Student Loans
Office of the Qualified Education Loan Ombudsman
Providing timely assistance to any qualified loan borrower from the Commonwealth of Virginia.
STUDENT LOAN PAYMENTS RESTART May 1, 2022.
All federally-held student loans will require payments starting in May 2022. If you have federal loans, your loan servicer has contacted you about the restart process. If you did not receive a message directly from your loan servicer, log into your loan servicer account to make sure they have your current contact information. Because there are also changes in loan servicer for about 25% of borrowers, you should also log into your studentaid.gov account to make sure your contact information is correct. For the most to date information about the loan payment restart, visit: https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/covid-19
If you are still struggling with employment that can support loan payment, we strongly encourage you to explore income-driven repayment options as opposed to not making payments leading to default. You can go to https://studentaid.gov/loan-simulator to explore your options before contacting your loan servicer.
LOAN SCAM ALERT: As loan payments restart, scammers will target student loan borrowers with confusing information to gain your trust. If you receive an email, text or phone call from someone saying they are working with the department of education and want to help you with loan forgiveness, you should be suspicious. Loan servicers and Federal Student Aid will contact you at the email address they have on file. Make sure that both of them have your current contact information. For additional information on how to confirm whether it is a scam, here are two resources that can help:
Federal Student Aid: studentaid.gov/resources/scams
Federal Trade Commission: ftc.gov/coronavirus
The Office was created to provide an advocate and online resources to citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia who are thinking about using student loans to help fund their higher education goals, or who already have loans and need help avoiding default or getting out of default. The Student Loan Advocate can serve as a liaison between the student loan borrower and loan servicers or other agencies, helping to explore repayment options and attempt to resolve complaints. Any matters that are considered to be abusive, unfair, deceptive or fraudulent will be referred to the Office of the Attorney General.
VIRGINIA STUDENT LOAN HELP IS YOUR BEST RESOURCE FOR LEARNING MORE ABOUT EDUCATION LOANS!!
SCHEV now provides future, current and former students with a concise overview of the student loan borrower process in the form of online modules. All modules can be accessed at: virginiastudentloanhelp.org. Access to all content is available for free to anyone, but the homepage organizes the information based on where you are in the college financing process. If at any time, you have questions about your own loan situation, please contact the Student Loan Advocate.
Need assistance with your student loan situation?
The Student Loan Advocate can assist you with your unique student loan situation. In order to help determine the best way to address your student loan issue, complete the Student Complaint Form, skipping any questions that do not seem relevant to your situation. Answer “Yes” to question #15 about whether your complaint is related to a student loan, and the Student Loan Advocate will follow up with you within 4-5 business days.