If you have federally held student loans, you're getting a break on making payments â€" again.
The Department of Education extended its freeze on interest rates and payments for federally held student loans â€" aka administrative forbearance â€" through Jan. 31, 2022.
For those keeping score, this is the third time the deadline for student loan forbearance has been extended.
Here's what you need to know.
What Is Student Loan Administrative Forbearance?
The pause on payments and interest accrual is an extension of the administrative forbearance that originated with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act â€" aka the CARES Act â€" passed in March 2020 to address economic issues due to COVID-19.
Directed by the emergency legislation, the Department of Education initially announced that all federally held student loans would be placed in administrative forbearance through Sept. 30, 2020. Interest rates were automatically set to 0% and all payments were suspended.
Then-President Donald Trump later signed an executive order to extend the administrative forbearance period until Dec. 31, 2020, and the Secretary of Education extended those measures until Jan. 31, 2021.
On his first day in office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing the Education Department to extend its freeze on interest rates and payments for federally held student loans through Sept. 30, 2021.
And on Aug. 6, the Department of Education extended the forbearance again â€" this time until Jan. 31, 2022.
What Loans Does This Legislation Cover?
The interest waiver covers all loans owned by the U.S. Department of Education, which includes Direct Loans, subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans, Parent and Graduate Plus loans and consolidation loans.
If you happen to have Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) and Perkins loans held by the federal government, they're covered, too. But the vast majority of those loans are commercially held, which makes them ineligible for the benefit.
What Does This Legislation Mean for My Student Loans?
There are four things to know about how administrative forbearance affects student loans through Jan. 31, 2022:
- It suspends loan payments.
- It stops collections on defaulted loans.
- It sets the interest rates to 0%.
- Each month of the suspension will count as a payment for the purpose of a loan forgiveness program.
Note that the suspension does not mean that the federal government is making your student loan payments for you â€" you'll just be free of making loan payments for eight months without accruing interest or incurring late fees during that period.
The latest extension begs the question of how long student loans could remain in forbearance and whether this could eventually lead to the cancellation of student loans. That remains to be seen, but until then, here are five ways to know if you can benefit from the forbearance period.
Tiffany Wendeln Connors is a staff writer/editor at The Penny Hoarder. Read her bio and other work here, then catch her on Twitter @TiffanyWendeln.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
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