When it comes to servicing federal student loans, the loan servicer plays an important role in paying off the debt. Their service is available if you have any questions, if you need to change your payment plan and make payments. You can find out who your loan servicer is by looking up their information on the National Student Loan Data System site or by calling the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-433-3243.
If Great Lakes is your loan provider, here’s what you need to know. Thanks to the new government initiative Next Gen Business Process Operations, Great Lakes and its parent company Nelnet will no longer lend federal student loans after December 2020. If Great Lakes is the current loan servicer, the Department of Education will assign a new loan servicer. . .
What are Great Lakes Educational Loan Services?
Loan servicers are not creditors. For federal student loans, the Department of Education is your creditor. Your loan servicer is the company the Department of Education appoints to handle billing and customer service issues. You cannot choose your own loan servicer – one is selected for you after your loan is paid off.
Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, simply known as Great Lakes, is one of 10 companies currently licensed to make federal student loans. As one of the largest providers of student loans, Great Lakes work with more than 6,000 schools and millions of students across the country.
Are the Great Lakes federal or private?
Albeit Great Lakes offer confidential credit handling to different banks, it is principally known as a servicer of government credits. Incredible Lakes right now offer both Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) and Federal Direct Loan Program advances, including the accompanying sorts of credits.
How can the Great Lakes help you?
If you have Great Lakes as your loan servicer, you can contact their customer service department if you have any questions or concerns about the following topics:
- Student loan repayment: If you need to make a monthly payment, sign up for automatic payments, or make an additional payment on a student loan, you can do so online, through your mobile app, or by calling customer service.
- Alternative Payment Plans: If you are unable to pay your monthly payment, please contact Great Lakes immediately and explain your situation. Your loan servicer can help you apply for an income-based repayment plan, where your monthly payment is based on your income and family size. Depending on your situation, your payment may be significantly reduced. Some applicants even qualify for $0 monthly payments.
- Student loan consolidation: If you have multiple federal loans with different monthly payments and due dates, you can consolidate and simplify your payments with a federal direct consolidation loan.
- Delay and Forbearance: If you are experiencing financial hardship, such as sudden job loss or a medical emergency, please contact Great Lakes. You may be eligible for deferment or forbearance, and you may be able to temporarily defer your loan payments.
- Loan Forgiveness: If you work for a full-time nonprofit or government agency, tell Great Lakes and tell them you want to apply for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). As a PSLF candidate, Great Lakes will transfer its loans to FedLoanServicing, PSLF’s designated credit provider.
How to make payments for Great Lakes
Great Lakes student loans allow you to make payments in several different ways:
- Phone: You can make payments by phone at 1-800-236-4300.
- Mobile App: If you download the MyGreatLakes app (Apple App Store and Google Play), you can make payments from your smartphone.
- Mail: If you prefer to make payments by check, you can mail your payments to Great Lakes. However, the mailing address depends on where you live, so log in to your account to find out where to send the check.
- Online: You can pay your monthly bill online.
To make payments online, follow these simple steps:
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Create an account at MyGreatLakes.org
- To create an account, click ‘Sign Up’ at the top right of the screen at MyGreatLakes.org. Then enter your social security number and date of birth. The site will ask you to create a username, password, and PIN.
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Select your loan account
- Once your account is verified, you can select your loan account and schedule a payment. You can decide to make a one-time payment or set up automatic recurring payments. If you can, automatic payments are a good idea. When you sign up for the automatic payment, you will get a 0.25% discount on the interest rate of your direct loan.
- When it comes to student loan payments, there are rules that apply to all student loan servicers. All outstanding interest and charges, if any, must be pay first, before the servicer can make any payments to the principal.
- If you make additional payments, the excess will automatically be apply to interest that has accrue since the last payment. If money remains, it is apply to the principal of the loan with the highest interest rate. You prefer to have the excess apply to another loan, you can change your preferences online in your account.
