Student loan restart: 5 ways you can help your members
It’s here: in September, student loan repayments are set to resume after a long pause that was brought on by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. So much time has passed that many people have adjusted their monthly budgets to exclude student loan payments entirely. They’ve gotten used to not paying them and now, with things beginning again, people understandably have a lot of questions ahead of what will likely be a stressful experience.
Thankfully, your credit union can help its members. One of the factors that has always separated credit unions from big banks is the level of support that you can offer to members. Assisting your members–in ways both large and small–during a tough financial time is a great chance to do precisely that.
The student loan crisis
According to one recent study, Americans owe about $1.77 trillion worth of federal and private student loan debt as of 2023. The same source estimates that about 45.3 million people have federal student loans alone. On an individual level, the typical federal student loan debt stands at $37,718, with the overall average balance (including private loan debt) potentially reaching as high as $40,499.
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