"As of June 2023 - 400,000 Arkansans had some amount of student loan debt, according to numbers from the United States Department of Education. That's more than 10 percent of the state's population," KUAF reports.

..."Rachel Rotunda, director of government relations for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, recommends every borrower should start by getting in touch with their loan servicer.

'So if you if you have loans through the Department of Education, you will be assigned a loan servicer and this is really the entity through which you're actually going to be making your monthly student loan payments,' she said. 'They're there to walk you through what options might be available.'

A servicer is essentially a company who handles the repayment of your loan and Rotunda said the department of education should contact you before your payments begin - likely through email and snail-mail - about who that is. But, if they haven't, you can find all of the information about your servicer by logging into the federal student aid website: studentaid.gov.

'And then once a borrower has confirmed who their servicer is,' Rotunda said. 'You'll be able to find a lot more specific information on things like payment due date and different repayment plans that are available.'"

NASFAA's "Notable Headlines" section highlights media coverage of financial aid to help members stay up to date with the latest news. Articles included under the notable headlines section are not written by NASFAA, but rather by external sources. Inclusion in Today's News does not imply endorsement of the material or guarantee the accuracy of information presented.

Publication Date: 10/23/2023