How to pause your federal student loans.

1. The U.S. Department of Education has granted a payment waiver of at least 60 days to many people, but it is not necessarily automatic. In general, you have to call your loan servicer to request a waiver and to make sure that your loan is eligible. If you are already more than 31 days late, your loan servicer will suspend your payments automatically.
2. Your servicer will not charge interest during this time, and the waiver is not supposed to hurt your credit score. The waiver does not apply to private student loans.
3. One private lender, Sallie Mae, said it is offering suspension of payment for up to three months, with no damage to a borrower’s credit.
4. Wells-Fargo says, it will offer help, but a spokesman said it will not commit to a set number of months or any other specifics. Using a waiver to pause your federal student may not be the best move for people in distress.
5. If your income has fallen dramatically, it may be better to enter an income-driven repayment program. Low-income borrowers enrolled in those programs for as long as their income stays low.
6. If you do make any changes to what you’re paying, don’t forget to adjust any automatic payments you have set up.
7. Last week, the federal government announced an automatic student loan interest waiver for federally held loans. That remains in effect if you don’t request the new payment waiver; Instead, you’d pay what you normally do, and the full amount will go toward the loan’s principal.