What happens to my student loans during the shutdown? Is FAFSA affected? What to know

Borrowers should still be able to reach their loan servicers and vendors to ask questions during a short shutdown, said Betsy Mayotte, the President and Founder of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors.

“The only time it becomes questionable is if the shutdown were to last a very long time — weeks or months,” Mayotte said.

“Remember that most of the functionality is done by outside vendors, and they will continue at least for the foreseeable future,” Mayotte said. “If, for some reason, the shutdown goes on for a very long time, then start paying attention to the studentaid.gov website to see if anything changes.”