--- title: When Do Student Loan Payments Start Again? description: As the federal student loan pause officially ends, borrowers are back on the hook for interest and payments for the first time since 2020. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 499 covers: - Personal Finance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Kaitlin Mulhere role: Editor url: https://money.com/author/kaitlin-mulhere/ bio: Kaitlin Mulhere has been covering the intersection of college and personal finance since 2015. She enjoys breaking down the complexities of college costs and financial aid, and she also runs Money’s Best Colleges. education: University of Florida at_money_since: 2015 articles: 217 covers: - Personal Finance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://twitter.com/KMulhere - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaitlin-mulhere-64503048/ published: '2023-09-29T17:29:27.000Z' modified: '2023-12-19T04:23:26.000Z' section: Personal Finance tags: - Student Loans word_count: 961 canonical: https://money.com/when-do-student-loan-payments-resume/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Photo Illustration of a graduate student figure standing underneath a spotlight in an empty space](https://img.money.com/2023/06/College-Student-Loan-Payment-Resume.jpg) Federal student loan borrowers will have to resume making loan payments in the next few weeks after a more than three-year-long break from loan bills. The student loan forbearance — which paused payments and interest accrual since March 2020 for most of the country's 43 million borrowers — is officially over. It began winding down in September, when interest began accruing again. Most borrowers will have a bill due in October. Here's a closer look at what's ahead for folks with [student loans](https://money.com/student-loans/). ## Don't let Student Loan payments and accruing interests weigh you down! ### Take action today and secure your financial wellbeing by refinancing your student loan with Credible. Select your state to get started [See Details](https://money.com/pr/q4e536759d59?ap_referrer=%2Fwhen-do-student-loan-payments-resume%2F) ## Student loan repayment timeline The Education Department planned an extended return-to-normal period for borrowers, starting in September and running through next year: - [Interest on federal student loans](https://money.com/student-loan-interest-sept-1/) began accumulating again on Sept. 1. In addition to pausing payments, the student loan moratorium halted interest accrual to keep balances from climbing while borrowers took a break from paying their loans. - In October, the first student loan bills will come due. The exact date will vary, though loan servicers are required to give borrowers at least 21 days notice before the payment is due. - To help borrowers ease into repayments, the Education Department is giving them a 12-month "on ramp" — running from Oct. 1, 2023, to Sept. 30, 2024. - During the "on ramp" period, the Education Department won't place the loans of borrowers who miss payments into default nor consider the loans delinquent. The department also said it won’t report any missed payments during this period to the credit bureaus or debt collection agencies. (In effect, [missed student loan payments won't hurt credit scores](https://money.com/student-loan-payments-credit-scores/) during this time.) - Additionally, the Biden administration recently announced a new and far more generous income-driven repayment (abbreviated IDR) plan available to most borrowers with federal Direct loans — called the [Saving on a Valuable Education or SAVE plan](https://money.com/save-student-loan-plan-signup/). - The [SAVE application](https://studentaid.gov/idr/) is already live. This plan is designed to help borrowers pay only what they can afford by pegging monthly payments to a percentage of the borrower's “discretionary income” (i.e. income after necessities). Additional benefits are coming in July 2024, such as reducing monthly payments to 5% of discretionary income for borrowers of undergraduate loans, down from the current 10%. If you need to contact your loan servicer about your October payment, you should expect a long wait time. All loan servicers have warned of high call volumes and longer-than-normal wait times, and some borrowers have reported spending hours on the phone before being connected with a customer service representative. "The fact of the matter is, the system was not built with the idea of 40 million people all going into repayment at exactly the same time," [Betsy Mayotte](https://money.com/changemakers/betsy-mayotte/), the president and founder of [The Institute of Student Loan Advisors](https://freestudentloanadvice.org/), a nonprofit organization that provides free advice to borrowers, previously told Money. ## Begin refinancing your student loan today! ### See how much you can save while rates are low. [See Details](https://money.com/pr/u859938dade9?ap_referrer=%2Fwhen-do-student-loan-payments-resume%2F) ## Student loan payment pause ending: What to know Here’s what else you should know about restarting payments. ### What can borrowers do to prepare for restarted student loan payments? Experts say there are several ways you can — and should — [prepare for student loan payments to resume](https://money.com/prepare-student-loan-payments-resume/). For starters, you should find out if you will have to work with a new loan servicer (possibly needing to create new login credentials or update payment and contact information). According to the [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau](https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/office-of-research-blog-update-on-student-loan-borrowers-as-payment-suspension-set-to-expire/), more than 40% of borrowers may have to deal with a new servicer when payments restart due to a large number of loan transfers during the pandemic. Other ways to prepare include checking your loan balance, choosing a repayment plan, starting a budget and exploring what other forgiveness or federal assistance options you may be eligible for. If you're worried about affording your payments when they restart, it's especially important to contact your loan servicer to discuss alternatives — and to see if you qualify for one of the [four income-driven repayment plans](https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/plans/income-driven) (and especially the SAVE plan) offered by the Education Department. ### How will Biden’s new debt forgiveness plan affect student loan payments? After the U.S. Supreme Court [struck down Biden’s marquee plan](https://money.com/supreme-court-blocks-student-loan-forgiveness/) to forgive up to $20,000 of student loan debt per borrower in June, Biden vowed to find another way to cancel a large swath of debt. Currently, the Biden administration is attempting to cancel student loan debt using the Higher Education Act, but experts say this process will take time. Loan bills will be due well before any potential forgiveness would come [from this new plan](https://money.com/student-loan-forgiveness-whats-next/). Like Biden’s old forgiveness program, this new one may also face legal challenges that could further delay the timeline. ### How much will you have to pay when student loan payments resume? According to the [Federal Reserve](https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2017-economic-well-being-of-us-households-in-2016-education-debt-loans.htm), the average federal student loan payment before the pandemic was just under $400 per month, and the median payment was $222. A recent analysis from Wells Fargo similarly found that the typical borrower will owe between $210 and $314 a month when payments restart. However, for those who have already signed up for the new SAVE repayment plan, that amount will likely be much lower. Still, research shows that borrowers are expected to struggle when payments turn back on. According to one [survey](https://pro.morningconsult.com/trend-setters/student-loan-borrowers-expectations) by the data firm Morning Consult, 62% of borrowers anticipate missing at least one payment when they resume. While payments were paused over the last three years, the cost of living skyrocketed, and many borrowers have had to put the money they would have been using to pay their loans toward basic necessities. “For a lot of people,” Mayotte recently told Money, “that money just isn’t there anymore.” ## Pay less on Student Loans. Get more out of life. ### Lower your interest rate or reduce your monthly payment. [See Details](https://money.com/pr/z56da433e456?ap_referrer=%2Fwhen-do-student-loan-payments-resume%2F) ![](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/38966/medium_752a1e55-4e21-4d57-a49f-43d51659e66b.webp) Refinance your Student Loan with Credible today! [See Details](https://money.com/pr/jd56c2b26aae?ap_referrer=%2Fwhen-do-student-loan-payments-resume%2F) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/when-do-student-loan-payments-resume/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Personal Finance", "item": "https://money.com/personal-finance/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Student Loan Debt", "item": "https://money.com/student-loan-debt/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "When Do Student Loan Payments Start Again?" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/when-do-student-loan-payments-resume/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/when-do-student-loan-payments-resume/", "name": "When Do Student Loan Payments Start Again?", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2023-09-29T17:29:27.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/when-do-student-loan-payments-resume/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/when-do-student-loan-payments-resume/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2023-12-19T04:23:26.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "When Do Student Loan Payments Start Again?", "articleSection": "Personal Finance", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2023/06/College-Student-Loan-Payment-Resume.jpg", "width": 2304, "height": 1536, "caption": "College-Student-Loan-Payment-Resume" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adam Hardy", "url": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/#author", "description": "Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. 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