One week after a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down President Joe Biden's student debt relief plan, college students and officials are both moving forward as federal loans are set to un-freeze after more than three years in the coming months.
"There are several direct loan borrowers who are disappointed about what happened and there's a lot of confusion out there now with borrowers of what they should do next," University of North Georgia Financial Aid Director Jill Rayner said.
Rayner spoke on WDUN's "Drive at 5" Thursday after participating in a White House briefing about the court's decision. She said Biden administration officials said in the briefing that they are looking at other avenues of debt relief but that those will likely take some time to come to fruition.
In the meantime, she said borrowers need to prepare to get back on their regular payments.
"The one thing that borrowers don't need to do is do nothing," Rayner said. "The interest on their federal direct loans are going to start September 1 and their first payment is going to be due October 1."
Rayner said borrowers should start by making sure their contact information with their student loan servicer is up to date. She said you can visit studentaid.gov to check if your loan servicer is still operating.
She said the next step for borrowers who may not have the money on hand to resume payments is to look for programs that could make things more manageable.
"If you work for a nonprofit organization or you're a state or county employee, you might be eligible for what's called the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, and every payment that you make towards your loans, or even the 36 months that we did not make payments towards our loans, all of those payments may count towards your loan forgiveness," Rayner said.
Rayner also said it's important for incoming and future college students to be smart about how much they take out in student loans while they're in school.
"You need to set a budget and only borrow what you absolutely have to borrow. You need to check out other possibilities of paying for aid," Rayner said. "There are several state programs. Even if you're not HOPE-eligible from high school, a lot of people don't realize that you might be able to earn HOPE while you're in college. Some schools have payment plans that you can use, you can apply for scholarships. One of the biggest programs that we have are people who are willing to go in to be a member of the Georgia National Guard or armed forces."
To hear more from University of North Georgia Financial Aid Director Jill Rayner on student loans, click play on the audio above.
