Important Coronavirus Information
Under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, Nelnet is working with the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to suspend payments until 9/30/20 for Federal Direct Loan Program (FDLP) and Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) student loans held by ED. There’s nothing you need to do at this time. Nelnet will notify you of your suspended student loan payments within a few weeks. Log in to your online account at any time to see your loan status.
The CARES Act applies to only those federal student loans owned by ED. To see if your loans are eligible, find your account number by either looking at your billing statement or by logging in to your Nelnet.com account and going to Loan Details.
- Accounts that start with an E are owned by ED and are eligible for a suspension of payments
- Accounts that start with a D or a J are owned by a bank, credit union, or other lender and are not eligible
Temporary Relief for Your Federally Held Student Loans
For Nelnet accounts beginning with an E:
- No payments for 6 months. You will not have to make payments on your federally held student loans for six months (through September 30, 2020).
- No interest will accrue. The interest rate on your federally held student loans was reduced to 0%, effective March 13, 2020, through September 30, 2020.
- Your accounts will be updated soon. Nelnet will notify you within a few weeks of your suspended student loan payments, the 0% interest rate, the suspension of collection efforts, and that you can still make payments during this time if you choose to do so. You can log in to your account at any time to check your loan status.
Temporary Relief for Your Commercially Held Student Loans
For Nelnet accounts starting with a D or a J
If you have an account number that begins with a D or a J, your loan does not qualify for the provisions outlined in the CARES Act. However, other solutions are available to assist should you need assistance with your student loan payment. You may want to review other options such as an Economic Hardship or an Unemployment Deferment as you may qualify for an interest subsidy with a deferment but not a forbearance. Log in to your Nelnet.com account and select Payments, then Repayment Options to start. Or, you can request a 90-day coronavirus forbearance at Nelnet.com/nelnetforms/emailus to temporarily suspend your payments.
Nelnet is aware of the pending Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. We’re working closely with the U.S. Department of Education on next steps. Check back here for updates.
Federal Student Aid’s coronavirus (COVID-19) information page is located at StudentAid.gov/coronavirus. The page includes information for students, borrowers, and parents about the interest rate waiver announced by President Trump and availability of an administrative forbearance authorized by Secretary DeVos to provide student loan relief to borrowers during the COVID-19 national emergency. Please visit the page regularly for updates.
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) and Nelnet are providing assistance to borrowers during the Coronavirus Pandemic National Emergency.
Assistance applies to these loan types owned by ED:
- Federal Direct
- Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP)
Is my Nelnet-serviced loan eligible for pandemic assistance?
Find your account number by either looking at your billing statement or by logging in to your Nelnet.com account and go to Loan Details to view your loan information.
There are three types of accounts you could have that Nelnet services:
- Federal Direct accounts start with an E
- FFELP accounts owned by ED start with an E
- FFELP accounts that are owned by a bank, credit union or other lender start with D or J
All account numbers beginning with an E are eligible for ED assistance.
The assistance by ED does not apply to FFELP loans owned by commercial lenders such as a bank, credit union, or other lenders. These lenders and Nelnet are working on possible relief to borrowers affected by the coronavirus pandemic. (See below: Nelnet and Commercial Lenders Offer Assistance.)
Two types of assistance
During the Coronavirus Pandemic National Emergency, ED and Nelnet are providing two types of assistance to borrowers:
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We're automatically applying a forbearance for loans that are 30 days or more past due.
As your servicer, if your student loan is (or becomes) more than 30 days past due, we will automatically apply a non-interest capping forbearance effective 3/13/2020. There is no need to call or email us to request this forbearance. When viewing your online account, the forbearance will appear to run as long as 3/31/2021; however, ED may change the length of the forbearance at any time. We will notify you prior to the end of the coronavirus forbearance.
ED is providing the ability for all borrowers with a federally held loan to suspend payments for 60 days. If you would like to request a coronavirus forbearance, go to Nelnet.com/nelnetforms/emailus and complete the form. We will apply the forbearance and send you confirmation when it has been processed. Please allow us up to 30 days to send you confirmation due to the heavy volume of requests we are experiencing.
During this coronavirus forbearance no payments will be due. If your loan is already in forbearance, it will stop accruing interest starting on March 13, 2020. However, when your loan goes back into repayment, any interest that accrued during the forbearance period prior to March 13, 2020, will capitalize, which means that any outstanding interest will be added to your principal balance.
You may cancel the coronavirus forbearance and resume your regular monthly payments at any time by calling us. You will be notified when the coronavirus forbearance is about to expire and provided with instructions on how to resume payments.
To save money in the long run, you can make payments anytime and for any amount during the forbearance. Log in to your Nelnet.com account to make a one-time payment or pay using the Nelnet mobile app (available in the iTunes Store and on Google Play). Making a payment on your loan will not cause the forbearance to end and payments to become due again.
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ED is temporarily reducing the interest rate to 0% on all the Federal Direct and Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) loans they own.
As your servicer, we are working as quickly as possible to update the interest rate on your federal student loans with an effective date of March 13, 2020, the date the President announced the reduction. It could take up to three weeks or more to be reflected on your student loan account.
Until further notice from ED, interest will not accrue on your account. However, if you had interest on your account prior to March 13, 2020, it may be capitalized and applied to your account balance at the end of the forbearance.
IDR and PSLF considerations
NOTE: If your student loan is being repaid under an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan or under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, payments made during this forbearance will NOT count toward forgiveness. Please call us to cancel this forbearance if you want your payments to apply toward forgiveness.
Nelnet and Commercial Lenders Offer Assistance
FFELP loans that are owned by a bank, credit union or other lender are not eligible for the 0% interest rate. Nelnet is working with lenders to offer assistance.
You may want to review other options such as an economic hardship or an unemployment deferment as you may qualify for an interest subsidy.
You can request a 90-day non-interest capping forbearance. During the forbearance no payments will be due. Please go to Nelnet.com/nelnetforms/emailus to request a coronavirus forbearance.
During your forbearance, interest still accrues (adds up) on your outstanding principal balance, but the interest that accrues during this time will not capitalize at the end of the forbearance. You’re responsible for the interest, but you have two options:
- Pay the accrued interest before your forbearance ends, or
- Make no payments during the forbearance. The payment(s) made following the end of your forbearance will be applied first to any unpaid fees, then unpaid accrued interest, and lastly to your outstanding principal balance.
You may cancel the coronavirus forbearance and resume your payments at any time by calling us. You will be notified when the coronavirus forbearance is about to expire and provided with instructions on how to resume payments.
Remember, you can access your account 24/7 on our website, mobile app, or through our automated voice response system.
For more information on how ED is supporting borrowers during the Coronavirus Pandemic National Emergency, go to StudentAid.gov/coronavirus.
The health and well-being of our associates and customers is very important to us. We’re closely monitoring the latest reports from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and local health organizations about the outbreak of COVID-19, commonly known as the new coronavirus. To this end, we have been taking proactive steps to protect our associates and communities and to be prepared to serve our customers as the situation progresses.
If You're Impacted
If you’re affected by COVID-19 directly or indirectly and need our support, we’re here to help you with options to reduce or postpone your payments:
- Change your repayment plan to reduce your monthly payments
- Apply for a deferment
- Apply for a forbearance
We are doing our best to ensure our call centers are staffed, and please know that you can access your account 24/7 on our website, mobile app, or automated voice response system to:
- Check your account balance and loan status
- Find out when your next payment is due
- Get confirmation of a recent payment
- Make a payment
- Request a deferment or forbearance
- Request a repayment plan change
- Get your IRS Form 1098-E for the amount of student loan interest you paid last year
- Update your contact information
You can find answers to other questions you may have in our FAQs.
It’s our goal to provide the best service possible to you. We’re in this together, we’re here if you need us.
Questions? We're here for you. Visit Nelnet.com, email us at Help@Nelnet.net, or call us at 888.486.4722 from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. (Eastern) Monday - Friday.