Student loan payments resume Oct. 1, how borrowers on the Central Coast can prepare

SEASIDE, Calif. (KION)- Student loan payments are due on October 1st for the first time in three years.

"I think everybody's got stress from the student loans overall," said Christian Vermilyea who lives in Monterey County.

Christian says his wife graduated college in 2015 and has been paying it off ever since.

"She wants to pay them off early. That's the thing. so with my job, we're basically living off of my income and her income we're using to pay the loans off," said Christian.

Loan repayments were put on hold during the pandemic and well into this year. For those getting back to paying off those loans, a new federal program is available to help out.

The "SAVE program" calculates monthly payments based on a borrower's income.

This year, borrowers' payments will equal 10% of their income. Next year, it will be reduced to 5%.

If you still are not able to afford that Biden is also providing an "on-ramp period" which is like a grace period for missed payments until September of next year.

During this time borrowers won't be placed into default for missing payments, which could impact their credit score drastically.

KION reached out to CSUMB to see what advice they have and what they're doing to help students struggling.

In a statement, they said:

"In the last year, we increased our scholarship disbursement to students two-fold and the average student loan debt of students who took out loans decreased."

The on-ramp program protects you from going into default, you can still accrue interest on those payments.

For the SAVE program, some students may take longer​ to pay back their loans which can also build interest.
More than 4 million people have enrolled in the SAVE program so far.