Student Loan Rehabilitation

To rehabilitate your defaulted student loan(s) held by Trellis, you must

• agree in writing to make nine voluntary, reasonable and affordable monthly payments (as determined by Trellis) within 20 days of the due date, and
• make all nine payments during a period of 10 consecutive months

Under a loan rehabilitation agreement, Trellis will determine a reasonable monthly payment amount that is equal to 15 percent of your annual discretionary income, divided by 12. Discretionary income is the amount of your adjusted gross income (from your most recent federal income tax return) that exceeds 150 percent of the poverty guideline amount for your state and family size. You must provide documentation of your income to Trellis.

If you cannot afford the initial monthly payment amount described above, Trellis will calculate an alternative monthly payment based on the amount of your monthly income that remains after reasonable amounts for your monthly expenses have been subtracted. You may need to provide documentation of your monthly income and expenses, including a completed Loan Rehabilitation: Income and Expense Information form. Depending on your individual circumstances, this alternative payment amount may be lower than the payment amount you were initially offered. To rehabilitate your loan(s), you must choose one of the two payment amounts.

Depending on your financial circumstances, your qualifying monthly payment for loan rehabilitation could be as low as $5.

Loans for which a judgment has been obtained, or for which you have been convicted of, or have pled no contest or guilty to, a crime involving fraud in obtaining federal student aid funds are not eligible for rehabilitation. In addition, loans previously rehabilitated on or after August 14, 2008 are not eligible for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is a one-time opportunity.

Upon completion of the rehabilitation requirements, Trellis will attempt to place your loan with a participating rehabilitation lender or the U.S. Department of Education. Trellis currently has regular monthly sales to rehabilitating lenders; however, the purchase of your loan for rehabilitation is at the discretion of the lender, and there may be periods during which no lenders are participating in Trellis’ rehabilitation program or during which no lender is willing to purchase your loans on terms that Trellis considers commercially reasonable. In that case, you may be required to continue making your monthly payments until a rehabilitating lender or the U.S. Department of Education is available to purchase your loan(s).

Following the sale of your loan(s) to the rehabilitating lender or the U.S. Department of Education, Trellis will delete its reporting of the default to all national consumer reporting agencies and will request that the lender that filed the default claim on your loans (holder of your loans before Trellis) also remove the default status from your credit report. You will regain eligibility for any remaining deferments and forbearances for which you may be eligible, and You will regain eligibility for additional federal student aid, provided you have no other student loans in default and meet all other eligibility criteria.

Generally, upon completion of the rehabilitation program, your loans will retain the original terms and interest rate. The rehabilitating lender will establish a new repayment term of 10 years (120 months) or up to 30 years (360 months) for consolidation loans, minus the nine months of payments you make to qualify for rehabilitation. The monthly payment established with the rehabilitating lender may result in a higher monthly payment than what you pay to qualify for rehabilitation. If you need to make lower monthly payments, Income-Based Repayment plans may be available to you; check with your lender to determine whether you qualify.

To qualify for rehabilitation:

• You must establish a satisfactory repayment arrangement and make nine voluntary, full monthly payments within 20 days of the due date during a ten (10) consecutive month period.
• Payments obtained by state offsets or federal Treasury offsets, wage garnishment, trustee payments, or income or asset execution do not satisfy this requirement.
• If required, you must provide Trellis with your financial documentation supporting the information you provided, verbally or online, to calculate your monthly payment amount within 120 days of the date the Trellis Rehabilitation Agreement was issued.
• You cannot pay ahead or remit double payments to accelerate the rehabilitation process.
• The account balance at the time of the sale to a participating rehabilitation lender must be at least $1,000.

Once you have established repayment arrangements based on the financial information you provided to a Trellis representative or online, you will need to complete and sign the Trellis Rehabilitation Agreement. If you are working online, you may use the Electronic Signature (e-sign) option to complete the form. Otherwise, Trellis will mail the agreement to you.

After the agreement is signed or e-signed, you have 120 days to provide Trellis with documentation verifying the financial information you provided to determine your payment amount. You may fax, mail or email the documents to Trellis or use the upload feature on mytrellis.org to submit them electronically.

Once the payment criteria above have been met, a participating lender will purchase your loan(s), and you will continue to make monthly payments to the new lender.

Trellis’ current rehabilitation lenders are listed below. If you do not see your lender/servicer listed, please contact us.

HESC (Higher Education Servicing Corp) (First Convenience Bank (FCB) — Killeen)
P.O. Box 678511
Dallas, TX 75267-8511
Phone: (800) 366-4372
www.hescloans.com

MOHELA (Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority)
633 Spirit Drive
Chesterfield, MO 63005-1243
Phone: (888) 866-4352
www.mohela.com

Nelnet (Credit Human Federal Credit Union (CHFCU)  Previously known as SACU)
P.O. Box 2970
Omaha, NE 68103-2970
Phone: (888) 486-4722
www.nelnet.net

AES (Truist Bank)
American Education Services
Harrisburg, PA 17130-0001
Phone: (800) 233-0557
www.aessuccess.org
www.aessuccess.org

For more information on Trellis’ rehabilitation program, call Trellis Borrower Services at (800) 222-6297 or send email to borrowerservices@trelliscompany.org.