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Interest Rates on New Federal Student Loans Will Increase In July
This week, the U.S. Treasury Department made its annual move that will impact the interest levels borrowers pay on federal student loans – and those rates are going up for a second straight year.
For about a decade, the interest rates on Federal student loans have been set annually according to the 10-year Treasury note rate, plus a fixed percentage that varies by loan type (e.g., subsidized Stafford, unsubsidized Stafford, PLUS).
The results of this week’s 10-year Treasury note auction by the U.S. Treasury Department will mean an increase of more than one and one quarter percentage points for Federal student loans disbursed on or after July 1, 2022 and before July 1, 2023. The interest rates will be fixed for the life of the loan.
The new interest rates, along with a comparison of rates from the past four academic years, are listed below. Please note that pandemic relief measures currently in place mean that the interest rates of all federal student loans will remain paused at zero until August 31, 2022, absent new action by Congress or the Biden administration.
| Loan Type | 2022-23 | 2021-22 | 2020-21 | 2019-20 | 2018-19 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct Subsidized (Undergraduate) | 4.99% | 3.73% | 2.75% | 4.53% | 5.05% |
| Direct Unsubsidized (Undergraduate) | 4.99% | 3.73% | 2.75% | 4.53% | 5.05% |
| Direct Unsubsidized (Graduate) | 6.54% | 5.28% | 4.30% | 6.08% | 6.60% |
| Direct PLUS (Graduate and Parent) | 7.54% | 6.28% | 5.30% | 7.08% | 7.60% |