The student loan repayment pause, which has been in place since March 2020, will soon come to an end. But when is the actual due date for your loan payments? When will the Department of Education once again start adding interest? The key dates that every borrower of federal student loans must be aware of are listed below.
When does the student loan repayment pause officially end?
The Biden administration and Congress agreed to raise the national debt ceiling in May. Both parties agreed that the student loan repayment and interest pause will terminate after August 30 as part of the deal.
The student loan repayment pause was supposed to end this fall, but it is fair to say that many debtors were not entirely sure it would until the debt ceiling agreement passed.
After all, the student loan repayment pause has been prolonged eight times since it was implemented in March 2020. However, the Department of Education is not permitted by law to exercise its jurisdiction to prolong the payments suspension due to the debt ceiling deal.
When do you have to start paying student loans again?
Your first student loan payments are due in October, to put it simply. The grace period for student loan repayments expires on August 30; therefore, October deadlines will give all borrowers at least a month’s grace period before their first payment is due.
Your circumstances will determine when your student loan payment is due. Additionally, you can adjust your payment due date within a month to fit your pay schedule thanks to federal student loan servicers.
To make sure there is money in your checking account, you might choose to plan your student loan repayment due date for the 16th or 17th of the month if you receive your paycheck on the 15th of the month. There may be variations in the rules between servicers.
For instance, Mohela states that it may take up to two billing cycles to complete the modification and prohibits borrowers from setting due dates on the 29th through the 31st of the month. However, the key is that while every borrower will have a payment due at some point in October, not all borrowers have the same payment due date.
When do you really have to start paying your student loans again?
Sept. 30, 2024. The most significant date we will talk about here is possibly that one.
The Biden administration has established a 12-month “on-ramp” to student loan repayment as part of the payment restart, and it will start in October. Although interest may be levied and payments will be considered past due, missing payments will not affect your credit score or be reported to the credit bureaus. In addition, at the end of the time frame, any interest that has accrued will not be capitalized (i.e., added to your loans).
To be clear, the White House suggests that borrowers who are financially able to pay their debts in full as soon as the pause expires. This on-ramp, which is essentially a grace period, is meant to assist borrowers who may struggle to make their payments after more than three years of being worry-free. But after September 30, 2024, failing to make student loan repayments may have unfavorable effects.