Financial aid offices have had more than enough to manage during 2024 with delays and challenges stemming from the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) process. While you care about former students who have been struggling to make payments as the on-ramp has ended, your capacity to help them may have been limited while you’ve been focusing on other crucial tasks.
In 2025, the consequences for these former students—and for your institution—will be more serious as missed federal student loan payments will be reported to credit bureaus for most borrowers starting in January 2025. While monitoring the repayment status of borrowers is a task most schools haven’t actively done for several years, it will become a priority as the issue of federal student loan default looms later in 2025.
ScholarNet can help by offering Portfolio Navigator. Portfolio Navigator is complimentary to schools that use ScholarNet as their primary private loan processing platform. Not using ScholarNet? Learn more about other options available to you. Contact our team to learn how you, too, can take advantage of this valuable resource.
Monitor Repayment at a Glance
Many institutions haven’t had to monitor their portfolio’s repayment data in years. Knowing where to start may seem like a challenge, but it doesn’t have to be.
ScholarNet’s Portfolio Navigator is built around the industry-standard Service Provider Loan Portfolio Detail report. This secure solution uses National Student Loan Data Service (NSLDS) data, empowering you to view overall trends in your portfolio and drill down to individual students who need your help the most.
Portfolio Navigator groups borrowers by repayment status to identify those who need help getting—or staying—on track for successful repayment.
Do Fast, Targeted Delinquency Outreach
Portfolio Navigator helps you identify the groups of your federal student loan borrowers who may be struggling to make payments and could use help, as their trusted school financial aid office. With Portfolio Navigator’s Action Center, it’s easy for you to reach out and connect these borrowers to their loan servicer.
Action Center groups borrowers into four categories based on their repayment behavior:
- High-priority delinquency: Students 75-115 days delinquent who have never made a payment
- Late delinquency: Students 240 or more days delinquent
- Mid delinquency: Students 135-239 days delinquent
- Early delinquency: Students 31-134 days delinquent
Using Action Center, you can choose to send emails or letters, and/or make phone calls, to borrowers with missed or late payments. Targeted messaging is tailored to borrowers’ status, providing their servicer’s contact information and helping them understand the consequences of their situation.
You select how much outreach you want to do. It’s easy, using one of three different action tracks:
- Fundamental: Target High-Priority Delinquency student groups with email, and Late Delinquency student groups with email, letter, and phone campaigns.
- Comprehenvise: Add letter and phone campaign options to the High Priority student groups, and emails to the Mid Delinquency and Early Delinquency groups.
- All-Inclusive: Reach all four student groups with all three outreach methods.
Based on your available time and which groups to reach, you decide which track to do.
Two Positive Outcomes
It’s hard to think about adding default management and delinquency outreach to your plate when 2024 has been so busy and you’re still playing catch-up. But there are two important reasons to take action starting early in 2025.
- You’ll be helping former students avoid the negative consequences of federal student loan default such as poor credit, wage garnishment, withholding of tax refunds, and more.
- You can prevent issues with your school’s CDR that could begin in late 2025, including possibly losing future eligibility for federal financial aid (e.g., grants, loans, work-study).
It’s worth it to take a few minutes each week to focus on portfolio management and delinquency outreach. You’ll make a huge difference to your institution’s former students and could help ensure the security of its future federal financial aid programs as well.
Learn More
If you know the ScholarNet team, you know we’re all about saving our customers time with private loan processing. Portfolio Navigator is a unique portfolio management and delinquency outreach solution you won’t find anywhere else. Offered by ScholarNet, it’s also designed to save you time. Contact your ScholarNet rep with any questions or set up a demo of Portfolio Navigator today.