Some student loan borrowers have until the end of Tuesday to take advantage of an opportunity to get their debt forgiven sooner than they would have otherwise.the end of the day on April 30 — a move that will combine their federal student loans into one new loan — may benefit from the Biden administration's temporary policy.
Many former students have multiple education loans, either because they borrowed on repeated occasions throughout college or returned to school at some point. If these borrowers are enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan, it can mean that they're also on multiple different timelines to forgiveness. Under the temporary policy, borrowers who consolidate will get payment credit on all their loans based on the timeline for the one they've been paying on the longest.The strong U.S.
Consolidating before May 1 could lead them to quickly qualify for forgiveness on all those loans, experts say, even though they'd normally need to wait at least another 14 years for full relief. Usually, a student loan consolidation restarts a borrower's forgiveness timeline to zero, making it a terrible move for those working toward cancellation.All federal student loans — including Federal Family Education Loans, Parent Plus loans and Perkins Loans — are eligible for consolidation, said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz, in a previous interview with CNBC.