If you are a student, graduate, or have needed financial aid for school expenses in the past, understanding where to find the student loans you have received can be a challenge.
The U.S. Department of Education helps solve this challenge by gathering all individualized present and past Title IV loan and grant data and placing the information into the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). The NSLDS pulls information from the Direct Loan Program, schools, Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program loans, the Common Origination and Disbursement System for grants, the Pell Grant program, and other Department of Education programs. Private student loan data, however, will not appear in the centralized system.
Once the NSLDS pulls your loan history and data, you should expect to see:
- The types of loans you have received, including any FFEL loans, Direct PLUS Loans, Direct Stafford Loans, Perkins Loans, and Direct Consolidated Loans (subsidized and unsubsidized).
- The number of loans you have received.
- The dates for loan disbursement, loan period (begin and end date), and loan repayment.
- The lender or loan servicer, the organization that currently holds the loan. Student loans can be the student’s school, a bank, the U.S. Department of Education, or other lending institutions.
- Your loan status, which indicates the loan service’s current arrangement for collecting the payment.
- Current and future enrollment for full-time, half-time, less than half-time, withdrawn, or graduated, as confirmed and certified by your school and the effective date.
- Canceled loan amount, the portion of a loan, other than Perkins, in dollars, that was canceled, either before or after disbursement.
- Outstanding interest balance, the dollar amount of the accrued interest balance on a loan.
- Outstanding principal balance, the current dollar amount that is owed on a loan.
- Federal Payment Plan information. The four different payment plans offered include Revised Pay as You Earn Repayment Plan (REPAYE Plan); Pay as You Earn Repayment Plan (PAYE Plan); Income-Based Repayment Plan (IBR Plan); and Income Contingent Repayment Plan (ICR Plan).
If you access NSLDS and any of the above information is inaccurate, you should contact the data provider to verify the information is up to date on their system as well as on NSLDS. Contact the federal loan servicer for Federal Direct Loans and contact the guaranty agency for Federal Family Education Loans. If you are unsuccessful in correcting your data, contact NSLDS at the following address:
Director, National Student Loan Data System, FSA
U.S. Department of Education, UCP,
830 First St NE
4th Floor
Washington, DC 20202-5454
With the information you need in one place, you can begin to plan a debt payment plan without all the confusion that comes with student loans. You can even download all of your information into a text version through MyStudentData Download on the NSLDS Student Access website, so you can always have it on hand.
If you have more questions about NSLDS, or how to sign up, check out the NSLDS benefits page. You can also visit the Education and Training category on Benefits.gov to browse related programs.
