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You're our top priority.
We want you to be able to make decisions about your student loans with confidence. We offer objective, independent, straightforward guidance on student loans and refinancing lenders. While our site doesn't answer every question or have every lender, we are proud to provide the information and tools you need — free of charge — to make the best decisions for yourself. So how do we make money? We get paid in two ways. First, you can hire us to develop a student loan strategy for you and implement that strategy on your behalf. Second, our partners compensate us. This may influence which refinancing lenders we write about, but it doesn't affect our recommendations or advice. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services.MOHELA services federal and private student loans for the Education Department and other lenders like SoFi and Laurel Road. Find what type of loans you have and options to lower payments and forgive the balance by checking your online account.
MOHELA is a nonprofit company hired by the U.S. Department of Education to manage the accounts of federal student loan borrowers. It also services private student loans for SoFi and other lenders.
Ahead, learn repayment and forgiveness options for MOHELA student loans.
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Advertiser Disclosure
You're our top priority.
We want you to be able to make decisions about your student loans with confidence. We offer objective, independent, straightforward guidance on student loans and refinancing lenders. While our site doesn't answer every question or have every lender, we are proud to provide the information and tools you need — free of charge — to make the best decisions for yourself. So how do we make money? We get paid in two ways. First, you can hire us to develop a student loan strategy for you and implement that strategy on your behalf. Second, our partners compensate us. This may influence which refinancing lenders we write about, but it doesn't affect our recommendations or advice. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services.What is MOHELA student loans?
MOHELA, short for the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, is a nonprofit company created by state lawmakers to collect payments for federal and private student loans. It is one of five federal student loan servicers the Education Department hired to manage its loan portfolio.
The company’s responsibilities also include:
Helping you enroll in repayment plans.
Postponing payments with deferments and forbearances.
Tracking your progress towards income-driven repayment plan forgiveness.
MOHELA services Direct Loans, PLUS Loans, Stafford Loans, and Federal Family Education Loans (FFELP) owned by the Education Department. It also services CASHLoans and refinanced student loans for SoFi and Laurel Road for private lenders.
What MOHELA can help you do:
Review eligibility for loan forgiveness. Federal student loan borrowers have several opportunities to rid themselves of their debt, including the student loan forgiveness after 20 years. In 2022, MOHELA became the designated servicer for borrowers enrolling in Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, according to a department update. Borrowers with FFEL Loans consolidating into a Direct Consolidation Loan to pursue PSLF should consider choosing MOHELA as the servicer to minimize disruption.
Accept monthly payments. As your income changes, you can quickly switch repayment plans to pay off student loans or get a lower payment with an income-driven repayment plan.
Process account changes. If you need to stop making payments and IDR doesn’t help, MOHELA can apply a deferment or forbearance to your account. Interest will continue to build in most cases. After a deferment, unpaid interest is added to your principal through interest capitalization; after a forbearance, most loan types no longer capitalize it and you repay the accrued interest through your normal payments. But the brief pause will help keep you out of default and in good standing.
Enroll in autopay. Allowing MOHELA to deduct student loan payments from your bank account with auto-debit makes sure you avoid late payments. It also cuts your interest rate, and for borrowers enrolled in time, that cut is temporarily four times its usual size. The Department of Education raised the auto-debit reduction from 0.25% to a full 1% on July 1, 2026, for Direct Loans originated after July 1, 2012, and it runs through June 30, 2028. If you were already on auto-debit, MOHELA applied the increase for you. If you weren’t, the Department extended the enrollment deadline to December 31, 2026.
Register for online access. Setting up an online account lets you access your 10-digit account number and billing statements, make payments, and upload documents to modify your loan status.
Related: Do USPS Employees Qualify for PSLF?
MOHELA Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
MOHELA loans owned by the Education Department are eligible for the following student loan forgiveness programs:
Income-driven repayment forgiveness: extends your repayment term to 20, 25, or 30 years, depending on the plan, and forgives the remaining loan balance after your last payment.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness: clears the balance owed on Direct Loans if you work full-time for a government or nonprofit entity and make 120 qualifying payments. If you have FFELP Loans, you will need to consolidate your loans to qualify for PSLF.
Teacher Loan Forgiveness: allows teachers working in Title I schools to eliminate up to $18,500 of federal student loan debt after five years.
Total and Permanent Disability Discharge: cancels your entire student loan debt if a medical doctor, or the SSA, VA determine that medical issues prevent you from working.
Closed School Discharge: wipes out the balances for student loan borrowers who attended a school that closed while they were in attendance or shortly after they left.
Cosigner release. While technically not a forgiveness option, MOHELA lets cosigners off the hook for private student loans in some situations. The primary borrower can apply for a MOHELA SoFi cosigner release after making 24 consecutive on-time full principal and interest payments. CASHLoans have similar release requirements.
MOHELA offers a handful of private student loan forgiveness options for SoFI and Laurel Road accounts.
Learn More: Are Student Loans Forgiven After 20 Years?
How to find MOHELA account information?
You can find your MOHELA student loan account number and interest rate on your billing statement and online at mohela.com. You’ll need to provide your Social Security number, full legal name, and birth date to create an online account. You’ll then have to choose a username and password.
MOHELA tax information is available for borrowers who paid $600 or more in student loan interest. It will mail you a 1098E on January 31st by US Postal Service. You can find the document on your online account by choosing “Tax Documents” under “My Account”.
Learn More: Are 529 Contributions Tax Deductible?
Are my loans stuck with MOHELA?
The Education Department moves loans from one servicer to another from time to time based on contracts and performance. Following announcements from FedLoan and Navient that the companies were calling it quits on federal student loan servicing, the department overhauled its servicing platform. The departures moved more than 15 million borrowers to new servicers — a process that didn’t always go smoothly. More recently, the Department has moved some MOHELA accounts to CRI (Central Research, Inc.), a servicer it added in 2023.
Here are two things you can do to minimize errors with your account:
Download your payment history from your online account or ask your servicer to mail you a copy.
Update your contact information with your most recent address, phone number, and email address.
You’ll be notified before your loans are moved to or from MOHELA. Despite the changes, your student loan repayment options and forgiveness will remain the same with the new servicer. But the quality of customer service may be different.
If you’re dissatisfied with MOHELA’s performance, you can move your loans to a new servicer by consolidating at studentaid.gov.
Federal student loan servicers:
Aidvantage (took over for Navient)
Nelnet
American Education Services services Federal Family Education Loans only.
Default Resolution Group only handles federal students loans in default.
Learn More: How to Legally Remove Student Loans From Credit Report
How to contact MOHELA customer service
MOHELA customer service representatives are available Monday-Thursday, 7 am-9 pm CST, and Friday 7 am-5 pm CST. Here’s the contact information for MOHELA:
MOHELA contact number: 1-888-866-4352.
MOHELA address for loan payments: All payment addresses depend on your location. Login to your MOHELA account or call for the correct address.
MOHELA address for general correspondence: MOHELA, 633 Spirit Drive, Chesterfield, MO 63005-1243
MOHELA website: mohela.com.
MOHELA social channels: MOHELA Facebook & MOHELA Twitter.
How to file a complaint about MOHELA
How to report issues with MOHELA:
Federal Student Aid Ombudsman: 800-433-3243 or by mail at U.S. Department of Education, FSA Ombudsman Group, P.O. Box 1843, Monticello, KY 42633
FSA Feedback Center: You can submit a complaint to the Feedback Center after you’ve worked with the Ombudsman group. If you are wondering whether litigation is doing this work for you, see MOHELA lawsuits in 2026.
State consumer protection office: You can file a complaint with your state’s consumer protection division. That office is responsible for making sure you’re protected from fraud, deception, misrepresentations, and false promises.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: If all else fails, you can also submit a complaint to the CFPB. They are a third-party government agency that helps consumers solve issues with financial products, including student loans.
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