Please Note: This article has been updated since the original publish date.
Loan repayment was previously expected to begin after December 31, 2022; however, the pause was extended by the Biden Administration on December 22, 2021, April 6, 2022, August 24, 2022 and again on November 22, 2022. The pause is now set to continue through June 30, 2023.
As a result of COVID-19 relief efforts, a pause on federal student loan repayment was put in place on March 13, 2020 and has since been in effect. During this time, federal student loan borrowers have not been required to make payments on qualifying federal student loans, interest rates were set to 0% and collections on defaulted loans were paused.
Were you one of the over 42 million borrowers impacted by this historic repayment pause?
If so, please be aware that this pause will end, and student loan repayment will restart after December 31, 2022. This means that anyone whose repayment was paused as a result of the pandemic will go back into or begin repayment after December 31, 2022. 0% interest rates will also be cancelled, and the interest rates any loan(s) previously held will once again be put in place. In addition, collections will once again begin on any defaulted loan.
To help prepare for this time, the U.S. Department of Education has created a Repayment Fact Sheet that can be accessed here. More information is also available on studentaid.gov/coronavirus.
If you haven’t already, be sure to get in contact with your loan servicer to update your information, restart or sign up for auto debit and to ensure a smooth transition back into repayment. If you receive correspondence from one of the loan servicers listed below, don’t ignore it. If you haven’t heard from your loan servicer, reach out to them.
You can find more information on your loan servicer information by logging in to studentaid.gov.
Now that the pause is ending, over 42 million borrowers will go into repayment all at once- an unprecedented number. Acting now will help avoid the rush and ensure a smooth transition back into repayment.
Have questions? Feel free to contact Federal Student Aid at studentaid.gov/contact or 1-800-4FED-AID (1-800-433-3243).