrowers Should Know

On Jan. 30, Navient announced it had signed a binding letter of intent to outsource servicing of its remaining student loan portfolio — consisting of 2.7 million open accounts — to MOHELA in the second half of 2024.

Navient was one of the companies that serviced federal student loans by collecting and tracking payments. It stopped servicing federal direct student loans after Dec. 31, 2021. By that point, all federal loans in the Navient portfolio were transferred to another servicer called Aidvantage.

Since then, Navient has continued servicing FFEL Program loans issued by the government and owned by private lenders, and it serves as a private student loan lender.

If Navient is your current or former student loan servicer or private lender, here’s what you need to know about the switch to MOHELA.

» MORE: Navient private student loan cancellation

If you have FFELP or private student loans currently managed by Navient

Navient’s student loan portfolio is split between private student loans and commercially held loans from the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP). The company holds $38 billion worth of FFELP loans and $17 billion worth of private education loans, a Navient representative said. If the deal goes through, Navient will retain ownership of the entire portfolio, though MOHELA will manage it.

» MORE: What are FFELP student loans?

Navient will contact impacted borrowers in the coming months with updates about the planned transfer to MOHELA. Borrowers will be able to use the same phone number and mailing address — and their loan terms, interest rate, account number and repayment plan will stay the same, Navient said.

Prior to the transfer to MOHELA, Navient 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.

Borrowers with commercially managed FFELP loans, including those held by Navient, are also eligible to consolidate these loans into a federal direct loan. This process opens the door to federal student loan benefits, including income-driven repayment (IDR) plans and loan forgiveness programs. Once you consolidate, your FFELP loan will be transferred to a federal student loan servicer. Consolidate your Navient FFELP loans by Apr. 30, 2024 in order to get credit towards loan forgiveness under the one-time IDR account adjustment.

If you had federal student loans previously managed by Navient

If your federal loans were held by Navient prior to Dec. 31, 2021, they were most likely transferred to Aidvantange. You can confirm your current servicer by logging into your StudentAid.gov account. You can also get in touch with any of the loan servicer contact centers by calling 1-800-4-FED-AID.

Here's what your new federal student servicer can help you do:

• Register for online access to your account. Once you have access you can contact your servicer, see 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 for IDR online on StudentAid.gov 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 can 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.

You are likely to remain with Aidvantage 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 remaining federal student loan servicers and how to contact them.