Student Life

Whether you're graduating in May or graduated 10 years ago, you need to find all your federal student loans. Why? I defaulted on a student loan simply because I didn't know it existed. I had 16 loans from undergraduate school alone! I forgot to consolidate one and I accidently ended up in default. This is why the whole first chapter of CliffsNotes Graduation Debt is dedicated to using the National Student Loan Data System to find all your federal student loans.

Here are my four pieces of advice to get you started:

1. Pay the most attention to the status of each loan.

You need to know whether each loan shows you are in repayment or if you're on a repayment break that the status shows deferment or forbearance. If the status is incorrect, you need to contact your servicer.

2. Don't ignore other loans because you consolidated.

Yes, theoretically, consolidation means you consolidated all your loans into one, but you might have missed a loan. I did. Check each loans status. If you notice a balance on a loan that isn't your consolidation loan, you need to either consolidate it with your other loans or verify you're making payments.

3. You can recover or get a new PIN.

Don't worry if you don't remember the original four digit pin you signed up with. You can recover your pin easily by following simple instruction on the PIN site.

4. Remember what the last name you had was when you were in school.

If you got hitched and changed your name, remember to input the name you had when you were in college. Otherwise, you may not be able to access your student loan information.

Find out more about Reyna Gobel's Graduation Debt CliffsNotes book here!