Loan Management

You are responsible for managing your student loans until they are paid in full. Resources are available to help you with that task.

If you feel that you may qualify for a deferment or cancellation or wish to request forbearance, you should contact your loan servicer for information, forms and filing procedures. Loan servicing information can be located at the National Student Loan Database System site.

If you have borrowed heavily, you may find it desirable to restructure your loan into something more manageable. One way to do that is to consolidate your loan into a new loan with a longer repayment period and less monthly payments. This will cost you more interest in the long run, but it may be way for you to afford your monthly payments. Additional information regarding loan consolidation can be found on the Federal web site http://studentaid.ed.gov.  Select "Repaying Your Loans" and "Repayment Information".
NOTE: You may want to exclude Perkins Loans from consolidation as discharge and cancellations provisions are lost with a Consolidation Loan.

If you would like to estimate your monthly loan payments, insert your loan particulars into a loan calculator to see how much you will have to set aside each month to pay off your loan.

It is a good idea to make a monthly budget as you plan for your loan repayment—try out the link in this sentence for help in making a budget.