I too would return my degrees if I could. You are not wrong to be confused by this. This history really starts with Sallie Mae. I’ll spare you that part—you can read about it if you ever have insomnia. But Navient grew out of that history. The FFEL loans (is that what you have?) are owned by Navient but backed by the federal government. So they sit in a kind of gray area between public and private. I say gray area, because Navient has a long history of claiming they are public when it benefits them and private when it benefits them. Technically, Navient owns them—and those are just the broad strokes of this thing. So the drag of this is that if Joe Biden were to forgive all federal loans on day 1 (of course there’s a Santa!), it would not include these FFEL loans nor would it include FFEL consolidated loans nor FFEL joint spousal loan consolidations. But, Biden could “buy” them since they are already backed by the government. (it isn’t really buying them, nor is it costing something off the ledger, but that is another issue). In other words, it would be NBD for Biden to do this, but I really don’t see why he would as Navient has bent over backwards to protect these FFEL loans even after they were discontinued because they are so valuable to Navient. (think lots of billions) So now that these loans are no longer offered to anyone else, they didn’t just offer the same benefits to these FFEL borrowers- they let them rot in the hell that is the FFEL loan with no relief. Now, you can ask to have your FFEL converted to a Direct Loan, which would offer you Covid relief, but there may have been a deadline on that. Also- you can’t convert to a Direct Loan if you have a consolidation UNLESS you state that you are seeking PSLF specifically and one or two other programs (someone help me with this) . In the case of PSLF, you have to make sure you use the correct servicer, or you won’t get credit. But the real point is, it is beneficial to have that federal label on your loan if you can get it back, regardless of the PSLF. Now if you are a joint consolidated loan FFEL borrower, you are completely out of luck. This is only subgroup that is NOT allowed to convert to a Direct Loan and all of its relief options right now. (and this is why we are working on a lawsuit that argues discrimination under the ECOA by marital status. – we are also working on issues with the FFEL in general. So I hope that helps you. Navient has lied to me many times on the phone. If I didn’t cover your question, feel free to ask… cheers!
