FIND YOUR PIN
The National Student Loan Data System requires a PIN (personal identification number) to access your federal student loan information. You have a PIN to access your student loan information for the same reason you have one to access your bank or credit card information. You have an account with the federal government and/or accounts with the lenders backed by the federal government. What’s contained in the Student Loan Data System is a large part of your student loan information.
If you received aid since the beginning of electronic financial aid applications, you created a PIN for retrieving your FAFSA (Free Application for Student Aid) that was your first step in getting federal loans to attend college. The best way to get started on finding your loan information is getting or recovering your PIN at the PIN Web site: https://pin.ed.gov/ PINWebApp/appinstr.jsp. If you’ve used your PIN in the last 18 months to check on your student loans and you still remember it, you have all the information you need to log in to the National Student Loan Data System.
You can jump to the next section of this chapter. If you don’t remember your PIN and you have used it in the last 18 months, you have to go to the PIN Web site: www.pin.ed.gov, which you can use to generate a PIN or retrieve your PIN. You will have to answer a question based on information you provided on your FAFSA for security.
For example, if you selected “What is your mother’s maiden name?” as your challenge question when you received your PIN, you would need to provide your mother’s maiden name in order to get a duplicate PIN. If you don’t have one, you can create a 4-digit PIN at https://pin.ed.gov/PINWebApp/appinstr.jsp. You will need to provide your Social Security number, full name, address, e-mail address, and security question (a question about yourself for security purposes). Select a question that you can always answer and spell the same, such as your mother’s maiden name, the name of your elementary school, or the name of the hospital you were born in. But you still want to be careful about capitalization and abbreviations. The PIN Web site is case sensitive. Also, don’t fill in an answer that you sometimes abbreviate. For example, if your challenge question is “What is the name of your high school?” and you attended Century High School, you won’t be able to access your account if you type in CHS. Name changes will not affect your PIN for all of your previous loans. Your PIN is attached to the name you had when you borrowed the money. However, if you return to college, you need to create a new PIN under your new legal name.
Checklist for Finding Your Student Loan PIN
- Remember that your student loan PIN is the same PIN you used when you filled out your FAFSA when applying for student aid. Now, it is the number that identifies you for retrieving all your federal student loan information.
- If you don’t have your PIN, you can request a new one at the PIN Web site: www.pin.ed.gov.
- Use the last name you had when you were in college with your PIN.
- You will need to request a new PIN if you haven’t used your PIN for applying for student loans or retrieving your student loan information in the last 18 months.
