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1. Payments for all federal student loans, including interest, are suspended for six months, through Sept. 30. These include direct loans — subsidized and unsubsidized — Parent PLUS loans and the two types of graduate student loans, Stafford and Graduate PLUS loans.
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Among the many provisions in the $2.2 trillion federal economic emergency bill that was signed into law Friday are several that provide temporary relief for student loan borrowers. The relief focuses on those borrowers — there are 45 million owing more than $1.5 trillion — who have federal student loans, which is more than 90% of them. Private student loans are not covered by the legislation, nor are bank-owed federal student loans and federal Perkins loans, though their borrowers could seek other options for pausing payments such as hardship deferments or income-driven repayment plans, according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher and vice president of research at savingforcollege.com. The biggest relief provision is a six-month suspension of payments for federal student loans, with no interest charged. This relief provision is far more than what President Donald Trump had proposed just weeks ago, which was a 60-day moratorium, but not as grand as what was sought by Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; Patty Murray, D-Wash.; Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. They called for the cancellation of at least $10,000 in debt for all federal student loan borrowers. Visit the slide show above to learn more about the student loan relief included in the legislation, known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. READ MORE:

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Bernice Napach

Bernice Napach is a senior writer at ThinkAdvisor covering financial markets and asset managers, robo-advisors, college planning and retirement issues. She has worked at Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg TV, CNBC, Reuters, Investor's Business Daily and The Bond Buyer and has written articles for The New York Times, TheStreet.com, The Star-Ledger, The Record, Variety and Worth magazine. Bernice has a Bachelor of Science in Social Welfare from SUNY at Stony Brook.