Ranked: The Best Federal Student Loan Servicers Today

Unfortunately, when it comes to federal student loan servicers, you can’t “have it your way.” The U.S. Department of Education chooses your student loan servicer when you first take out your federal student loan.

Usually, close to 90% of all federal loans are assigned to one of the “Big Four” student loan servicers. But now that Navient is no longer a federal loan servicer and FedLoan is history, there's a new “Big Four.”

You probably have one of the Big Four loan servicers, which are now EdFinancial, MOHELA, Aidvantage or Nelnet.

When talking to your servicer, you can also use our downloadable SAVE Plan spreadsheet in case you need to fight back against them telling you incorrect info.

To select one of these servicers as the “best student loan servicer” is relative since most borrowers do not like their servicer. That said, here’s the “best of the worst” based on our January 2024 Student Loan Planner Reader Survey.

Best federal student loan servicers — Ranked worst to best

Below are federal loan servicers ranked from worst to least-worst, if we're being honest.

When we analyzed our January 2024 survey results, we looked at a common market research metric, the Net Promoter Score (NPS), as one way of looking at borrower satisfaction. We found that all of the current federal loan servicers had a similar NPS score, meaning one isn't really outshining the others.

Borrowers have complaints with all loan servicers, which is even more apparent when you consider the NPS scores of other financial institutions. For reference, the “Big 4” had NPS scores ranging from -44 to -39. In comparison, Chase has a score of -1 and USAA has a score of 75. Historically, loan servicers have been terrible at their jobs, and our survey results show that much hasn't changed in that regard.

We're going to focus on the “Big 4”, but we should note there's an additional loan servicer — ECSI — on the list of current servicers located on the Federal Student Aid (FSA) website. They primarily handle “weird” federal loans, such as those through the Department of Health and Human Services and Perkins Loans. But they aren't responsible for handling a large share of borrower accounts.

4. MOHELA

The Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri (MOHELA) is the first nonprofit federal student loan servicer to make it onto our list, narrowly squeaking ahead of Nelnet. Here’s why.

The more complexity a servicer is asked to deal with, the more likely they are to mess up. MOHELA manages the PSLF program now, and it's not doing a very good job of it.

Additionally, MOHELA has had some major processing issues that have impacted borrowers on a large scale. For example, they asked borrowers to recertify income early, going against the Department of Education's guidance. Plus, borrowers continue to receive conflicting information about repayment options and general questions depending on who they speak with.

“It’s very hard to get someone on the phone and hard to trust they are telling you the right thing because the next time you call, they will tell you something different.”

MOHELA customer

If MOHELA is your student loan servicer, you may want to check out our breakdown of the biggest headaches MOHELA customers deal with.

3. EdFinancial

The Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC) — also known as EdFinancial Services — is next line for being one of the worst servicers among our surveyed readers.

We received some strong opinions when asked about borrowers' experiences with EdFinancial.

“There is no follow thru, no competent people to answer questions, incorrect changes made on my account and service takes forever. Currently waiting 3 months for an over-payment made on a loan to be with another loan because the amount was applied to the wrong loan.”

EdFinancial Customer

EdFinancial services fewer loans than the first three companies on our list, roughly half the amount of MOHELA and Aidvantage and less than a third of what Nelnet manages.

2. Aidvantage

Aidvantage (Navient's replacement) began servicing loans in December 2021. However, it's a subsidiary of Maximus Education, which manages defaulted student loans — and doesn't do a great job of it. So, the bar isn't set very high.

But so far, our readers main feedback revolves around its website and customer service issues. Or they just don't have a lot to say about the loan servicer in general because Aidvantage hasn't really been put to the test since monthly payments have been paused.

“I don't have a lot of complaints. The main one, though, is that the emails I receive back are often riddled with grammatical errors and don't always directly address the issue I ask about. Besides that, when I have called, I have gotten clear answers, and my emails are responded to within a reasonable amount of time (within a week).”

Aidvantage Customer

1. Nelnet

Although it has had its own fair share of complaints, Nelnet customers tend to be much happier on the whole. Nelnet merged with Great Lakes in 2022. In our prior ratings, Great Lakes was the top servicer. Hence, we would expect continued improvement.

“Nelnet makes things much clearer than my wife’s servicer, which took an hour to figure out what repayment plan she was enrolled in.”

Nelnet customer

But Nelnet didn't receive a significantly higher reader rating than other “Big 4” servicers. Borrowers experience similar customer service and poor communication issues across the board with all loan servicers.

Former servicers

Here's a list of former servicers we've rated in the past as well as some common historical complaints about them.

FedLoan Servicing (PHEAA)

FedLoan Servicing supported various borrowers during student loan repayment, including those who were under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF). However, MOHELA took over most of FedLoan's accounts.

Related: What to Do If Your Federal Loan Servicer Changes

Student Loan Planner® has written a great deal about issues borrowers have with FedLoan, including an article that addressed complaints from readers who were being wrongly kicked off Income-Based Repayment (IBR).

OSLA

The Oklahoma Student Loan Authority (OSLA) is a servicer that has been around since the 1970s. They never were a big factor in the student loan servicing market and decided to get out altogether.

Great Lakes

When Great Lakes was a federal loan servicer, it had over 6 million student loan accounts. In previous Student Loan Planner® reader surveys, respondents had good things to say about Great Lakes to balance out the negative feedback. Unfortunately, it no longer exists, as it got absorbed by Nelnet.

What can you do if your servicer is among the worst of the worst?

If you’ve been assigned one of the most hated federal loan servicers, you may be wondering if you can switch to one of the better servicing companies.

Unfortunately, the short answer is no. The federal government doesn't let borrowers switch student loan servicers. There are only two ways that you can choose a new servicer from the one you’ve been assigned:

Direct Consolidation Loan

The first way is to consolidate your federal student loans through a Direct Loan consolidation. In this situation, the Federal Student Aid office will allow you to choose who you’d like for your new loan servicer from a list.

Student loan refinance

The other option is to refinance your federal student loan debt. With student loan refinancing, you can choose whichever private student loan lender you want. You’d hopefully be able to cut your interest rate and student loan payments as well.

However, refinancing federal student loans can be a dangerous move. You’ll lose all eligibility for federal benefits, such as income-driven repayment plans and the ability to pursue PSLF or other student loan forgiveness programs. You may also miss out on deferment and forbearance options. If interested in refinancing, checking your credit report and score can help you see if you're in good shape to qualify.

To get a full list of current student loan servicers and contact information, such as phone numbers, you can check out StudentAid.gov.

To find out if a student loan refinance with a private lender would be right for your situation or if you need help tackling a large loan amount, consider having a discussion with one of Student Loan Planner®’s consultants.