ED Ranks Customer Satisfaction With Federal Loan Servicers
Higher education institutions indicate that Great Lakes
Education Loan Services has the highest first quarter customer satisfaction
among federal
loan servicers, though others are not far behind. The U.S. Department of Education (ED) uses a
combination of customer satisfaction surveys and default and delinquency rates
to determine how much student loan volume each servicer receives.
ED used
an independent vendor to determine customer satisfaction through an analytical
methodology that is consistent with the American Consumer Satisfaction Index
(ACSI). ACSI uses response summaries from three uniform surveys of borrowers,
schools and ED employees to measure customer satisfaction on a scale of zero to
100.
It is important to note that the report does not detail the types of loans these servicers maintain so some could have a portfolio with a larger portion of high-risk borrowers.
Here are the service satisfaction scores for schools and
borrowers, according to a Nov. 21 ED announcement.
Servicer
|
Borrower Satisfaction
|
School Satisfaction
|
Great
Lakes
|
74.7
|
83.3
|
Pennsylvania
Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA)
|
74.3
|
78.0
|
Nelnet
|
72.7
|
77.3
|
Sallie
Mae
|
73.0
|
74.0
|
Federal loan servicers scored slightly higher than
not-for-profit servicers that were recently allocated loans from ED. Note that these not-for-profit servicers only receive existing loan volume and not current or new loans. Here are
the borrower satisfaction rates for these servicers.
Servicer
|
Borrower Satisfaction
|
Aspire
Resources
|
71.0
|
Missouri
Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA)
|
70.0
|
Granite
State-GSMR
|
69.0
|
CornerStone
|
69.0
|
ESA/Edfinancial
|
68.0
|
Default
and Delinquency
The Department also analyzed the success of default
prevention programs for each servicer. Here are the percentages of defaulted
borrowers that each servicer has according to ED.
Servicer
|
Percentage of Defaulted Borrowers
|
Nelnet
|
0.66%
|
Sallie
Mae
|
0.91%
|
PHEAA
|
1.21%
|
Great
Lakes
|
1.46%
|
The Department also analyzed the success of default
prevention programs for each servicer. Here are the percentages of defaulted
borrowers that each servicer has according to ED.
Servicer
|
%
of Borrowers in Current Repayment Status
|
% of Borrowers more than 90-Days
Delinquent
|
MOHELA
|
92.5%
|
3.5%
|
CornerStone
|
91.2%
|
5.2%
|
ESA/Edfinancial
|
89.5%
|
4.8%
|
Aspire
Resources
|
89.1
|
2.1%
|
Granite
State-GSMR
|
85.7%
|
0.9%
|
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