Get a Refund for your Paid Off Student Loan

If you paid off your federal student loans during the pandemic, then you might be eligible for a refund under the student loan forgiveness program! Once you know your annual income status and Pell Grant status, call up your loan servicer and ask them for a refund.

Click your loan servicer’s name below to go to their contact page with a full list of phone numbers, otherwise you can click on the phone number here from a mobile device to start the call.

• FedLoan Servicing: 1-800-699-2908 Monday through Friday 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM (ET).
• Great lakes Education Loan Services, Inc.: 1-800-236-4300
• EdFinancial: 1-855-337-6884
• MOHELA: 1-888-866-4352
• Aidvantage (formerly Navient, formerly Sallie Mae): 1-800-722-1300
• Nelnet: 1-888-486-4722
• OSLA Servicing: 1-866-264-9762
• ECSI: 1-866-313-3797
• Default Resolution Group: 1-800-621-3115 (TTY: 1-877-825-9923 for the deaf or hard of hearing)

I know the introverts would rather send an email, but I tried that and got no response until a month later. Time is of the essence! But don’t worry, I’ve written a script for you to say 🙂

“Hello, my name is <your first and last name as it’s written in your account> and I paid off my student loans during the pandemic. I heard I can get a refund for up to <insert your eligible $10k/20k amount here> and I’d like to get that process started please.”

Now the professional taking your call can’t give you guidance, they can’t tell you what you’re eligible for, so you have to be the one to know that number. This is what you can expect to happen:

1. They will look through your payment history and determine the number of transactions to refund that will get you closest to your eligible amount. For example, if you’re eligible for $10,000 and you’ve made payments that go back as far as $10,082.23, they’ll reopen your loan for that amount because they refund transactions. My loan servicer said this will take 1-2 weeks.
2. That paperwork will get started, and they’ll inform you to complete the application that opens in October.
3. Once the application is approved, your eligible amount will be “forgiven” i.e. the $10,000 from the example above.
4. The IRS will send you a check for the total amount you were refunded, i.e. the $10,082.23 from our example.
5. It will be your responsibility to pay back any remaining balances, such as the $82.23 from our example. Do so before January 1, 2023 to avoid more interest.

Sources

“Who’s My Student Loan Servicer?” Federal Student Aid, Office of the U.S. Department of Education.