flexible repayment
The repayment period for education loans is usually 10 years.
- However, depending on the amount you borrowed, you can choose to lower your monthly payments by taking as long as 25 or 30 years to pay back your loans.
- You can temporarily reduce the amount you pay when facing difficulties.
- You can even postpone repayment if you meet certain qualifications (such as economic hardship or unemployment).
BUT…the longer you take to pay off a loan, the more you pay. That's because additional interest accumulates over time.
You begin repaying federal education loans after you finish college. You even have a grace period after you finish your studies (six months for both subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford Loans) before payments are due.
If you have an unsubsidized loan, you may owe a lot of interest even before you begin repayment.
(Parents must begin repaying PLUS loans as soon as they borrow them.)
