Trellis Company: A Comprehensive Guide to Student Loan Services

Trellis Company, formerly known as the Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation (TG), is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides a variety of services to students and student loan borrowers. While initially focused on guaranteeing Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loans, Trellis has expanded its mission to improve student outcomes and increase financial literacy. This article provides a comprehensive overview of Trellis Company, its services, and its evolving role in the student loan landscape.

What is Trellis Company?

Trellis Company is a non-profit organization that helps student borrowers successfully repay their student loans. Formerly known as Texas Guaranteed Student Loans, they primarily assist students in Texas with their student loan repayment needs. In its role as a guaranty agency, Trellis pays lenders after a borrower defaults on federal student loan debt. If your loans have been sent to Trellis, it has all of the collection powers that the Department of Education has. Trellis is a legitimate collector of federal debt, it can report late payments to the credit reporting bureaus, garnish your wages, and block you from receiving new financial aid.

Trellis's Role as a FFEL Guarantor

Before the Direct Loan program was introduced in 2010, private lenders would provide FFEL loans that were guaranteed by agencies like Trellis Company. While these guarantees protect lenders against borrower default, they provide no protection to the borrowers themselves. After the closure of the FFEL program in 2010, TG focused more of its energy on providing services that improve student outcomes and increase financial literacy.

Services Offered by Trellis Company

Trellis Company offers a range of services designed to support students and borrowers throughout their education and repayment journey. These services include:

Education and Coaching

Trellis Company provides education to help you better manage your student loans and finances. Trellis also provides student loan counseling for when you first start college and when you are done with your education. There is also an education module that covers the parent PLUS loan program. Trellis also has certified financial coaches who can provide you with student-centered coaching while you are in school and after. Coaches can help you with:

Money management: learn spending, budgeting, and developing healthy financial habits.
Financial aid: learn what your financial aid options are, how much to borrow, how to complete your FAFSA forms, and your options for loan repayment.
Academic and career support: learn school/work/life balance, career path options, time management skills, and the employment opportunities available for your major.

Trellis also has on-demand webinars you can watch whenever.

Student Loan Repayment Assistance

Trellis Company can also help you repay your student loans. If you received a federal Direct Loan, the federal Perkins Loan, or a state loan (in Texas) or a private one, you can use Trellis as a loan manager to help you keep all your payments in one place. Trellis eliminates this problem and gives you a “one-stop, pay-it-all” avenue. It has the myTrellis portal where you can make your payments by card. You can also get in touch with Trellis if you find out that your loan is in default. They have a collections department that may be able to arrange for favorable payment terms for your loans. If there are extenuating reasons why you are unable to pay your student loans (i.e. the school closing before you completed your degree program), you can contact Trellis for advice on how to navigate the situation.

Resources Provided by TAMIU in Partnership with Trellis

At TAMIU, they understand the importance of financial literacy in helping you make informed decisions about paying for college. Through their partnership with Trellis, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students, they offer comprehensive resources and tools to guide you through the complex world of student loans. Using the Trellis resources provided by TAMIU, you’ll gain valuable insights into financing your education, exploring repayment plans, and managing your loan responsibilities. Trellis offers the following tools and resources to help you better understand and manage your student loans.

Detailed information on federal vs. private student loans.
Interactive calculator to help you estimate your monthly student loan payments based on different repayment plans.

Collection Services

Trellis Company is a nonprofit organization that collects on federal student loans after a borrower misses nine straight monthly payments and defaults.

If your loans have been sent to Trellis, it has all of the collection powers that the Department of Education has. Trellis is a legitimate collector of federal debt, it can report late payments to the credit reporting bureaus, garnish your wages, and block you from receiving new financial aid.

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To resolve defaulted loans with Trellis, borrowers have several options:

Repay the delinquent debt in full or negotiate a settlement.
Enroll in the loan rehabilitation program and make nine monthly payments.
Combine the loans into a new Direct Consolidation loan with its own interest rate before Trellis moves to garnish your wages.

Trellis and other guaranty agencies don’t need to wait for a court order to garnish wages to pay delinquent student loan debt. It can send an administrative wage garnishment order to an employer ordering it to withhold up to 15% of a debtor’s disposable income.

Trellis Company Set To Become A New Direct Loan Servicer

In June 2020, the Department of Education announced that it had awarded five companies with new federal loan servicing contracts for its Direct Loan program. Those five companies were:

Edfinancial Services
F.H. Cann & Associates
MAXIMUS Federal Services
Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA)
Trellis Company

The announcement came as a surprise for two reasons:

Many long-standing student loan servicers were not offered new contracts, including Navient, Nelnet, Great Lakes, and more.
Of the five companies given contracts, three have zero experience servicing the Direct Loan program, including Trellis Company.

All of the existing federal loan servicers can continue to service loans until December 2021 or March 2022. And it's important to note that new presidential leadership and/or a new Secretary of Education could cause these plans to change. But, for now, Trellis Company is set to become one of only five companies servicing 40+ million federal student loan accounts in the future.

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When the Department of Education first announced its new servicer contracts, most people assumed that borrowers would be transitioned to their new servicers by the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021. On August 4, 2020, the Federal Student Aid department recently announced that borrowers will not be switching servicers in 2020. So, if Trellis becomes your new servicer, you could expect the transition to take place some time next year or near the beginning of 2022. Check with the FSA periodically for information on when your account will be moved and how to manage your account moving forward.

MyTrellis Account Management Tool

Borrowers can make payments to Trellis using its account management tool, MyTrellis, which is available on desktop and mobile devices. Yes, the MyTrellis app is available on both Google Play and the Apple App Store. Borrowers can use the app to view a summary of their student loans, make payments, print or e-sign documents, and more.

Customer Feedback and Complaints

Currently, Trellis has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and an average 1-star (out of 5) customer review rating based on 12 reviews. Trying to compare Trellis customer feedback with other student loan servicers is difficult because it’s not currently a Direct Loan servicer. As a FFEL guarantor, it will only assume responsibility for loans after borrowers have defaulted. To its credit, Trellis has promptly responded to each BBB complaint, and the majority have been resolved.

If your loan is eventually moved to Trellis and you’re unhappy with your service, you can file a complaint with:

CFPB
Department of Education
Department of Education, FSA Ombudsman Group, P.O. Box 18407, Washington, DC 20036
State consumer protection office: You can file a complaint with your state’s consumer protection division.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: If all else fails, you can also submit a complaint to the CFPB.

CARES Act Forbearance and Fresh Start Initiative

Since March 30, 2021, the CARES Act forbearance has paused wage garnishment and other collection activities for Trellis and other commercially held FFEL loans. If your money was seized after that date, you can get it back. The coronavirus-related payment freeze ends on August 31, 2022. Before payments resume, the White House plans to give all federal student loan borrowers a fresh start by returning their defaulted student loans to good standing. The Education Department hasn’t said how soon that would happen.

Is Trellis Company Legit?

Yes, Trellis Company is a legitimate nonprofit corporation that has guaranteed FFEL loans and worked with student loan borrowers for close to 40 years. Also, the Department of Education has announced that Trellis student loan servicing will soon become a federal Direct Loan servicer.

Concerns and Potential Positives

If your student loans are eventually moved to Trellis student loan servicing, there are some potential positives. First, the company has a lot of experience with helping student loan borrowers avoid default. Second, the company is based on the outskirts of Austin, Texas, an area known for attracting top software engineers. But the company’s inexperience with Direct Loan programs, specifically Income-Driven Repayment plans, is a concern. Hornsby continued, “I’d expect they would be one of the new ‘Big 3’ handling IDR accounts.

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