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Student and Resident
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| RESIDENTS | |
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| Track Your Loans | |
| Grace | |
| Deferments | |
| Forbearance | |
| Repayment | |
| Consolidation | |
| Debt Mgmt Assistance | |
| Credit Questions | |
| Financial Planning | |
Long
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By now you probably have had an exit interview, have been in contact with your lender or billing servicer, and understand what your immediate obligations are. If not, contact your lender/servicer immediately! Even if you don't hear from them, it's your responsibility to tell them when your status changes (e.g. graduating from medical school). A sample notification letter for you to use is attached. If your lender/servicer does not respond, send a second letter. If you do not receive a response within four months after graduation, contact your guaranty agency or someone "higher up" at the institution, which granted the loan. Be sure to keep a copy of all your correspondence with the lender/servicer!
Your original lender can keep and service your loan throughout the entire repayment period or can sell it to another agency called a secondary market. Your lender or secondary market can perform the various loan collection activities or can contract with a billing servicer to issue monthly statements, process deferments, and report to credit agencies, etc.
If your Stafford/SLS Loans have been sold or transferred to a servicer, correspond directly with that servicer. A list of the major servicers and secondary markets is included in this packet. Sometimes a lender sells only a portion of your loans to a secondary market, or your loans might end up being serviced by two different agencies. If this occurs, you can ask that your loans be sold so that they are handled by the same agency. You need to contact the agency you want to retain all your paper, and ask that they purchase your other loans. Servicing agencies are not always able to do this, but will work with you to combine your loans under one roof if they can.
If you have both Federal Direct and Federal Stafford loans, you can ask that these loans be consolidated under the Direct Loan Consolidation program.