Most folks know that there are federal student loans and private student loans.  That’s a start, but it’s more complicated than that.  If you’re borrowing federal student loans right now, you’re getting Federal Direct loans.  Federal Direct Loans come straight from the federal government; no big surprise there.  But it’s more complicated than that.

Lots of borrowers also have student loans from private lenders.  Would you guess those are private student loans?  Not necessarily!  Some federal student loans, instead of coming straight from the government, were “originated” by private lenders.  Those are called FFEL, or Federal Family Education Loans.  If FFEL and Federal Direct Loans were the same, we wouldn’t have to care.  But they aren’t the same, there are key differences that matter to student loan borrowers, and it’s important to know whether you have federal student loans that are FFEL or Federal Direct Loans or whether you have both.

And it’s more complicated than that.

There are the Federal Direct Loans you may have consolidated with a FFEL lender.  And the FFEL loans you may have consolidated with Federal Direct.  And the federal loans (whether FFEL or Federal Direct) you may have consolidated into a private consolidation loan.

Complicated enough for you?  I’m just getting warmed up!

A number of FFEL loans (those federal student loans that were “originated” by a private lender) were sold by those private lenders to the federal government.  Hm.  Does that mean they are Federal Direct Loans now?  Um, no.  And yes, it matters.  Oh, and Federal Direct Loans (the ones that aren’t originated by private lenders) are likely to be “serviced” by a private student loan company.  Do what?

Want to talk about Perkins loans which are kind of federal but not exactly since they are distributed by schools?  How about “school as lender” loans?  No?

But we haven’t even figured out what kind of student loans you have yet!  And only after we figure out what kind of loans you have can we look at your repayment options.  Plus there’s deferment, and forbearance, and this and that, and some other things, and…

My exact question was how do we figure out what exact type of loans we have? I know there are different tabs on my sallie mae page but I don’t know how to tell if I have FFEL or Federal direct ?

Here’s how to find out all your federal loans: http://askheatherjarvis.com/blog/where-are-my-student-loans