mygreatlakes For the 45 million student loan borrowers in the United States, effective loan management is a key to staying financially healthy after graduation. Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc., commonly known as Great Lakes, is one of the most popular federal student loan servicers. If you’re a Great Lakes borrower, you’ve probably had some interaction with their web system, mygreatlakes. org, which is often searched as mygreatlakes. This guide will cover what you need to know as a Great Lakes borrower, such as how to manage your loans, how to make payments and what your options are.
What Is mygreatlakes?
The official online portal provided by Great Lakes Educational Loan Services to help borrowers manage federal student loans is called MyGreatLakes. Borrowers have the following options through this portal:
- Link to all loan balances and interest rates
- Pay or schedule payment automatically
- Track payment history
- Apply for deferments or repayment plans
- Access your tax forms and statements
- Help or contact us
The mygreatlakes portal is intended to be a one-stop shop for borrowers wanting to remain on top of their student loans and search for repayment options that are suitable considering their particular financial situations.
Who Are Great Lakes Borrowers?
A Great Lakes borrower is a student loan borrower whose federal loans are serviced by Great Lakes Educational Loan Services. Great Lakes is not a lender; it is a servicer, a company contracted with the U.S. Department of Education to handle day-to-day management of federal student loans.
This includes:
- Sending out bills and receiving payments
- Teaching borrowers about the loans they took out
- Help finding options for repayment
- If you need to, apply for deferment or forbearance
Just know Great Lakes services federal loans, not private student loans. If your loan is private, it’s probably serviced by a separate company.
How to Create Your MyGreatLakes Account
SetUp A MygreatlakesIf you are a Great Lakes borrower, the initial step for managing your loan is using a mygreatlakes. org account. Here’s how:
- Go to mygreatlakes.org
- Click “Create an Account”
- Provide your Social Security Number (SSN), date of birth, and other identification information requested
- Choose a user ID and password
Prevent account recovery by providing security questions
After you register, you’ll have 24/7 access to your loan details and tools to manage your repayment.
Understanding Your Loans
As a Great Lakes borrower you can see the details of your loan — including:
- Types of loans (e.g., Direct Subsidized, Direct Unsubsidized, PLUS Loans)
- Interest rates for each loan
- When repayment starts and when due dates are
- Unpaid invoice and accrued interest
- That is an enormous piece of mygreatlakes portal benefits in transparency
Great Lakes Borrower Payment Options
Whether you can easily make monthly payments, or need a more lenient repayment guide, Great Lakes offers solutions to best fit your financial needs. Borrowers should consider options like:
Standard Repayment Plan
Fixed payments over 10 years. Best for Borrowers Who Want to Pay Off Debt Fast and Can Manage Higher Monthly Payments
Graduated Repayment Plan
Begins with smaller payments that rise every other year Well for people who think their income will go up over time.
Extended Repayment Plan
Provides longer amortization period (up to 25 years) resulting in lower monthly payments. You’ll pay more overall in interest, but it provides some breathing room in the short term.
Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) Plans
Payments are determined by your income and family size. Examples include:
- Income-Based Repayment (IBR)
- Pay As You Earn (PAYE)
- Revised Pay As You Earn ( REPAYE )
- Income-Based Repayment (IBR)
These plans can lower your monthly payments, and after 20–25 years of qualifying payments, any remaining loan balance can be forgiven.
mygreatlakes Enneu Pmalıktaiq and Deferment Options
Why this matters: One benefit of being a Great Lakes borrower (especially if you have access to mygreatlakes) is you can take advantage of federal loan forgiveness + postponement options.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)
The PSLF program allows public service employees to have their balance forgiven after they make 120 qualifying payments.
Teacher Loan Forgiveness
Up to $17,500 may be forgiven for teachers who work in low-income schools for five consecutive years or more.
Deferment and Forbearance
Borrowers experiencing momentary financial difficulty can request deferment or forbearance to suspend payments. But interest might continue to accrue even then, and this can afford important short-term relief.
Stay Organized with MyGreatLakes
The mygreatlakes. The org Dashboard The org dashboard is an easy-to-use interface that allows you to manage all to your loan. Here’s how you can best use it:
- Immediately arrange for automatic payments to avoid late fees and lower interest rates (on many of them) by 0.25%
- 1098-E (Student Loan Interest Deduction)
- Talk to support to answer your questions about repayment, consolidation, or forgiveness
- Monitor your progress towards goals of loan payoff and/or forgiveness
What If Your Loan Is Transferred in mygreatlakes?
Over the past few years, restructuring by the Department of Education has left many Great Lakes borrowers with loans moved to other servicers, such as Nelnet or MOHELA. If this happens to you:
- You will get a notification from both Great Lakes and the new servicer
- Your loan terms (interest rate, balance, etc.) will remain the same
- Before you sign anything with the new servicer, though, you should create an account with them as soon as possible.
Regardless of whether you still have mygreatlakes managing your loan, the principle of how it works remains the same.
mygreatlakes and Credit Reporting
Like all student loan servicers, Great Lakes reports borrower activity to the three major bureaus. Making timely payments helps establish a good credit history, and missing payments can negatively impact your credit score. To keep track of payments due when and to avoid becoming delinquent, use mygreatlakes.
The Benefits and Burdens of Being a Great Lakes Borrower
Pros:
- Mygreatlakes portal Easy to use
- HECMs Refinance HECMs, which are reported up until 2023.
- Auto-pay discount available
- Data up to October 2023
- Loan details and payment history
Cons:
- Stop new loan servicing in 2023
- You are fed data until October 2023.
- Minimal assistance with private loans
mygreatlakes Final Thoughts
As a Great Lakes borrower, you can now enjoy the benefits of a staple federal loan servicer, using an easy-to-navigate platform in mygreatlakes. First of all, regardless of whether you’re straight out of college, or years into repayment on mygreatlakes. using the org when it’s time to manage your student loan will make a significant impact in keeping organized, not defaulting and getting closer to being debt free.
The bottom line: Although Great Lakes is exiting the loan servicing business, its legacy of reliable service and intuitive tools continue to benefit borrowers today. Remember to update your account information and utilize the features available on mygreatlakes, so that you can smoothen your student loan avatar.
