Paying for college or graduate school is possible with the many different loans available to students. Repaying these student loans is inevitable, although many borrowers don’t think about it until the time comes to start writing the checks. When you finally finish school and find yourself needing to make the student loan payments, many do fine on their own. However, there are others who need some assistance in the repayment arena and the following options can come in handy.

Deferment

Deferment is one way to repay your loan with some help along the way. At times, a borrower will find it difficult to make their payments. When you ask your lender for a deferment, the loan repayments will be paused for a few months or so, usually up to a year, but the interest will continue to be tacked on to the total amount due. When you defer your loan you will have additional time to pay back the loan, depending on the length of your deferment, so that the final repayment date is extended. This will differ in the case of a forbearance, which will be described next.

Forbearance

Forbearance is another way to pause your loan payments. As with deferment, when you ask your lender to grant you forbearance, the interest will continue to be added on. However, with a forbearance you will still have to stick with the original final due date of the total repayment of the loan. Therefore, the monthly payments toward the end of the loan will be higher than if you had not requested forbearance and paid your monthly loan payments on time.

Loan Consolidation

Another repayment option which differs from the deferment and forbearance options is consolidation. Consolidation of loans consists of taking all current loans and combining them together into one big loan. The purpose of doing so is to get a lower interest rate on the loan. You will also benefit by having only one loan payment per month as opposed to a few different loan payments each month, if you have more than one loan/lender. Consolidating your loans will save you money by getting you a lower interest rate and also make it easier for you to pay your monthly loan payments by making the total amount due lower. If you can consolidate your loans, this is often a better way to proceed than forbearance or deferment as you are saving yourself money. Just make sure that you are able to meet the monthly payments with a consolidated loan. If not, then a forbearance or deferment would probably work best for the time being.

Review Your Options and Select the Best Repayment Method for You

These three options are great ones to consider if you find yourself having a hard time making payments on your school loans. Keep in mind that the loan consolidation option is a good one whether or not you are having issues with monthly payments, as this will save you money in the long run by reducing your interest rate and getting you a more favorable one.