LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Student loan payments are starting back up soon and there’s a lot to unpack there.
From servicer changes to negotiating lower monthly payments – 8 News Now takes a look at everything you need to do.
Two-thirds of student loan borrowers are women.
That means out of the 36 million people going back into repayment, about 22 million of them are women -including 24-year-old Caitlin Cipriano.
“I definitely am stressed about that, just with inflation, and the rising costs of interest, it’s really hard to save money right now,” she said.
Cipriano has both private and federal loans – which means she’ll be making additional payments come October.
Jack Wallace of “Yrefy” says everyone should be proactive. The pause on payments that started in March of 2020, ends August 31st.
Interest begins accruing in September, first payments will be due in October.
Wallace says you need to reach out to your student loan servicer as soon as possible, as you’ll have to reauthorize the automatic debit from your accounts to pay your loan, “A lot of the services have changed since you last made a payment,” he said.
If you are interested in enrolling in an income-driven repayment plan he says borrowers need to submit some paperwork. You’ll need to go to StudentAid.Gov.
“That’s where they can find out about repayment programs that they may qualify for that will lower their monthly payment, and they’ll also get info about new programs that the president announced. That’s called the Save Program,” he added.
Caitlin says she’ll manage as best she can, and make adjustments to her monthly budget accordingly.
Wallace says The Department of Education is going to be very consumer-friendly for the first year that repayments kick back in.
He says the department will wait up to 12 months to report borrowers to the credit bureau if they are late on payments.
