Last fall, I started to receive emails that Navient, my loan servicer for years, would be transferring my federal student loans to another loan servicer called Aidvantage. I kept tabs on this new development, and in early December, the transfer was finalized.
I checked my loan balance on Aidvantage’s website for the first time on Christmas Day 2021. (This was meant to be a January 2022 post, but it’s still relevant!) I assumed my entire Navient balance of $75K would be transferred to Aidvantage. However, I noticed that my total loan balance was $51K!
Wait, did they just wipe out $24K of student loan debt? Was this my Christmas Day miracle?!
Believe me, I would LOVE to tell you that it was! To see my balance drop that dramatically caused my heart to race in disbelief and excitement. But after a few minutes of staring at the screen, reality slowly creeped in, and I reasoned that it had to be a mistake, or perhaps a data transfer lag. However, after checking the website a few days later, nothing had changed. Aidvantage only showed my consolidated loans of $51K, which were eligible for the student loan pause. It did not include my $24K consolidated loan, which was not eligible for the student loan pause. (This should have been my big clue!)
Before calling Aidvantage, I took a second look at Navient's information page and found the answer:
Only ED-owned (U.S. Department of Education) FFELP and/or Direct loans were reassigned to Aidvantage. Therefore, my $51K consolidated loans were ED-owned.
My $24K non-ED consolidated loan, which was a federal loan owned by private lender, would remain with Navient.
What did this all mean? Going forward, I would need to make payments to two loan servicers—Aidvantage (ED-owned loans) and Navient (non-ED loans).
Experience with new loan servicer
Even though I've read a few negative reports about Aidvantage's service, I have not experienced any issues over the last few months. I also noticed that Aidvantage's website mirrors Navient's, so navigating the new site was not challenging.
Takeaway Message: If you have a new loan servicer - and there have been several in the last year! - please check your account to ensure your loans were correctly transferred. Just don’t count on any balance reduction miracles!
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