Student loan repayments paused again; how do YOU feel?

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – For more than two years, the government has effectively frozen student loan balances. The Trump and Biden Administration have required no payments on most federal student loans since March 2020.

During this time, interest has stopped adding up and collections on defaulted debt have been on hold.

Western Kentucky University director of media relations Jace Lux says this sixth loan repayment pushback will likely affect recent graduates the most.

“There will be some mixed feelings about this,” speculated Lux. “But I think for the borrowers themselves, they’re going to be happy because having to repay those loans in the midst of some of the other financial pressures that they may be experiencing right now due to the pandemic and due to inflation. They just may not be able to make those payments right now. So I think it’s going to be good news for them.”

What do some of the recent graduates in Bowling Green have to say?

Liz Mcginniss said “My sister, every month she’s having to pay student loans and it’s double every month? She’s 30 now. Every month she’s paying more, but every month the interest rate goes up.”

Charity Ferguson added, “It’s really beneficial to the students especially knowing that all the rights are increasing in today’s society.”

Jaden Sanders said, “It’s gonna be very helpful for me because I graduated in May and so I’ll have a little bit more time to save up my money when August hits, and then I’ll have time to set up a payment plan.”

Erin Hopkins shared, “I have taken advantage of the student loan pause because of the pause in the accruing interest. That way, I’ve been able to apply that payment to the actual principal amount so it has allowed me actually to decrease my student loans more significantly. I can see an actual change in my balance, because a much larger portion of my payment is going to principal than to interest.”

Let News 40 know on our socials how you feel about the loan pushbacks.