You may have heard that Granite State Management is going to stop servicing federal student loans. If they service your loan, you’re probably wondering what that means for you.
We’ve got the information you’re looking for. Read on for the latest.
What does my loan servicer do?
Let’s start with the basics: When you take out a federal student the U.S. Dept. of Education assigns it to a company to handle the administrative aspects of the loan — that’s your loan servicer. They are not your lender. The loan servicer takes care of collecting and tracking your payments, assisting with deferment or forbearance plans, and determining if you’re eligible for a student loan forgiveness program.
While you should know about the company, chances are you won’t deal with them often.
What’s new?
Granite State is dropping its contract with the Dept. of Education to focus on other areas of its business, so the federal loans it’s been servicing are being transferred to another loan servicing company — in this case, EdFinancial. All the loans are scheduled to be transferred by Dec. 31, 2021.
Fortunately, there’s not much you need to do in response. Mail regarding your loan will now come from EdFinancial instead of Granite State. But your monthly payment, loan terms, etc. won’t change because of this. All the changes are administrative and will be virtually invisible to you.
If you haven’t heard from EdFinancial yet, you should contact the company to make sure it has the correct contact information for you. Even if you have been contacted, it’s worth double-checking that they have the most up-to-date phone number and email for you. Your federal loan servicer is one company you don’t want to miss a message from. It’s also a good idea to keep an eye on your payments. Errors are rare, but you’ll want to make sure that everything is received and logged properly during the transition period.
What about other loans through Granite State?
Some students may have taken out private student loans through Granite State’s EDvestinU service — they’re not impacted by this. For those loans, Granite State will remain your loan servicer. Only federal student loans are affected by this change.
Learn about your new loan servicer
Curious about your new federal loan servicer, EdFinancial? We’ve got everything you’d need to know, including contact information.