Get Your Student Loans in Order

Posted 10/6/2022

The last few years have been wildly unpredictable. The latest surprise? Federal student loan debt relief ! Plus, there’s the end of repayment pause on December 31, 2022. For real this time!

Student loan debt relief will probably be in the news for months. It may even be challenged in court. Don’t let that distract you. Now is the best time to take action on your loans.

Prep for Loan Forgiveness

An estimated 42 million borrowers qualify for the program. While some borrowers will automatically receive debt relief, most will have to apply for the program.

The application will be made available sometime in October. The exact date has not been announced. Meanwhile, you can take steps to be prepare:

• Review the debt relief program’s rules to see if you qualify.
• Did you make ANY payments on your student loan during the payment pause? If yes, you may be eligible for a refund that will increase the amount of debt relief you qualify to receive. Do this ASAP so your refund can be processed before the application becomes available.
• Sign up for email and text alerts through your Federal Student Aid (FSA) account on StudentAid.gov to be notified when the loan application goes live.

You should complete the debt relief application as soon as it’s available. This should allow your request to be processed before payments restart in January 2023. The government will accept applications through all of 2023, but you could wind up making monthly payments you don’t need to make.

Review Your Updated Monthly Payment Amount

Even if you think this debt relief will wipe out your entire student debt, it’s a good idea to check on what your monthly payments will be in 2023. A quick checkup is easy and can save you from any nasty surprises.

Log in to your account on StudentAid.gov to find your monthly loan payment. If your payments will be higher than you can afford, investigate income-driven repayment plans. You can contact your loan servicer and change plans free of charge.

Brace for Uncharted Territory

As noted at the beginning of this article, these are unpredictable times. Nobody from the President to your loan servicer has done this before. There are bound to be errors and missteps. Do your best to shield yourself from them.

• Take action as soon as you can. Processing applications for refunds and debt relief will take weeks. You can’t control that, but you can control how quickly you do your part.
• Create a buffer. Save the full amount of your expected monthly loan payment for the next few months. That will build a bit of savings to draw on when unexpected expenses pop up.
• Be patient and persistent. Expect problems. When student loan debt relief was first announced, borrower response crashed StudentAid.gov for days. Your loan servicer is already swamped.

This process will take time and it may be irritating. Stay focused on the positive. You’re saving tens of thousands of dollars.

Get Updates and Assistance

You can find all of the details about federal student loan debt relief at StudentAid.gov/loancancellation.

Sign up for email and text alerts through your FSA account to be notified when the application is available.

If you have questions, you can contact your servicer or Student Connections. We work on behalf of schools to provide federal student loan repayment counseling. We can be reached at (866) 311-9450, Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET. We also can be reached via email at intouch@studentconnections.com.