Those who paid off all or part of their federal student loans during the pandemic will have that money refunded under the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The Department of Education on Thursday clarified that if the payments were made or if the loan was paid off during the period when payments were paused, then the borrowers who paid that money are eligible for a refund.
The student loan pause halted mandatory payments, interest accrual and collections on federal student loan debt beginning March 13, 2020. The pause has been extended to Dec. 31.
Borrowers can request a refund by calling their loan servicer directly, according to the White House.
If you made payments during the loan payment pause, remember that Biden’s new loan forgiveness is capped at your outstanding debt. That means you would first have to get any payments you made during the pandemic refunded by your loan servicer, which would return your loan balance to its prior amount.
Around 1.2% of borrowers continued paying down loans as of March 2022, the Journal reported, while some 37 million borrowers skipped nearly $200 billion in payments during that time.
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