Farmers, Ranchers can make USDA loan payments online

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last month that most farm loan borrowers will be able to make payments to their direct loans online through the Pay My Loan feature on farmers.gov in early February.

Pay My Loan is part of a broader effort by USDA’s Farm Service Agency to streamline its processes, especially for producers who may have limited time during the planting or harvest seasons to visit a local FSA office; modernize and improve customer service; provide additional customer self-service tools; and expand credit access to assist more producers, the USDA said.

On average, local USDA Service Centers process more than 225,000 farm loan payments each year. Pay My Loan gives most borrowers an online repayment option and relieves them from needing to call, mail, or visit a Service Center to pay their loan installment.

Farm loan payments can now be made at the borrower’s convenience, on their schedule and outside of FSA office hours.

Pay My Loan provides time savings for FSA’s farm loan employees by minimizing manual payment processing activities, the USDA said. This new service for producers means that farm loan employees will have more time to focus on reviewing and processing new loans or servicing requests.

The Pay My Loan feature can be accessed at farmers.gov/loans. To use the payment feature, a producer must establish a USDA customer account and a USDA Level 2 eAuthentication account or a Login.gov account.

This initial release allows only individuals with loans to make online payments. For now, borrowers with jointly payable checks will need to continue to make loan payments through their local office.

FSA has a significant initiative underway to streamline and automate the Farm Loan Program customer-facing business process. For the over 26,000 producers who submit a direct loan application annually, FSA has made several improvements, the USDA said.

The Online Loan Application is an interactive, guided application that is paperless and provides helpful features, including an electronic signature option, the ability to attach supporting documents such as tax returns, complete a balance sheet, and build a farm operating plan.

The Loan Assistance Tool provides customers with an interactive online, step-by-step guide to identifying the direct loan products that may be a fit for their business needs and to understanding the application process.

A simplified direct loan paper application reduces loan application size by more than half, from 29 pages to 13 pages.