Are you prepared to start repaying student loans again?
NORTH TEXAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) - With student loan payments set to resume in a few weeks after a multi-year hiatus due to the pandemic, current and former students will be looking for ways to restart their payments.
Student loan interest will resume starting on September 1 and payments will be due by October 1. But, there is some relief for some students.
The Biden administration announced it will wipe out $39 billion in student debt for more than 800,000 borrowers after the U.S. Supreme Court threw out his original broader plan to forgive student loans for everyone.
This newer plan helps forgive loans after making roughly 20-25 years of payments and erase up to $20,000 of debt.
Paul Goebel is the director of the Student Money Management Center at the University of North Texas. He tells CBS News Texas: Like a credit card, pay what you can now and make the minimum payments so you don't end up paying more than you should with interest.
"Creating a transition budget so that transition to starting the repayment obligations is hopefully as stress-free as possible and once they have the plan—basically, plan the work and work the plan and pay it off sooner than later is the golden rule for debt management," Goebel said. "It's pretty simple. More time is more money, less time equals less money."
Here are percentages of students who use financial aid to pay for college either in the form of loans or scholarships:
- Paul Quinn College: 86%
- Texas Christian University: Nearly 80%
- University of North Texas: 75%
- Southern Methodist University: 73%
- University of Texas at Arlington: 69%