When I heard Federal Student Loan payments wouldn’t be due until September 30th due to Coronavirus I was relieved. I currently have $60,000+ in federal student loan debt. The confusing part came when I found out not everybody qualified for the deferred payments.

Call Nelnet, Sallie Mae, WHOEVER! The wait lines are long because people who have lost jobs and wages are at an all-time high. We’re all trying to settle our business with student loans.

The law works ONLY for federal loans. If you took out a private loan while in school that is a different matter. If you made a payment March 13 or later you can receive a refund. The Department of Education suggests you call your lender to get your refund. Your next payment is due September 30th.

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During this 6 month period called, administrative forbearance, you will not gain interest and your credit score will not be affected. It also protects any forbearances you may have left, any loan rehabilitations (if you defaulted) or forgiveness programs. Pretty much they’ll treat it like you’ve been paying on time.

Additionally, if you have defaulted on a federally held student loan, you will no longer face having your tax refund withheld, your wages garnished, or social security payments withheld through Sept. 30. If you had those payments taken from you on or after March 13, you are entitled to a refund.

All federally held student loans qualify under the law, but commercially held loans like Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) and Perkins loans owned by your school do not. Here’s where it gets a little tricky, the vast majority of federal student loans issued after June 2010 (when the government stopped issuing FFEL loans) will qualify, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If you took out loans before that, they may or may not qualify since they were not federally issued.

The matter at hand is to find out if you have a federal loan and borrowing from a certain lender doesn’t ensure it’s a federal loan. You’d think it was easy to look up but sadly it is not. If you have questions block out sometime

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