The Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri, aka the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority or MOHELA, is one of the largest holders and servicers of

student loans A student loan is a type of loan designed to help students pay for post-secondary education and the associated fees, such as tuition, books and supplies, and living expenses. It may differ from other types of loans in the fact that the interest ...

in the United States. Its headquarters are in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, Missouri. MOHELA is among the 10 largest student loan servicers. Created in 1981 as a quasi-governmental entity, MOHELA participated in the

Federal Family Education Loan Program The Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program was a system of private student loans which were subsidized and guaranteed by the United States federal government. The program issued loans from 1965 until it was ended in 2010. Similar loans a ...

(FFELP) for nearly three decades

Student loan transfer controversy

However, there have been several complaints from borrowers about loan handling during and after the switch to MOHELA, with borrowers complaining of charges for late payments due to delayed processing of payments made to the Department of Education before the transfer, suspension of auto-payment programs, increased payment amounts, increased estimated repayment dates, changes to the borrower's selected repayment plan, unwanted forbearances and deferments, failure to process forms, and applied or capitalized

interest In finance and economics, interest is payment from a borrower or deposit-taking financial institution to a lender or depositor of an amount above repayment of the principal sum (that is, the amount borrowed), at a particular rate. It is distin ...

. MOHELA does not provide a means for borrowers contact the agency via email or chat option, nor does it have any public social media outlets; the only means for communication are a single telephone number and a postal address. MOHELA has a 1.01 star rating from the Better Business Bureau MOHELA is currently involved in legal efforts to block US President Biden's student loan forgiveness executive order.

Types of student loans owned and serviced by MOHELA

These include: * Federal subsidized and unsubsidized (private) Stafford loans * Federal Perkins loans * PLUS loans * Federal GradPLUS loans *

Federal student loan consolidation In the United States, the Federal Direct Student Loan Program (FDLP) includes consolidation loans that allow students to consolidate Stafford Loans, PLUS Loans, and Federal Perkins Loans into one single debt. This results in reduced monthly repay ...

See funding of higher education in the United States for general information on the topic.

References

{{Reflist

External links

MOHELA

Missouri Department of Higher Education

Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority
recipient profile on

USAspending.gov ttp://www.usaspending.gov USASpending.govis a database of spending by the United States federal government. History Around the time of the Act's passage, OMB Watch, a government watchdog group, was developing a site that would do essentially eve ...

*
Contract ED-FSA-11-D-0012
on USAspending.gov United States federal student loan servicers Education in Missouri 1981 establishments in Missouri Education finance in the United States