Student Loan Debt Relief
The challenges of COVID-19-related shutdowns are made even worse by student loan debt. Fortunately, there are now options in place to suspend federal student loans and freeze accrued interest, and there may be additional help to follow.
On March 13, as part of the President’s emergency declaration, he announced that student loan interest would be frozen immediately. This means no additional interest will accrue on certain student loans. The interest rate has been temporarily reduced to zero.
On March 20, the President suspended federal student loan payments for at least 60 days without penalty for all who request forbearance. The relief applies to student loans held by federal government agencies, which includes the U.S. Department of Education and its contracted student loan services. This also includes some private lenders whose loans are guaranteed by the government.
In order to request forbearance on your federal student loans, please contact FedLoan Servicing online https://accountaccess.myfedloan.org/contactUs/index.cfm or call 800-699-2908 (Monday – Friday 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM ET).
If you have private student loans, we recommend that you also contact the lender to see if you can receive similar relief.
In addition, there have been proposals in Congress to provide additional relief to those with student loans. Hopefully the proposals are part of the new stimulus package. We will keep you updated.