MOHELA Customer Service: Overview and How to Contact

MOHELA, or the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, services both federal student loans for the U.S. Department of Education and private student loans. Based in St. Louis, Missouri, the U.S. Department of Education chose MOHELA as the student loan servicer for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

Here’s what you should know about MOHELA to maximize your customer service experience, if MOHELA is your student loan servicer. In this guide, we will discuss:

• What is a student loan servicer?
• MOHELA student loan repayment options
• How to make student loan payments to MOHELA
• MOHELA deferment and forbearance
• How to contact MOHELA customer service
• How to file a complaint against MOHELA

What is a student loan servicer?

A student loan servicer collects and manages your student loan payments. If you have federal student loans, the U.S. Department of Education assigns you a student loan servicer when your student loan is disbursed to your college or graduate school.

A student loan servicer may be different than your lender. You borrow a student loan from your lender, but you make payments to your student loan servicer.

Student loan servicers can help you with student loan payments, but they are not necessarily acting as your financial advisor. Therefore, it’s important to understand all your repayment options because your student loan servicer may be acting in its own best interest rather than in yours.

MOHELA student loan repayment options

MOHELA offers several student loan repayment options:

Standard Repayment Plan: A standard repayment plan lasts up to 10 years. If you consolidate your federal student loans, you can repay for up to 30 years. The payments are fixed amounts with a minimum of $50 per month.

Extended Repayment Plan: An extended repayment plan gives you up to 25 years to repay your student loans.

Graduated Repayment Plan: A graduated repayment plan starts with a low monthly payment and increases usually every two years. The repayment term is 10 years (and may be up to 30 years for a Direct Consolidation Loan).

Income-Driven Repayment Plans: You can also enroll in an Income-Driven Repayment plan, which lowers your monthly payment based on your discretionary income. With an income-driven payment, your monthly payment may be as low as $0.MOHELA offers five types of income-driven repayment plans:

• Income-Based Repayment (IBR)
• Pay As You Earn (PAYE)
• Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE)
• Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR)
• Income-Sensitive Plan (ISP), which is available for FFELP Loans.

How to make student loan payments to MOHELA

The best way to make student loan payment is on the MOHELA website. You can use your MOHELA student loans login. When you register on the MOHELA website, you will create an ID and password.

Make sure to sign up for MOHELA’s Auto Debit program so that your student loan payments are automatically withdrawn from your bank account each month. This will help ensure that you don’t receive any late fees or negative impact to your credit score.  

You can also make a student loan payment through MOHELA’s automated phone system at 1-888-866-4352..

MOHELA deferment and forbearance

If you face financial hardship or lose your job, MOHELA offers several deferment and forbearance options. Forbearance and deferment can help you pause or postpone your payments for a temporary period.

Deferment allows you to pause your student loan payments temporarily. This can help reduce your monthly payments. However, interest will still accrue on your student loan balance during this period.

Forbearance is a temporarily postponement of your student loan payments. With forbearance, you can either pay the interest when it accrues, or the unpaid accrued interest gets capitalized and added to your student loan balance.

Unemployment Deferment: This deferment postpones payments for up to 36 months. You may be eligible if you receive unemployment benefits or you are unable to find full-time unemployment.

Economic Hardship Deferment: This postpones payments for up to 36 months if you face financial hardship.

Education Deferment: This postpones your payments if you are in agraduate fellowship, medical or dental residency, medical or dental internship or related educational program.

In-School Deferment: This postpones your student loan payments while you are enrolled in school at least half time. If you’re a graduate or professional student with a Direct PLUS Loan, you can qualify for an additional six months of deferment after you are no longer enrolled at least half time.

Parent PLUS Deferment: This postpones payments for Parent PLUS Loan borrowers with a child enrolled in school.

Military Service Deferment: There are various options for borrowers serving active military duty or in the National Guard. The Service members Civil Relief Act (SCRA) caps the interest rate on both federal and private student loans for borrowers and cosigners. During periods of active duty, interest rates are capped at 6% for loans obtained prior to active duty military service.

Medical or Dental Internship or Residency Forbearance: You can postpone student loan payments if you participate in a medical or dental internship or residency.

Student Loan Debt Forbearance: You can receive this forbearance when the total amount you owe each month for all the student loans you received is 20% or more of your total monthly gross income.

Be aware that even though you can pause payments through forbearance, interest still accrues on your loans during the forbearance period.

How to contact MOHELA customer service

There are various ways to contact MOHELA customer service:

MOHELA Phone Number: 1-888-866-4352

MOHELA Hours of Operation: Monday – Thursday 7 am – 9 pm CT and Friday 7 am – 5 pm CT

MOHELA Login: You can login to MOHELA with this link at MOHELA.com.

MOHELA Email: Log in and access the “Email Us” feature in the Help Center

MOHELA Social Media: MOHELA Facebook, MOHELA LinkedIn and MOHELA Twitter

MOHELA Fax Number: 1-866-222-7060

MOHELA Website: MOHELA.com 

MOHELA Mailing Address For Loan Payments: Payment address may vary based on your account. Login to your MOHELA account or call MOHELA for your student loan payment address.

MOHELA Mailing Address For General Correspondence:

MOHELA
633 Spirit Drive
Chesterfield, MO 63005-1243

How to file a complaint against MOHELA

If you want to complain about MOHELA customer service or file a complaint against MOHELA as your student loan servicer, you have several options. First, you can file a complaint with the MOHELA Ombudsman. You can contact the MOHELA Ombudsman by completing this MOHELA Ombudsman Formal Request and faxing this form to 1-866-222-7060.

You can also mail the MOHELA Ombudsman Formal request to:

MOHELA
633 Spirit Drive
Chesterfield, MO 63005-1243

You can also file a complaint against MOHELA with:

• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
• Your state consumer protection office
• Federal Student Aid
• Your state attorney general
• Your congressional representative

You should maintain written communication between you and MOHELA. This may include your monthly statements, records of communication with a MOHELA customer service representative, emails and other correspondence.

You may also contact the U.S. Department of Education Ombudsman:

Phone: 1- 877-557-2575

Mailing Address:U.S. Department of Education

Federal Student Aid Ombudsman Group

P.O. Box 1843

Monticello, KY 42633

Make sure to complete the Federal Student Aid (FSA) Ombudsman Information Checklist as well.