in our Spotlight on Business Report the pause on federal student loans that began in March 2020 will officially end next month but interest on those loans resumed September 1st and that means a lot of borrowers are likely to experience payment shock as they budget for the extra monthly expense life is a lot more expensive than it was three years ago when bills and interest rates were largely Frozen as a pandemic relief measure to help ease the transition the Biden Administration is allowing for some flexibility during the first year repayments begin so for everything you need to know I'm joined by Paul Oster he's the founder and CEO of the Eatontown based credit management and repair firm better qualified Paul great to talk with you so the Biden Administration has sort of created what they're calling a year-long on-ramp for these borrowers what does that mean so they're just trying to ease the blow going into you know we've we've had a layoff for about three years here now so they're just trying to make sure that as many of these borrowers can actually start to repay their loans and a lot of these repayment programs have been in place um since the Reagan Administration um but Biden the the Biden Administration has updated them to include more people to make it even more affordable for these people to actually start paying back their student loans so what will that look like if for the last three years uh I have not had a payment what should I expect and will there be options for say payment plans because now I'm going to have to budget this in when I didn't have to think about it for a few years now so listen borrowers need to know fortunately one thing and one thing only go to studentaid.gov if you want to take it a step further you can go to studentaid.gov backslash IDR these are the income driven repayment plans that are now available to most of the student loan borrowers do not take phone calls from anybody don't reply to any text messages don't click on any links on social media or emails the Bad actors are already starting to pour in here so studentaid.gov will have all of the information that you will need to know whether or not you're going to be eligible for these repayment plans and let's not forget that the creditors the the people who loaned you the money or the Servicing Company unfortunately a lot of the borrower servicing companies have now changed so when was the last time you logged into your account when was the last time you spoke to your servicer be very very proactive here every single day we get closer to October 1 the these companies are getting flooded and inundated with inquiries so be proactive do it as soon as possible if you haven't reached out to your loan servicer do so now obviously there are folks who are counting on hoping for President Biden's plan to wipe clear a significant amount of the student loans to get through Congress where do we stand on that and and how much should folks be hanging on that proposal yeah listen unfortunately it became a very politicized football it was being kicked back and forth it caused a lot of confusion amongst borrowers so I say you have to hope for the best but prepare for the worst I don't think that grandiose loan forgiveness plan is ever going to get passed I think this is a compromise in what he's done in modifying the income driven repayment plans and look if you've been paying back your student loans for 10 years or more you really need to take a look at it because you might be eligible for complete loan forgiveness if you work for a a 501c3 if you work for any government agencies at all whether it's teaching you might be eligible for the Forgiveness but they're not going to reach out to you and let you know that you really have to take you know the matters into your own hands and find out what your eligibility really is you are your own best Advocate all right Paul Oster is the founder and CEO of better qualified in Eatontown Paul thanks so much thanks for having me on support for the business report provided by Newark Alliance presenting the future is Newark and Halsey Fest Street Festival September 14th in downtown Newark event details online at halseyfestival.com [Music] [Music]