MOHELA
Throughout its tenure as a dominant participant in the student loan servicing market, MOHELA has caused widespread financial harm to millions of people.
Once a small not-for-profit servicer, the Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri (MOHELA) is now a servicing giant at the center of the student loan crisis, servicing the accounts of federal student borrowers in every state. Since 2011, the Department of Education has paid MOHELA more than $1.1 billion dollars to staff call centers and provide help to borrowers with questions—work that MOHELA systemically failed to do. MOHELA is infamous for its central role in Nebraska v. Biden, the Supreme Court decision that robbed tens of millions of student loan borrowers of critical debt relief.
What We’re Doing
Protect Borrowers works with lawmakers and enforcement agencies across the country to hold MOHELA accountable for failing to meet its basic obligations to handle student loan borrower accounts on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education.
We conducted a years-long investigation into industry mismanagement of the student loan system, uncovering damning information about the student loan giant MOHELA. Among the uncovered documents is a company-wide playbook that includes a “call deflection” scheme to funnel borrowers to bad information and avoid resolving servicing errors.
Protect Borrowers and our partners at the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) and Selendy Gay PLLC, have filed a groundbreaking consumer protection lawsuit on behalf of AFT against MOHELA for mismanaging student loan accounts for millions of people.
By The Numbers
$1.1 billion in taxpayer funds
MOHELA has received $1.1 billion in taxpayer funds to service federal student loans.
800,000 deliquent borrowers
MOHELA sent millions of borrowers late or inaccurately high billing statements during the return to loan repayment in 2023, causing 800,000 borrowers to become delinquent on their loans.
4-in-10 customers
According to Protect Borrowers’ investigation, the company’s schemes to deny service affected more than four-in-ten of their customers.