00:00 In March 2020, the national emergency led to the government
00:04 putting a pause on most federal student loan payments
00:08 and interest.
00:10 Congress passed a law to end the payment pause
00:12 on September 1st, 2023.
00:15 In September, borrowers will receive their first bills
00:18 on their student loan payments
00:20 for the first time in nearly three years.
00:22 This means that borrowers really need to take steps
00:25 to prepare for repayments to resume
00:27 and for their first bills to actually be due in October.
00:30 Go online and log into your studentaid.gov account.
00:41 You should be able to see what the status of your loans are,
00:45 who your loan servicer is, who your loan holder is,
00:48 and what your payments will be or were
00:52 before the pandemic pause started.
00:55 Make sure that your contact information is updated
00:59 on your studentaid.gov account,
01:01 but also on your account with your loan servicer.
01:03 Many people have had their loan servicer change
01:06 during the pandemic payment pause,
01:09 which is really something that you need to pay attention to
01:12 because if your loan servicer changed,
01:14 you want to make sure they have
01:16 all of your contact information
01:17 so you don't miss any important emails or letters
01:21 about your student loan payments.
01:23 about your student loan payments
01:25 resuming again in September.
01:27 Despite what the Supreme Court decided in June,
01:35 there are actually still a number of cancellation
01:38 and loan forgiveness programs that are out there
01:40 for borrowers, such as programs to cancel loans
01:44 for public service workers, including teachers,
01:47 firefighters, nonprofit workers,
01:50 and programs for people who cannot work
01:53 due to disability, people who have been lied to
01:57 by their school to get them to enroll,
01:59 and also people who have just been paying on their loans
02:01 for 20 to 25 years.
02:03 If you're in one of those situations,
02:05 you might be eligible for loan forgiveness
02:07 cancellation right now,
02:09 and you should really look into those programs
02:11 before payments resume.
02:12 If you think that the payment is going to be too high
02:19 and you're going to have trouble making that payment
02:21 in October when it is first due,
02:23 you can switch your payment plan.
02:25 And with the new income-driven repayment plan
02:29 that was just announced by the Biden administration,
02:31 the SAVE plan, you actually will see
02:34 that student loan interest will not be added
02:37 to your payments while you are making your payments monthly.
02:41 So that is big news for borrowers.
02:42 So it's a really great plan.
02:44 Many more borrowers are going to be eligible
02:46 for a $0 a month bill.
02:49 (upbeat music)
02:51 For any borrower that had their student loans paused
02:56 during the pandemic,
02:57 if they miss a payment or can't make a payment
03:01 during the first year, once payments resume,
03:05 they will not face any credit consequences
03:07 and will not have their loans put into default
03:10 until October 2024.
03:12 So if your student loans were in default
03:18 before the pandemic payment pause went into effect,
03:21 they're still going to be in default unless you take action.
03:25 Now, the good news is, is that there is a temporary program
03:29 to give student loan borrowers in default a fresh start.
03:32 All you have to do is go online or call
03:36 to ask to have your student loans removed from default.
03:39 The process takes less than 10 minutes
03:41 and you will be able to quickly and easily
03:43 get your loans out of default.
03:45 (upbeat music)
03:48 There are a lot of companies and scammers out there
03:52 that are trying to take advantage of the confusion
03:54 in the student loan system right now
03:56 and may try to tempt you with offers
03:59 that really are too good to be true,
04:01 such as anything that promises student loan forgiveness now
04:04 or promises to lower your payments for a fee.
04:08 Watch out for that.
04:09 Those are probably scams and likely not something
04:12 that you're going to benefit from.
04:13 (upbeat music)
04:16 (upbeat music)
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