2026年6月19日 / 美国东部时间下午1:38 / 哥伦比亚广播公司/美联社
美国教育部周四宣布,将为部分联邦学生贷款借款人临时下调利率,此举旨在缓解还款压力,当前学生贷款违约率已升至六年来最高水平。
根据纽约联邦储备银行的数据,此次下调是将借款利率临时下调1个百分点,而今年第一季度学生贷款违约率达到10.3%,为六年来最高水平,较2024年中期飙升了20倍。
教育部副部长尼古拉斯·肯特表示,这一调整旨在“让学生贷款还款比以往任何时候都更容易”,并改善“联邦学生贷款资产组合的整体健康状况”。
联邦学生贷款资产规模已膨胀至近1.7万亿美元,数百万借款人难以按时还款。
但此次调整并非面向所有借款人,申请降息的借款人需要满足资格标准。与此同时,特朗普政府将于7月1日起对学生贷款政策进行全面改革,对美国人的贷款额度和还款选项设置新限制。
以下是该计划的细节及相关背景:
谁有资格享受利率下调?
此次调整仅惠及部分借款人——即2012年7月1日之后发放的联邦直接贷款借款人,且这些借款人已开通或即将开通自动还款服务。
许多借款人无法立即受益。要符合资格,他们需要先完成一系列操作,包括开通自动还款,部分情况下还需整合贷款。
目前仅有40%的借款人开通了自动还款,教育部希望通过此次降息激励措施提高这一比例。
近900万学生贷款借款人处于违约状态,即已连续九个月未还款。若要获得降息资格,他们必须恢复良好的还款记录,通常需要先整合贷款,再申请新的还款计划。
已开通自动还款的借款人怎么办?
对于已开通自动还款的借款人,节省的金额会更少。
当前使用自动还款服务的借款人已享受0.25%的利率折扣,因此此次新的降息仅会再下调0.75个百分点。
利率下调将持续到何时?
对所有借款人而言,此次利率下调均为临时政策,将持续至2028年6月30日。
The Trump administration says it is cutting student loan interest. Not everyone qualifies.
June 19, 2026 / 1:38 PM EDT / CBS/AP
The Education Department on Thursday said it is temporarily cutting interest rates for some federal student loan borrowers, a move aimed at easing repayment costs as delinquencies climb to their highest level in six years.
The reduction – a temporary shave of 1 percentage point from borrowing costs — comes as 10.3% of student loans were delinquent during the first quarter, representing the highest share in six years and a twenty-fold spike since mid-2024, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Education Undersecretary Nicholas Kent said the change is a way of “making student loan repayment easier than ever” and of improving “the overall health of the federal student loan portfolio.”
The federal student loan portfolio has ballooned to almost $1.7 trillion, with millions of borrowers struggling to keep up.
But the change does not apply to all borrowers, and those pursuing the reduction will need to meet eligibility criteria. At the same time, the Trump administration is overhauling student loans beginning July 1 with new limits on how much Americans can borrow and their repayment options.
Here are details of the plan and some context behind them:
Who is eligible for the interest rate reduction?
The change will only affect a subset of borrowers — those with federal Direct Loans issued after July 1, 2012, who are already enrolled in automatic payments or sign up for them.
Many borrowers won’t see any immediate benefit. To qualify, they have to first take a set of actions including signing up for auto pay and, in some cases, consolidating their loans.
Currently, just 40% of borrowers are enrolled in auto pay — a figure the department is hoping to increase with the new incentive of the interest rate reduction.
Nearly 9 million student loan borrowers are in default, meaning they’ve missed nine months of payments. For them to become eligible for the rate reduction, they must get back in good standing, typically by consolidating their loans and then applying for a new repayment plan.
What if you already have autopay set up?
For borrowers already enrolled in auto pay, the savings will be smaller.
Borrowers who currently use auto pay already receive an interest-rate discount of 0.25%, so the new reduction takes off just 0.75%.
When does the interest rate reduction end?
For all borrowers, the rate reduction will be temporary, lasting through June 30, 2028.
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