Student Loans automatically suspended until September

[Anonymous]

I am surprised that there has not been a thread posted about this yet but here goes-

All federal student loans have been suspended until September of this year. Navient posted a notice on their website about this, and indeed, my account with Navient does show "No Payment due" for this month. Yesterday, it was $241.11 but now, there is no button to pay along with "No Payment due".

I am a bit nervous to be hit with a late if I don't force a payment. What do others on here plan to do? Continue to pay or just leave it until September?

As part of the new federal legislation passed on Friday, March 27, 2020, we are working to suspend payments on all U.S. Department of Education (ED) owned loans by 4/10/2020 – the suspension will be in place until 9/30/2020. Once your eligible loans have been updated, Navient will notify you in writing, or you can always check back to this page for any related COVID-19 updates on your Navient serviced loans.

[calyx]

With the caveat that I'm not on any forgiveness programs:  I'm paying like my butt's on fire, because I figure the pause in interest will help me get the principle down a little faster.

That said - has the gov't addressed whether this suspension will affect some of the foregiveness programs?  I know that PSLF and some others require continuous payments, and I'd hate for this situation to somehow disqualify them from their forgiveness.

[Eagered2succeed]

Paring normal payments will help principle go down a lot faster. I am happy they are waiving the interest as it let's me apply all my payment to principle. In regards to the loan forgiveness there are articles that state it will still count as some are lucky enough to have 0 payment monthly based on income. Same rule applies here for everyone.

[susantrexel]

I plan to keep paying. I hope  I can make a dent in the principle balance.

[Anonymous]

My wife got email notice from Navient the other day. No interest will be charged until end of Sep and loans have been automatically place in forbearance.

Our concern is we are just about to close on a new home. They say the loans will continue to be reported as current to CRAs, but I'm worried they'll screw something up. Underwriter sees something about forbearance in final credit check before close and we get delayed until it's cleared up. We were planning to continue paying anyway, so we opted out. Notice said the only benefit to opting out is if you want auto pay to continue, as either way no interest will be charged. It's been a few days and her online portal still shows loans as in forbearance and not eligible for auto pay. So who knows if they actually applied our opt out request.

[MasonK]

I'm paid two years ahead and only have $102 in interest left for the remainder of my loan so I'm OK with pocketing the extra $82/month and extending my repayment out four months.

I thought about pushing the payments manually, but the net benefit to me is about $38.29 in interest saved against $$454 in overall payments during forbearance.