What Happened to the Student Loan Payment Pause and What You Owe Now
The payment pause ended in October 2023, and federal student loans are back to regular monthly payments
The federal student loan payment pause—a freeze on monthly payments and interest that started in March 2020—ended on October 1, 2023. If you have federal student loans, you are now required to make monthly payments again. The pause covered Direct Loans, Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL), and Perkins Loans held by the Department of Education. Private student loans were never included in the pause.
During the pause, your loan balance did not grow because interest was not accruing. No payments were due, and your loans were not reported as delinquent if you did not pay. That protection is gone. If you do not resume payments by the deadline your loan servicer sets, your account will be marked late, which damages your credit score and can trigger collection action.
Your servicer should have sent you a notice about when payments restart. If you cannot find that notice, log into your account at studentaid.gov or contact your servicer directly. The servicer name appears on any loan documents you have or on your credit report.
Key Takeaways
- Federal student loan payments restarted in October 2023 after a three-year pause, and interest began accruing again on all federal loans.
- Your loan servicer sent you notice of the restart date and your new payment amount, which you can verify by logging into studentaid.gov or calling your servicer.
- If you cannot afford your payment, you can request an income-driven repayment plan, which may lower your monthly amount based on what you earn.
- Missing a payment triggers a late fee, credit damage, and potential default within 270 days of non-payment, which can lead to wage garnishment.
- Loan forgiveness programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and Teacher Loan Forgiveness still exist and may cancel part or all of your debt if you meet the requirements.
How to find your servicer and confirm your payment amount
Your loan servicer is the company that collects your monthly payment. It is not the lender—it is the middleman between you and the Department of Education. You may have multiple servicers if you have loans from different years or programs.
Go to studentaid.gov, sign in with your FSA ID, and look at your loan summary. It will list each loan, the servicer name, and the contact information. You can also call the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243) and they will tell you which servicer handles each of your loans.
Once you know your servicer, contact them to confirm your new payment amount and due date. Many servicers allow you to set up automatic payments through their website or app. Automatic payments often come with a small interest rate reduction—usually 0.25 percent—so ask about that when you call.
Income-driven repayment plans if your payment is too high
If your standard 10-year payment is more than you can afford, you can switch to an income-driven repayment plan. These plans calculate your payment based on your income and family size, not on how much you borrowed. Your monthly payment may be as low as $0 if your income is below the poverty line.
There are four income-driven plans: Income-Based Repayment (IBR), Pay As You Earn (PAYE), Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE), and Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR). PAYE and REPAYE typically result in lower payments than IBR or ICR. You can compare them using the Repayment Estimator at studentaid.gov.
To request an income-driven plan, contact your servicer or use studentaid.gov. You will need to provide recent income information—usually your most recent tax return or a statement from your employer. You must recertify your income every year, or your plan will end and you will revert to the standard plan. Set a calendar reminder so you do not miss the deadline.
Income-driven plans extend your repayment term, which means you pay more interest over time. However, any balance remaining after 20 or 25 years (depending on the plan) is forgiven. That forgiveness is taxable income in the year it happens, so you may owe taxes on the forgiven amount.
What happens if you miss a payment
A payment is late if it arrives after your due date. Your servicer will charge a late fee, usually between $15 and $25, and report the late payment to the credit bureaus. A single late payment can lower your credit score by 100 points or more, depending on your current score.
If you do not make a payment for 90 days, your loan is in default status. At 270 days without payment, your loan officially enters default. Once in default, the government can garnish your wages without a court order, intercept your tax refund, and offset your Social Security benefits. Default also makes you ineligible for income-driven repayment plans and other relief options.
If you are struggling to pay, contact your servicer immediately. Do not wait for a late notice. Servicers can offer temporary forbearance (a pause on payments) or deferment (a delay in payments) if you are facing hardship. These options are not ideal because interest still accrues, but they prevent default and give you time to stabilize.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness and other forgiveness programs
Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) cancels the remaining balance on your federal loans after you make 120 may have access to payments while working full-time for a government agency or a nonprofit organization. The payments do not have to be consecutive, and you can use an income-driven plan to keep your payments low. After 120 payments, the rest of your debt is forgiven tax-free.
To track your progress toward PSLF, create an account at pslf.gov and submit the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Employment Certification Form annually. This form confirms that your employer qualifies and counts your payments. Many borrowers lose track of their progress because they do not submit the form, so do this every year even if nothing has changed.
Teacher Loan Forgiveness cancels up to $17,500 of your federal loans if you teach full-time for five consecutive years in a low-income school or school district. The amount depends on the subject you teach and the grade level. You apply through your loan servicer after you complete five years of teaching.
Other forgiveness programs exist for nurses, military members, and people with permanent disabilities. Visit studentaid.gov and search for "forgiveness programs" to see the full list and check whether you may have access to.
Loan consolidation and refinancing as alternatives
Federal loan consolidation combines multiple federal loans into one new loan with a single payment. Your new interest rate is the weighted average of your old rates, rounded up to the nearest one-eighth of a percent. Consolidation does not lower your interest rate, but it simplifies your payments and may extend your repayment term, lowering your monthly amount.
Consolidation also restarts your progress toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness. If you are pursuing PSLF, consolidate only if you have already made some payments and want to reset the clock, or if you are consolidating FFEL loans (which are not may be able to access for PSLF unless consolidated first).
Private refinancing means taking out a new loan from a private lender to pay off your federal loans. Private refinancing can lower your interest rate if your credit score is good and your income is stable. However, refinancing removes you from all federal protections: income-driven repayment, forgiveness programs, and deferment. Only refinance if you are confident you can afford the payment and do not need federal safety nets.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to start paying back all my loans at once?
Yes. All federal student loans held by the Department of Education restarted on the same date in October 2023. If you have loans from multiple servicers, each one will send you a bill on their own schedule, but all payments are due by October 2023 or shortly after. Check with each servicer for their specific due date.
What if I was in school when the pause ended?
If you were enrolled at least half-time in an may be able to access school, your loans remained in in-school status during the pause and did not require payments. Once you graduate or drop below half-time enrollment, your grace period begins. Most federal loans have a six-month grace period before payments are due. Your servicer will notify you when the grace period ends.
Can I get my payments paused again?
The payment pause was a temporary measure that ended in October 2023. There is no automatic pause in place now. However, you can request forbearance or deferment from your servicer if you are facing financial hardship. These are temporary, not permanent, and interest continues to accrue during forbearance.
Will the government forgive student loans again?
The Biden administration proposed broad student loan forgiveness in 2022, but the Supreme Court blocked it in June 2023. No new broad forgiveness program is currently in place. Existing forgiveness programs like PSLF and Teacher Loan Forgiveness remain available if you meet their requirements. Watch studentaid.gov for updates on any future programs.
What if I have both federal and private student loans?
The payment pause only applied to federal loans. Private loans were never paused and have been requiring payments throughout. If you have private loans, contact your private lender directly to confirm your payment status and amount. Private loans do not have income-driven repayment or forgiveness options, so your only relief options are forbearance or refinancing.