Forbearance

Forbearance is a lender's formal agreement to pause or reduce payments temporarily during hardship, without treating you as delinquent. The critical detail is what happens to the interest: in most forbearances it keeps accruing and is added to the balance, so a six-month pause makes the loan bigger, not smaller. Also confirm how the paused payments come back — spread over the remaining term, or as a lump sum at the end, which is a very different outcome.