Having Trouble With your Student Loan Payments? Look Into your Deferment and Forbearance Options
If you just graduated in May with federal Stafford student loans, you may be having to adjust your monthly budget to accommodate new student loan payments as your Stafford six-month grace periods end sometime this month. If you’re still looking for a job, or if you’re at an entry-level salary right now, you may not have the money you’re going to need to meet a new monthly student loan expense.
Whether you’re a recent graduate or any parent or student loan borrower, if you’re having trouble meeting your student loan payments each month, NextStudent, a leading Phoenix-based education funding company, urges you to contact your lenders about your deferment and forbearance options. Deferment and forbearance periods can allow you to temporarily reduce or postpone the monthly payments on your student loans without putting yourself at risk for damaging your credit score or defaulting on you student loans.
What are deferment and forbearance benefits?
Deferment allows you to temporarily stop making payments on your student loans. If you’re unemployed or experiencing financial hardship, you may be able to request a deferment, for up to a year at a time, up to a total of three years over the life of the student loan. You must contact your lender to request an unemployment or hardship deferment, and you may need to fill out a deferment request form.
Forbearance allows you to temporarily reduce or postpone payments on your student loans. You may be able to request a forbearance if you’re unemployed or experiencing financial hardship. You must contact your lender to request a hardship forbearance, and you’ll typically need to complete a forbearance request form. You may also need to submit supporting documentation.
Generally, a lender can grant a forbearance for up to a year at a time. Unlike unemployment or hardship deferments, there is no three-year cumulative limit on discretionary forbearance periods granted due to financial hardship.
Which student loans are eligible for deferment and forbearance?
Most federal student loans Student Loan Consolidation, Stafford loans, PLUS loans, and Grad PLUS loans) are eligible for deferment and forbearance benefits.
Some private student loans may also offer deferment or forbearance benefits—you should contact your private student loan lender.
Keep in mind that if you’re considering an economic hardship deferment or forbearance, you need to contact your lender, even for your federal student loans. Hardship deferments and discretionary forbearances are generally not automatic.
Am I being charged interest while my student loans are in deferment or forbearance?
Yes. Interest charges continue to accrue on your student loans even if they’re in deferment or forbearance. You’ll be responsible for the interest on your unsubsidized student loans (such as unsubsidized Stafford loans) that are in deferment and on any of your student loans, whether subsidized or unsubsidized, that are in forbearance. The government will pay the interest on any of your subsidized student loans (such as Perkins or subsidized Stafford loans) that you have in deferment.
Any unpaid interest that accrues during a deferment or forbearance period will be capitalized and added to your principal student loan balance for you to repay once you go back into repayment. Even if your payments are postponed during a deferment or forbearance period, you can always choose to make interest payments to avoid having accrued interest added to your principal student loan balance and capitalized.
NextStudent believes that getting an education is the best investment you can make, and we’re dedicated to helping you pursue your education dreams by making college funding simple. Learn more about Student Loans, Private Student Loans and Student Loan Consolidation at NextStudent.com.
Watch the video related to student loans
Student loan consolidation is a great way to get a lower interest rate, as a reputable consolidation company will buy each loan off of the original lenders, lump it into one loan and offer lower interest and even deferment plans. Consolidate student loans to get them paid off more quickly with financial advice from a guidance counselor in thisfree video on student loans. Expert: Cheri Ashwood Contact: www.wearehdtv.com Bio: Cheri Ashwood has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and education …
Help answer the question about student loans
Student loans have to start being paid off 6 months after you graduate. What if you continue to law school?I'm planning on going to law school after I graduate from a 4-year college. I'm just wondering if I'll have to start paying back my student loans after 4-year college, or after I graduate from law school?
P.S. I'm just doing some preliminary checks on student loans in general, I'm a senior in high school and I'm just thinking ahead.
About Author
Jeff Mictabor is an enthusiast on the topic of student loan issues in the news. He has been writing for the past 10 years for a variety of education publications. He now offers his writing services on a freelance basis.
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10 comments
To get a student loan, your first step is to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). You should submit your FAFSA as soon as possible – you can make estimates and correct the details later.
Once you’ve completed your FAFSA, you’ll want to visit your school’s student aid office. Ask what kind of aid you might expect.
Try this site
http://free-college-information-usa.blogspot.com/
Free College information on financial aid for students, scholarship, student loans and more.
College is an investment. All investments involve RISK. College is the riskiest investment you can make. If you don’t think you can afford it, then DON’T GO! Spend your money on an iPod or on Blu-Ray discs or on a trip to Las Vegas.
Nope, unless they take you to court and your bank received a subpoena from them.
No, you can only deduct the interest when you actually pay it, not when it accrues
It seems like everyone who answers on this subject just refer you to a website. Here's my knowledge so far on my son's student loan… He just got accepted for his first fiscal year in school and the fine print states that if you pay $1000 when your payment is only $250 (example), then your next payment wouldn't be due until after those other payments are paid from what was left of the $1000, meaning, you have an extra three months of payments paid from that money before you had to pay again. Make sense? But no matter if you overpay or pay monthly, you do need to make sure you pay on time, or it could affect your credit rating. I'm not sure what you're saying on your second part, but all loans have a minimum payment due each month, if that's what you're talking about. So what it comes down to is that you can always pay more than what you owe. No bank will turn down money early.
With 20 years experience in the mortgage business, I have never seen a student loan that was in repayment treated any differently than any other long term debt. While you may be able to ask for a hardship deferal in the future, which is the only advantage on a student loan that doesn't exist on a standard installment loan, no lender wants to anticipate that circumstance. As long as the payments extend past 10 months in the future, the lender will only use your monthly payment as part of your qualifying ratios. The total debt is not that important and would only be a minor factor. What will matter more is your payment history on the student loan: it should be perfect. It all comes down to the quality of your credit history (your FICO score) and your qualifying ratios of debt/income.
Try this site
http://free-college-information-usa.blogspot.com/
Free College information on financial aid for students, scholarship, student loans and more.
That is a question they should be able to answer for you. Is it possible there was a class action suit? Or included in bankruptcy? Contact them and find out.
n
No one will "take over" your loans. You will still owe the money to your lender when you are in forbearance. They will simply add interest every month while you are making payments.
If you are asking about defaulting the lender will just contract out with a collection agency to start calling and hounding you to mail them payments. If you make 6 to 12 months worth of willing and reasonable payments you can ask your lender to "rehabilitate" your loan. This is when you are issued a new loan and pay off the one in default so you can get federal fin aid again. Again, rehabilitation can only be done after you have made 6 to 12 months of payments.
When your federal educational loans are in default, you have several options:
You can repay the loan in full.
You can negotiate a new payment plan with your lender.
You can "rehabilitate" your loan.
You can consolidate your loan.
Obviously option one is rarely attractive or possible for defaulted borrowers.
Option two (renegotiate) should be investigated fully - most borrowers skip this step, but it's probably the best option for most people. Call your lender and ask to speak to someone in the "Workout" Department. Explain your situation to them (there's nothing unusual about it) and ask what options are available to you for switching to a graduated, extended or income-sensitive repayment plan. If your lender will agree to change your repayment plan, a few regular payments will get your default status removed, and the new plan may be easier for you to keep up with.
Option three (rehabilitation) is really a specific form of a workout agreement. It probably won't help you much in your situation, because it requires an agreement between you and the lender that will allow you to make 9 consecutive on-time payments of some agreed-upon amount.
Option four is everyone's favorite, but you must absolutely understand what a consolidation loan will do. To keep this utterly simple - a consolidation loan is a brand new loan that will pay off your old, defaulted loan. A consolidation loan MAY lower your monthly payments, but understand how this works. A consolidation loan never lowers your payments by wiping away some of your debt - a consolidation loan lowers your payments by stretching out the length of your loan. If you pay less every month, you'll make many additional monthly payments, and - in the end - you'll pay far more back than you would have paid on the original loan.
As an example: Suppose I lent you $100 and you agreed to pay me back in 2 weeks by paying me $50 a week. You came back a few days later and explained that you weren't going to be able to afford to pay me $50 - is there something else we could do? "Oh, absolutely," I'd say, gallantly. "Instead of paying me $50 a week for 2 weeks, how about if you only pay me $10 a week for 17 weeks?"
See - in the end, you'll pay me back $170 instead of $100 - that's how a consolidation loan works. But remember - we're not talking a $100 loan for a couple of weeks - by the time you pay that $5000 loan of yours back over many years, you'll pay a few thousand more than you might have paid if you didn't consolidate that loan.
I've attached some information about consolidating from the Department of Education - take a few minutes to read it over. If you do choose to go this route, be sure to consolidate with a reputable lender (or directly with the government) and not with some fly-by-night operation that you learn about from some pay-per-click site shilled on Yahoo! Answers.
Good luck to you!
j:
As long as you remain a full-time student, you will continue to qualify for "in-school deferment". You won't have to begin paying your loans back until you finish law school.
The only requirement is that you remain registered at least half-time at an eligible institution, and that you don't take more than 6 months off at any time during your schooling.
By the way - this is an automatic feature of government-backed student loans (Stafford/Perkins/PLUS), but it is not necessarily characteristic of all private loans. Also remember that the in-school deferment requires attendance at an "eligible" school. Some students have pursued law or medical degrees at foreign universities, only to discover that some of these schools are not participants in the Federal Student Aid program, and therefore, ineligible for in-school deferment.
I hope that helps - good luck to you!