National Student Loan Database — How to View Student Loans

You can view your federal student loans by logging into studentaid.gov with your Federal Student AidFederal Student Aid (FSA)The office within the U.S. Department of Education that manages federal grants, work-study, and student loans. It runs the FAFSA, the StudentAid.gov website, and oversees the federal loan servicers. ID. Previously, you could view your federal student loans using the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). But that changed in the past year. Now, the U.S. Department of EducationU.S. Department of Education (ED)The federal agency that oversees federal student aid programs, issues regulations for federal student loans, and is the ultimate lender on Direct Loans. merged the NSLDSNational Student Loan Data System (NSLDS)The U.S. Department of Education's central database of federal student loans and grants. It holds records of loan balances, disbursements, servicers, and enrollment history for federal aid recipients. into studentaid.gov, making it a one-stop-shop for all things dealing with your student loan debt.

After logging in with your FSA ID, you can not only view your student loan debt, but you can also:

• get the contact information for your student loan servicerLoan ServicerThe company that manages a borrower's federal student loan account, processes payments, and handles applications for repayment plans, deferment, forbearance, and forgiveness on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education.
• identify the type of loans you have
• check your interest rate
• see your loan balance
• review repayment plans
• apply for a consolidation loan

Basically, this website has all of your federal loan information.

How to find your private student loans?

Private student loans don’t have a central database like the federal government. Because of that, it’s a little harder to find your private student loans.

The best way I’ve learned to find private student loans you’ve borrowed is to order your 3 free credit reports from annualcreditreport.com.

Once you get your reports, go through each one and look for accounts labeled student loans. Compare that list against the loans listed on the NSLDS. Any student loan listed on your report and not on the database is a private student loanPrivate Student LoanA student loan issued by a bank, credit union, or other private lender rather than the federal government. Private loans generally lack federal protections like income-driven repayment and broad forgiveness programs..

Where Can I Find My Loan Information?

After logging into studentaid.gov, you should see a dashboard of your loan information.

If you don’t see your loans:

1. click on your name in the upper right-hand corner, then
2. click on dashboard

You should now see an overview of your federal loan information.

​Next, click “view details”.

The new screen will allow you to do two things:

1. download a detailed breakdown of all of your federal student loans and
2. view all of your federal student loans individually.

What to do after you find your loans

The file you download sucks. It’s a txt file that is incredibly difficult to read. It’s basically just line after line of student loan information.

The better way to view your student loans is to go through each loan one-by-one using the website.

• the loan program the loan was made under (Direct Loan, FFEL Loan, Perkins LoanPerkins LoanA low-interest federal student loan for borrowers with exceptional financial need, issued by schools under a now-discontinued program. New Perkins Loans have not been made since 2017, but many existing balances are still in repayment., PLUS Loans, subsidized/unsubsidized loan, etc.)
• the disbursement date
• the loan amount disbursed
• the current student loan balance
• the current student loan repayment plan (REPAYERevised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE)A former federal income-driven repayment plan that capped payments at 10% of discretionary income, with forgiveness after 20 or 25 years. REPAYE was replaced by the SAVE Plan in 2023., PAYEPay As You Earn (PAYE)A federal income-driven repayment plan that caps monthly payments at 10% of discretionary income and forgives remaining debt after 20 years. It is only available to borrowers who took out their first federal loans on or after October 1, 2007., IBRIncome-Based Repayment (IBR)A federal income-driven repayment plan that caps monthly payments at 10% or 15% of discretionary income, depending on when the loans were taken out. Remaining debt is forgiven after 20 or 25 years of qualifying payments., etc.)
• the student loan servicer for each loan
• whether any loans are in student loan defaultDefaultThe status of a federal student loan after the borrower has failed to make required payments for 270 days. Default can trigger collection actions such as wage garnishment, tax refund offset, and damage to credit reports.

Once complete, this spreadsheet provides me a single source of truth about my client’s student aid information.

The only thing I’m missing is my client’s history of student loan payments. To get those, I’ll contact the loan servicer.

What to do after you get your loan information?

After you get your loan information, what you do next depends on what you find.

Here’s what I mean.

Let’s say you’re a charter school teacher who wants Public Service Loan ForgivenessPublic Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)A federal program that forgives the remaining balance on Direct Loans after 120 qualifying monthly payments made while working full-time for a government or qualifying nonprofit employer.. You look at your loans and see you have FFEL Plus Loans from grad school and a Perkins Loans from undergrad. None of those loans qualify for the PSLF Program. That program only forgives loans made under the Direct LoanDirect LoanA federal student loan made directly by the U.S. Department of Education under the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program. Most federal student loans issued since 2010 are Direct Loans. program. To get your loans to qualify, you have to apply for loan consolidation. So consolidation would be your next step.

Or let’s say you find out that you have student loans in default. To get out of default, you have to first find out who has your student loans. They’ve either been sent to the Default Resolution Group or, if they’re an FFEL loan, they may have been sent to a guaranty agencyGuaranty AgencyA state or nonprofit agency that administers defaulted FFELP loans and acts on behalf of the federal government in collecting those debts. like Trellis.

Once you contact the company that has your loans, you’ll need to work with them to set up monthly payments to get your loans out of default under the loan rehabilitationRehabilitationA federal program for borrowers in default that requires nine voluntary, on-time monthly payments over ten months. After rehabilitation, the default is removed from credit reports and federal aid eligibility is restored. It is available once per loan. program. (You may also be able to consolidate.)

How to get your federal student loan promissory notePromissory NoteThe legal contract a borrower signs to receive a loan. It sets out the amount borrowed, the interest rate, repayment terms, and the borrower's obligations to the lender.

Sometimes you can use this central database to get your promissory note.

To see if your promissory notes or stored digitally on the site:

1. click your name (upper right-hand corner)
2. click documents

On the new screen, under “my documents” click “filter by” and select “Master Promissory NoteMaster Promissory Note (MPN)A single promissory note that can cover multiple federal student loans over up to ten years, so a borrower does not have to sign a new note for each disbursement.”.

Hopefully, you’ll find your note there. If not, you’ll have to request it from the Federal Student Aid Information Center.

Here’s the phone number for the FSA Info Center: 1-800-433-3243.

Learn More: How to Get a Copy of Student Loan Promissory Note

What happened to the NSLDS?

In early 2020, the Department of Education redirected the nslds.ed.gov website to studentaid.gov. Their goal was to create a central system for borrowers to manage their FAFSA interaction.

While I applaud the Department’s effort, I miss the old website. It was so much easier to use.

With the new system, all the information borrowers need to manage their loans is buried on various screens. The site can be really confusing even for student loan attorneys like me who use it daily.

How do I access my National Student Loan Data System? You can access the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) by logging in to the Federal Student Aid website, studentaid.gov. Federal student loan borrowers can also call the NSLDS at 1-800-433-3243.