Choosing a Lender
If you accept a Federal Stafford Loan, you must choose a lender that participates in the Stafford program. Please choose your lender carefully. Your choice of lender can impact the amount you will repay, usually due to disparities in repayment benefits. Lenders typically sell the loans for servicing during repayment. Certain companies have made it a point to try to compete and excel in servicing student loans, and as a result have made different benefits available to borrowers. These benefits may include interest rate reductions and origination fee reimbursements, and are usually received if you authorize automatic payment methods and if you make on-time payments for a specified period of time.
For both Stafford and PLUS loans, you must select a lender that participates in the Federal Stafford Loan Program. The two websites below contain the majority of lenders with whom the University of Utah has worked in the past.
Lender Websites
ELM (Education Loan Management Resources): http://www.elmresources.com
- ELM provides a comprehensive neutral list of student loan lenders to provide greater choice.
UHEAA (Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority): http://www.uheaa.org
- UHEAA is the state guarantor for Utah and a nationally recognized leader in providing loan repayment benefits. This list includes the majority of Utah lenders participating in the program.
