We had a customer come in who is leaving for Boot Camp on Monday and said his recruiting officer told him he didn't have to make any loan payments since he was going into the military. We said we would lower his interest rate to 6% and recalculate the payment, but he said his accounts should be frozen. He is going to check with the recruiter and get back to us.

His recruiter also told him he should cancel all accounts, freeze all debit/credit cards etc for the four months that he will be at boot camp. Do other instituitons actually close accounts or do you just put alerts on the accounts?

Is the person going to marine boot camp? If so this could be the reason why he is requesting the freeze. Looking through the posts earlier under this section there were a few that discussed Marine boot campers wanting to postpone their payments. I guess this is because while at bootcamp they have no outside contact and do not get paid until they are done with camp. I believe it also stated that their checks and cards are taken away. There is no part of the regulation that requires it but it sounded like the concensus was that it may not hurt to defer the payments since you will run into the obstacle of trying to collect on the loans and the stipulations regarding such activities.

One more thing, you may want to check with your state law because some states may allow for deferral.

Correct. You have no federal requirement for this. State law may be more restrictive on you. And as I understand it the Marines don't get paid while in boot camp. Other services do. I assume that means the Navy does which would be odd since they pay the Marines.

Still, folks at home can handle one's affairs if this possible.