Understanding AES Education Loans: A Comprehensive Guide

American Education Services (AES) plays a significant role in the student loan landscape, primarily servicing Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) loans and private student loans. Understanding AES, its functions, and your rights as a borrower is crucial for effectively managing your student loan repayment.

What is American Education Services (AES)?

AES is a student loan servicer, not a lender. It acts as an intermediary between the loan holder and the borrower, managing accounts in good standing. American Education Services only services private loans and FFELP loans by collecting and tracking payments. It operates under the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA). The federal government stopped issuing FFELP loans as of June 30, 2010, so AES handles only existing loans.

AES and FedLoan Servicing are two different companies that are owned by PHEAA. AES services FFEL Loans and private student loans. Loans made under the FFEL Program were often made by private lenders like SunTrust Bank or PNC Bank.

AES Services for Borrowers

If American Education Services is your student loan servicer, here’s what it can help you do:

Register for online access to your account: Once you have access you can contact American Education Services, access your monthly billing statements and pay bills. You can access your accounts at AESSuccess.org and make payments online.
Enroll in autopay: American Education Services can deduct your payments automatically from your bank account. Signing up for autopay will reduce your interest by 0.25 percentage point. Making payments to AES with direct debit and autopay is the easiest and most reliable method to make your payments by the due date.
Sign up for income-driven repayment: If you qualify, you can request income-based repayment, which limits your student loan payments to a percentage of your income. FFELP borrowers are eligible only for income-based repayment, which caps payment at a higher percentage of your income compared with other income-driven options like Revised Pay As You Earn, or REPAYE. (You can apply online on studentaid.gov and then recertify your income each year online as well.)
Process deferment and forbearance requests: American Education Services can help you temporarily stop making payments or reduce your payment amount if you qualify. This helps you stay in good standing to avoid default. But during any periods of deferment or forbearance, interest can continue to build.
Process consolidation requests: American Education Services can help you consolidate your FFELP loans into direct loans with the federal government. You'll get a new servicer when you consolidate. Once you consolidate you can qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness and additional income-driven repayment plans. The consolidation process turns FFEL and Perkins Loans into a Direct Consolidation Loan owned by the Department of Education.
Process monthly payments and extra payments: American Education Services will track and collect your payments. Otherwise, it may apply the additional amount to next month’s payment instead.

Finding Your Loan Servicer

Your loan servicer is assigned by the Department of Education when your loan is disbursed to your college for the first time. The name of the company sending you a federal loan bill every month is your servicer. If your loan payments haven’t begun or you’re not sure which company is your servicer, log in to My Federal Student Aid to find out. Once logged in, you’ll be able to see every federal student loan you borrowed. Compare that list against your loans with AES.

AES and Loan Forgiveness Programs

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)

PSLF forgives the balance owed on Direct Loans if you work full-time for a government or nonprofit entity and make 120 qualifying payments. If you have federal loans with AES, you will likely need to apply for student loan consolidation to qualify for PSLF.

Loan Forgiveness Eligibility

The private student loans AES services are not eligible for loan forgiveness.

It’s unlikely that the federal student loans AES services will be forgiven by the president. President Joe Biden campaigned on a platform partly based on loan forgiveness. Since taking office, the Biden administration has announced loan forgiveness for several student loan borrowers under existing programs. With each day that passes, it appears less likely he will use that power.

Addressing Disputes and Complaints

If you attended a predatory school and want to challenge your AES serviced private student loans, you should contact AES and ask for a School Misconduct Discharge Application. You can do this by contacting AES’s Office of Consumer Advocacy. You can find a blank version of AES private student loan School Misconduct Discharge Application here.

Completing the School Misconduct Discharge Application

Completing this application will probably take at least an hour. The process will require you to explain in detail how your school misled, defrauded, and lied to you and why you are entitled to loan relief. It also requires that you gather supporting documentation to submit along with your application.

Be thorough but concise in explaining to AES why you should be entitled to relief from your private student loans. Be specific and include details such as dates, amounts owed, and how specifically your school lied to you, did not deliver what they promised to you, and/or otherwise deceived you about the education you were getting and the total costs you would owe. Make sure that your answers to every question/section specifically describe your own experience and how you have personally been affected by your experience.” (*TIP: If you already filed a federal borrower defense application, you can include the same information here).

We recommend you write out the answers to AES’s questions on a separate document that you include as an attachment to your application (*TIP: make sure to put your name and AES account number on each additional page you submit).

Supporting Documentation

The application states that, in order to be considered, you must provide supporting documentation. Examples of documents that you can include in support of your application are:

A copy of a notice from the Department of Education approving your federal borrower defense to repayment application for your federal loans for the same school that your private loans are for (this includes a Sweet v. Cardona approval letter).
A copy of a Department of Education public announcement of school misconduct related group discharge for students that attended certain for-profit schools. (including WyoTech, Heald and Everest)
- ITT Technical Institute
- Westwood College
- College America
- The Art Institutes
Public information about lawsuits, enforcement actions, and investigations related to your school. A broad overview of enforcement actions, lawsuits, and investigations against many predatory, for-profit schools can be found here. These cases can be cited and included in your application as proof of your school’s wrongdoing.
Any original documentation you may have from your school that includes proof of misrepresentation, deceptive recruitment tactics, or substantial misconduct (i.e.

Submitting Your Application

Document Upload: Upload your completed form and supporting documents directly to AES using its File Upload Feature. Simply log in to your online account at aesSuccess.org, open the file upload feature and select “Other” as the reason for your upload.

Filing a Complaint

If you received an arbitrary denial from AES, with insufficient reasoning or justification, you should file a complaint with the CFPB. Though the Trump administration has shuttered the CFPB, complaints can still be submitted. Forward your CFPB complaint to your members of Congress. It is important for policymakers to know that you are having trouble with your student loans and that we continue to put policymakers on notice. You can find your federal representatives here. You can also reach out to your state lawmakers. This list includes contact information for student loan ombudsmen in several states. Include your complete application and attachments in your complaint and note that you submitted more than 30 days ago. PPSL can’t offer individualized advice on how to fill out school misconduct applications. Nor can we answer individual questions regarding technical issues or problems encountered while attempting to submit.

The CFPB requires the companies it supervises to respond in writing to consumer complaints. Although there is no guarantee that your complaint will lead to the result you want, your complaints help the CFPB to understand and prioritize the problems that student loan borrowers are facing and helps its mission to protect consumers from unfair and unlawful treatment.

AES Lawsuits and Legal Actions

AES’s parent company, PHEAA, has been subject to multiple lawsuits by states for allegedly mismanaging the PSLF program. For instance, in 2019, the New York attorney general sued the company, alleging it failed to properly inform applicants of the PSLF program’s requirements, resulting in a nearly 99% denial rate. Recently, FedLoan Servicing announced it would not renew its contract with the Department of Education.

On May 31, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced a lawsuit against PHEAA, which does business as AES. The CFPB alleges that PHEAA illegally collected payments on private student loans which borrowers had discharged in bankruptcy, and that the company sent false information about these borrowers to credit reporting agencies. Between 2017 and 2021, PHEAA attempted to collect on nearly 8,000 private student loans after a bankruptcy proceeding, the CFPB said.

If the CFPB is successful, PHEAA will be required to stop this conduct and pay a civil penalty. PHEAA would also pay settlements to affected borrowers. There's no timeline for when this lawsuit could be resolved. This is the CFPB’s second public enforcement action against PHEAA in 2024. In early May, the CFPB filed a complaint about PHEAA servicing failures, including incorrectly denying forbearance requests, between 2015 and 2021. If the lawsuits succeeds, PHEAA be partly responsible for more than $5 million in fines and settlements for affected borrowers.

Loan Transfers and Servicer Changes

Loans are sometimes transferred from one servicer to another by the Department of Education. You’ll be notified if this happens, and you’ll manage payments with the new servicer. All servicers deliver the same options and programs, but customer service may differ from one to another. The Department of Education sometimes moves loans from one servicer to another based on performance and contracts. The department is overhauling its servicing platform, following announcements from FedLoan and Navient that the companies were calling it quits on federal student loan servicing. You’ll be notified before your loans are moved to or from AES. Despite the changes, your student loan repayment options and forgiveness will remain the same with the new servicer.

Contacting American Education Services

American Education Services address for loan payments:

American Education Services (AES)

P.O. Box 65093

Baltimore, MD 21264-5093

American Education Services address for conditional payments:

AES - Conditional Payments

P.O. Box 2251

Harrisburg, PA 17105-2251

American Education Services address for general correspondence:

American Education Services

P.O. Box 2461 Harrisburg, PA 17105-2461

Fax: 717-720-3916

How to Complain About American Education Services

If you’re having difficulty with American Education Services that you have been unable to resolve, start by filing a complaint with its Office of Consumer Advocacy:

Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency The Office of Consumer Advocacy

1200 North 7th Street

Harrisburg, PA 17102

If your issue goes unresolved, you can also make complaints about American Education Services to:

Make sure to keep records of conversations you have, including the day, time and customer service representative you spoke with. This method should be used only as a last resort, says the federal student aid office.

Department of Education

FSA Ombudsman Group

P.O. Box 1854 Monticello, KY 42633

Alternative Repayment Strategies

Negotiating Student Loan Settlements

Unfortunately, AES won’t waive any of the interest that’s been added to your account or agree to settle your student loan debt for the original loan amount or less if you pay the loan balance in full today. You have to default on student loans before you can negotiate a settlement. When you default, your account will be moved from AES to a collection agency.

Refinancing Loans

If you have a good income and a blemish-free credit report, student loan refinancing may allow you to get a new loan with a more extended repayment period, better loan terms, and a lower interest rate.

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