Student Loan Relief Under CARES Act
The CARES Act includes significant student loan relief for most, but not all, federal student loans. Here is the current announcement on studentaid.gov:
Your payments will automatically stop from March 13, 2020, through Sept. 30, 2020.
To provide relief to student loan borrowers during the COVID-19 national emergency, federal student loan borrowers are automatically being placed in an administrative forbearance, which allows you to temporarily stop making your monthly loan payment. This suspension of payments will last until Sept. 30, 2020, but you can still make payments if you choose.
In addition, the interest rate is lowered to 0% for this time period, which is a fancy way of saying that no additional interest will accrue during this period.
That’s the general point, but there are lots and lots of important details. Rather than repeat all of those details here, I encourage you to do your own research. Here is a direct link to the FAQs provided by the Department of Education where you can find answers:
https://studentaid.gov/announcements-events/coronavirus#borrower-questions
Here are three additional important points:
- Most Parent PLUS loans from the federal government are included in this program.
- Most private loans from private lenders are NOT included. Exceptions apply, and this is one area where changes are happening daily.
- Some FFEL loans (older student loans) are not included. It depends on if they were sold to the federal government or not, and you can find that out on after logging into your account on studentaid.gov.
If you still have questions after your research, please send us an email.
