Most student-loan borrowers qualify to receive a six-month break from payments

A recent article from forbes.com reports student-loan borrowers would receive up to six months of interest-free payment relief through the Federal Stimulus Package passed by Congress last week.

Here is an overview.
This relief option only applies to federal student loans.

• Interest will not accrue on federal student loans from April through September 30, and no payments must be made.
• Payments will be postponed automatically until Sept 30 for borrowers who are more than 31 days behind on their loans.
• If you have defaulted on your loans, collection activity will be paused, and collection agencies are not allowed to contact you until after September 30.
• If you’re in a rehabilitation program to get out of default:
  Rehabilitation requires you to make nine on-time student loan payments in 10 months. Each month through September 30 will continue to count toward loan forgiveness for borrowers in student loan rehabilitation without having to make any payments during this period.
• The six months of suspended payments count towards loan forgiveness programs, including Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and Income-Driven Forgiveness (PAYE, REPAYE, IBR).
• No collection, wage garnishment, or seizure of tax refunds will take place until Sept 30, and will also be backdated to March 13, 2020.

We encourage you to do your own research and call your student loan borrower for more details.

CornerStone: 1-800-663-1662
FedLoan Servicing (PHEAA): 1-800-699-2908
Granite State — GSMR: 1-888-556-0022
Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc.: 1-800-236-4300
HESC/Edfinancial: 1-855-337-6884
MOHELA: 1-888-866-4352
Navient: 1-800-722-1300
Nelnet: 1-888-486-4722
OSLA Servicing: 1-866-264-9762
ECSI: 1-866-313-3793