Read the vocabulary and the article, and then answer the questions.
According to ABC, after 3 years of no required payments, borrows will be “required to pay their monthly student loan bills starting in October.”
Vocabulary:
| Word | Type | Pronunciation | Definition |
| heating up | verb | /hiːtɪŋ ʌp/ | becoming more active or intense |
| Used in a sentence: The travel industry is heating up quickly. | |||
| surge | noun | /sɝːdʒ/ | a sudden and great increase |
| Used in a sentence: There has been a surge in travel bookings. | |||
| luxury | adjective | /ˈlʌk.ʃɚ.i/ | great comfort from expensive and beautiful things |
| Used in a sentence: A luxury hotel can easily cost 5 times the amount of a budget room. | |||
| forgo | verb | /fɔːrˈɡoʊ/ | to not have or do something |
| Used in a sentence: We had to forgo many things while we saved for our trip. | |||
ABC sites that the end of the three-year-long break on student loan payments is coming to an end, and “restarting payments all at once for so many borrowers will be an unprecedented task.” Since March of 2020, borrowers were not required to make payments on their federal student loans and did not incur additional interest charges. Things are changing fast for a lot of people.
Most borrowers will have their first payments due in October, although the exact due date may vary. They can expect to hear from their lender at least 21 days before the first payment is due.
Interest rates have been set to zero since March 2020 but will now resume to pre-pandemic rates, which vary from loan to loan. To find out the specifics, borrowers should reach out to their loan providers. If a borrower was enrolled in auto-pay prior to the pandemic, they will still need to log in and reenroll. Unfortunately setting up auto pay can take a couple months.
There are many different payment plans available to borrowers. The 10-year-repayment plan is default for borrowers, but there are several different types of income-based repayment plans people can apply for. Income-based plans consider the borrower’s income and family size into account when determining the monthly repayment amount.
Short Answer Questions:
- Do you have any student loan debt?
- What is the typical cost of a college education in your country?
- When did student loans become paused?
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