What Are You Gonna Do When Your Student Loans Are Due?
Student loan debt is not going to be reduced or canceled as promised, so if you’re like me and millions of other Americans, 2022 means our student loans are now due. As I stated in my first article, New Student Loan Forgiveness Changes Still Misses The Mark For Millions With Covid Cash Woes I’m still recovering from Covid and not working full time. Therefore, my $93,000 student loan debt is another bill that I simply can’t afford in addition to living expenses and Covid related medical expenses.
Unfortunately, like most Americans — if something doesn’t change my student loan debt will literally follow me to my grave. In the meantime, I’m staying on top of the latest information to help myself and others.
Here are a few student loan tips and resources
Tip #1 Confirm your total debt and loan holders.
If your loans were handled by FedLoan Servicing, The US Department of Education may have transferred them to another company like MOHELA, Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority. Nerdwallet.com says that MOHELA is “a nonprofit company and services both federal and private student loans”.
Tip #2 Know when your next payments are due.
Some loan payments have been extended to May 2, 2022. “Payments were supposed to restart Feb. 1, 2022. “The interest-free pause has been in effect since March 13, 2020, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It allowed federal student loan borrowers with an amassed $1.61 trillion in debt to prioritize other financial needs like paying rent or padding emergency savings. ” (Nerdwallet.com)
Tip #3 Contact your loan holder(s) and make a plan
Depending on the type of loan you may have more than one loan company or federal loan servicer. Reach out to all of them, confirm the type(s) of loans, the total amount(s) owed, and due dates. Ask about all the possible options to reduce, eliminate or hold your payment like consolidation, forbearance, deferments. All of these options will require lots of…
