The student loan payment pause ended on September 30, 2023. Borrowers were required to resume making payments in October 2023 and interest began accruing again from September 1, 2023.
Most borrowers will have to begin making their monthly payments beginning in October. Student loan servicers are supposed to send their bills with the payment amount and due date at least 21 days before the due date.
The Department of Education (ED) is offering a 12-month “on-ramp” period to help borrowers transition back to repayment. During this period, borrowers who miss payments will not be reported as delinquent to credit bureaus. However, interest will still accrue on loans during the on-ramp period.
The student loan payment pause was a temporary measure implemented by the United States Department of Education in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The department automatically paused eligible loan repayments and set the interest rate at 0% on March 13, 2020. The pause lasted about three and a half years.
You were eligible for the payment pause if you had one of the following loans:
- Direct Loans (defaulted and non-defaulted)
- Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loans held by ED (defaulted and non-defaulted)
- Federal Perkins Loans held by ED (defaulted and non-defaulted)
- Defaulted FFEL Program loans not held by ED
- Defaulted HEAL loans
You would not have been eligible for the payment pause if you had one of the following loans:
- Nondefaulted FFEL Program loans not held by ED
- Federal Perkins Loans not held by ED (defaulted and non-defaulted)
- Nondefaulted HEAL loans
- Private student loans
This means that you would have continued paying your bills through the pandemic as well.
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