If you have student debt, you may be concerned about paying your loans in a national health crisis. The good news is, you may not have to.  Read on for all the info you need on navigating your student loans in the pandemic.

Federal Student Loans and The CARES Act

The national pandemic response bill, the CARES Act, suspended federal student loan payments until September 30th. You can still make payments if you like, but you won't be penalized if you don't.

Loans also have 0% interest during this period, and there will be no debt collection on defaulted loans. Loan non-payments between now and the end of September will still count towards the required 120 payments for public service loan forgiveness.

Private Student Loans

The CARES Act stipulations do not apply to private loans through companies like Sallie Mae and Discover. However, many of these companies are independently offering some forms of financial assistance during the crisis.

Most of the private loan companies are offering forbearances during the coronavirus crisis, but loans will still accrue interest during this time. If you have private student loans, check out this list of private loan companies' coronavirus responses here.  

As soon as you know you need assistance, call your servicer to discuss the best options for you.

Student Loan Forgiveness

In addition to the stipulations in the CARES Act, there are now five proposed plans to forgive student loan debt created by policymakers. Several are designed to apply only for frontline workers like healthcare workers and grocery workers, but there are also three universal student loan forgiveness plans that have been proposed, including one in the House, one in the Senate and one by presumptive Democratic nominee for President Joe Biden. Learn about all five plans and how they differ here.