How Do I Make Payments On My Student Loans

Last Updated on January 19, 2023

How do I make payments on my student loans?

If you have student loans, you might be wondering how you’re supposed to make payments on them. You’ve probably been told that the best way to pay off your student loans is to start early and make extra payments, but what if that’s not possible? What if your budget is tight and you can’t afford those extra payments?

The good news is that there are ways to get help with your student loans even if you don’t have the money for additional payments. Here are some things you can try:

  1. Consider a repayment plan with a lower monthly payment
  2. Consolidate your loans into one loan with one monthly payment
  3. Use income-driven repayment plans (IDR)
Paying Back Student Loans – How To, When & How Much Each Month

How Do I Make Payments On My Student Loans

Understanding the details of repayment on your federal student loan can save you time and money. Find out

what repayment plan options are available,

when you must begin making payments,

how to make your payment,

how to pay off your loan faster, and

what to do if you have trouble making payments.

I need more information about my loan servicer.
Find out who services your federal student loan(s).
Try This Resource
Federal Student Loans: Repaying Your Loans—Provides information about federal student loan repayment plan options, finding loan history and loan servicers, and making payments.

I need more information about the types of repayment plans available.
Learn more about Repayment Plans.

When You Must Begin Payments
The Grace Period
Making Payments
Having Your Student Loan Forgiven
REMEMBER: Your federal student loans can’t be canceled or forgiven because you didn’t get the education or job you expected or you didn’t complete your education (unless you couldn’t complete your education because your school closed).

Should I refinance to my federal student loans into a private loan?
As a federal student loan borrower, you have certain rights that are not typically available with private loans. While refinancing your federal student loans into a private student loan can sometimes lower your interest rate, your private student loan will not necessarily have the same terms and conditions as your federal student loan.

You should carefully review the terms of a private student loan before you give up the benefits available on federal student loans. The following are some examples of benefits that you may lose if you refinance your federal student loan into a private student loan:

Access to temporary loan payment relief through approved periods (deferment or forbearance) when you do not have to make payments because of financial hardship, continuing your education, or military service

No interest accumulation on subsidized student loans during periods when payments are deferred

Access to repayment plans based on your income that provide loan forgiveness once you have been in repayment for 20 or 25 years

Access to various forms of loan forgiveness and discharge, such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness, teacher loan forgiveness, total and permanent disability discharge, and borrower defense to repayment discharge

When You Must Begin Payments
Once you graduate, drop below half-time enrollment, or leave school, your federal student loan goes into repayment. However, if you have a Direct Subsidized, Direct Unsubsidized, or Federal Family Education Loan, you have a six-month grace period before you are required to start making regular payments. You’ll have a nine-month grace period if you’ve got a Perkins Loan. (Got a PLUS loan? You’ll go into repayment as soon as the loan is fully disbursed—which means once it’s paid out. But if you’re a graduate and professional student PLUS borrower, you will be placed on an automatic deferment while in school and for six months after graduating, leaving school, or dropping below half-time enrollment.)

Note: When your loan enters repayment, your servicer will automatically place you on the Standard Repayment Plan. You can request a different repayment plan at any time.

You can make prepayments on your loan while you are in school or during your grace period. Be aware, however, that any prepayment you make will not count as a qualifying payment in any loan forgiveness programs.

Your loan servicer will provide you with a loan repayment schedule that states when your first payment is due, the number and frequency of payments, and the amount of each payment.

Your billing statement will tell you how much to pay. Your monthly payment amount depends on your repayment plan. If you signed up for electronic communication, pay attention to your email. Most loan servicers send an email when your billing statement is ready for you to access online.

The Grace Period
For most federal student loan types, after you graduate, leave school, or drop below half-time enrollment, you have a six-month grace period (sometimes nine months for Perkins Loans) before you must begin making payments. This grace period gives you time to get financially settled and to select your repayment plan. Not all federal student loans have a grace period. Note that for most loans, interest accrues during your grace period. You can choose to pay the interest that accrues during your grace period. This prevents that interest from being added to the principal balance (also known as interest capitalization).

Loans and Their Grace Periods
Review this list to find out whether your loan has a grace period.

Direct Subsidized Loans and Direct Unsubsidized Loans have a six-month grace period before payments are due.

PLUS loans do not have a grace period; but if you received a PLUS loan as a graduate or professional student, you’ll automatically get a six-month deferment after you graduate, leave school, or drop below half-time enrollment. No payments are required during this six-month deferment period. If you’re a parent borrower who took out a PLUS loan to pay for your child’s education, you can request a six-month deferment after your child graduates, leaves school, or drops below half-time enrollment. Contact your loan servicer for more information.

If you received a Federal Perkins Loan, check with the school where you received your loan.

Circumstances That May Affect Your Grace Period
Certain situations that may affect your grace period include the following:

Active duty military—If you are called to active military duty for more than 30 days before the end of your grace period, you will receive the full six-month grace period when you return from active duty.

Returning to school before the end of your loan’s grace period—If you reenroll in school at least half-time before the end of your grace period, you will receive the full six-month grace period when you stop attending school or drop below half-time enrollment.

Loan consolidation—If you consolidate your loans during your grace period, you give up the remainder of your grace period and begin repayment after your Direct Consolidation Loan is processed (unless you request to have the processing of your consolidation loan delayed until closer to the end of your grace period).

Making Payments
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) uses several loan servicers to handle the billing and other services on loans for the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program and for loans that were made under the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program and that ED later purchased. Your loan servicer will set you up under the Standard Repayment Plan unless you tell your loan servicer you want a different repayment plan.

Type of Loan
Send Payments To
When to Send Payments
Direct Loans and FFEL loans owned by ED
Your loan servicer
Check with your loan servicer.
FFEL loans not owned by ED
The bank, credit union, or other lending institution that made the loan (also known as the lender)
Check with your lender.
Federal Perkins Loans
Your school or the billing agency your school designates
Check with your school.
If you schedule an automatic monthly electronic debit of your loan payment from your checking or savings account, you receive a 0.25% interest rate deduction on Direct Loans. Contact your loan servicer for more information. To make a payment by postal mail, contact your loan servicer for the mailing address.

To discuss repayment plan options or change your repayment plan, contact your loan servicer. First, though, you can use our Loan Simulator to get an early look at which plans you may be eligible for and see estimates for how much you would pay monthly and overall.

I want to get ahead by paying extra each month.
You can make payments before they are due or pay more than the amount due each month. Paying a little extra each month can reduce the interest you pay and reduce the total cost of your loan over time. Contact your loan servicer to discuss these options.

I’m having trouble making my loan payment.
Contact your loan servicer as soon as possible. You may be able to change your repayment plan to one that lowers your monthly payment and, in some cases, may be based on your income. You can also ask your loan servicer about your options for a deferment or forbearance or loan consolidation.

Try this Resource

Trouble Making Your Federal Student Loan Payments? provides information on what to do if you are having difficulty making your student loan payments.

I’ve missed one or more loan payments.
Stay in touch with your loan servicer—especially if you are struggling to make payments on your loans. Your loan servicer will explain your repayment options, such as applying for an income-driven repayment plan or a forbearance or deferment, to help you stay on track or get back on track when you fall behind.

One thing you definitely want to avoid is going into default! This occurs when you are at least nine months past due on your student loan. The consequences of default include damage to your credit rating and future borrowing ability. They may also include garnishment of your wages and withholding of your tax refunds. If you can’t make payments, contact your loan servicer to find out your options.

student loan forgiveness

If you are employed by a U.S. federal, state, local, or tribal government or not-for-profit organization, you might be eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. Keep reading to see whether you might qualify.

To ensure you’re on the right track, you should submit a Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) & Temporary Expanded PSLF (TEPSLF) Certification & Application (PSLF Form) annually or when you change employers. We’ll use the information you provide on the form to let you know if you are making qualifying PSLF payments. This will help you determine if you’re on the right track as early as possible.

*This provision will be waived through October 31, 2022 as part of the limited PSLF waiver. Learn more.

Suspended Payments Count Toward PSLF and TEPSLF During the COVID-19 Administrative Forbearance

If you have a Direct Loan and work full-time for a qualifying employer during the payment suspension (administrative forbearance), then you will receive credit toward PSLF or TEPSLF for the period of suspension as though you made on-time monthly payments in the correct amount while on a qualifying repayment plan.

To see these qualifying payments reflected in your account, you must submit a PSLF form certifying your employment for the same period of time as the suspension. Your count of qualifying payments toward PSLF is officially updated only when you update your employment certifications.

Digital signatures from you or your employer must be hand-drawn (from a signature pad, mouse, finger, or by taking a picture of a signature drawn on a piece of paper that you then scan and embed on the signature line of the PSLF form) to be accepted. Typed signatures, even if made to mimic a hand-drawn signature, or security certificate-based signatures are not accepted.

Note: In-grace, in-school, and certain deferment, forbearance, and bankruptcy statuses are not eligible for credit toward PSLF.

Have questions? Find out what loans qualify and get additional information about student loan flexibilities due to the COVID-19 emergency.

Qualifying Employer

Qualifying employment for the PSLF Program isn’t about the specific job that you do for your employer. Instead, it’s about who your employer is. Employment with the following types of organizations qualifies for PSLF:

  • Government organizations at any level (U.S. federal, state, local, or tribal) – this includes the U.S. military
  • Not-for-profit organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code

Serving as a full-time AmeriCorps or Peace Corps volunteer also counts as qualifying employment for the PSLF Program.

The following types of employers don’t qualify for PSLF:

  • Labor unions
  • Partisan political organizations
  • For-profit organizations, including for-profit government contractors

Contractors: You must be directly employed by a qualifying employer for your employment to count toward PSLF. If you’re employed by an organization that is doing work under a contract with a qualifying employer, it is your employer’s status—not the status of the organization that your employer has a contract with—that determines whether your employment qualifies for PSLF. For example, if you’re employed by a for-profit contractor that is doing work for a qualifying employer, your employment does not count toward PSLF.

Other types of not-for-profit organizations: If you work for a not-for-profit organization that is not tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, it can still be considered a qualifying employer if it provides certain types of qualifying public services.

Full-time Employment

For PSLF, you’re generally considered to work full-time if you meet your employer’s definition of full-time or work at least 30 hours per week, whichever is greater.

If you are employed in more than one qualifying part-time job at the same time, you will be considered full-time if you work a combined average of at least 30 hours per week with your employers.

If you are employed by a not-for-profit organization, time spent on religious instruction, worship services, or any form of proselytizing as a part of your job responsibilities may be counted toward meeting the full-time employment requirement.

Eligible Loans

Any loan received under the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program qualifies for PSLF.

Loans from these federal student loan programs don’t qualify for PSLF: the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program and the Federal Perkins Loan (Perkins Loan) Program. However, they may become eligible if you consolidate them into a Direct Consolidation Loan.

Student loans from private lenders do not qualify for PSLF.

Under normal PSLF Program rules, if you consolidate your loans, only qualifying payments that you make on the new Direct Consolidation Loan can be counted toward the 120 payments required for PSLF. Any payments you made on the loans before you consolidated them don’t count. However, if you consolidate these loans into a Direct Loan before October 31, 2022, you may be able to receive qualifying credit for payments made on those loans through the limited PSLF waiver. 

student loan forgiveness program

In certain situations, you can have your federal student loans forgiven, canceled, or discharged. Learn more about the types of forgiveness and whether you qualify due to your job or other circumstances.

Types of Forgiveness, Cancellation, and Discharge

The summaries below offer a quick view of the types of forgiveness, cancellation, and discharge available for the different types of federal student loans.

The PSLF Program forgives the remaining balance on your Direct Loans after you have made 120 qualifying monthly payments under a qualifying repayment plan while working full-time for a qualifying employer.

PSLF Resources

  • Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Help Tool
  • Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) & Temporary Expanded PSLF (TEPSLF) Certification & Application
  • Limited PSLF Waiver Information
  • Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program FAQ
  • Submit a Public Service Loan Forgiveness Reconsideration Request

Qualifying for PSLF

To qualify for PSLF, you must

  • be employed by a U.S. federal, state, local, or tribal government or not-for-profit organization (federal service includes U.S. military service);
  • work full-time for that agency or organization;
  • have Direct Loans (or consolidate other federal student loans into a Direct Loan);
  • repay your loans under an income-driven repayment plan*; and
  • make 120 qualifying payments.

To ensure you’re on the right track, you should submit a Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) & Temporary Expanded PSLF (TEPSLF) Certification & Application (PSLF Form) annually or when you change employers. We’ll use the information you provide on the form to let you know if you are making qualifying PSLF payments. This will help you determine if you’re on the right track as early as possible.

*This provision will be waived through October 31, 2022 as part of the limited PSLF waiver. 

Suspended Payments Count Toward PSLF and TEPSLF During the COVID-19 Administrative Forbearance

If you have a Direct Loan and work full-time for a qualifying employer during the payment suspension (administrative forbearance), then you will receive credit toward PSLF or TEPSLF for the period of suspension as though you made on-time monthly payments in the correct amount while on a qualifying repayment plan.

To see these qualifying payments reflected in your account, you must submit a PSLF form certifying your employment for the same period of time as the suspension. Your count of qualifying payments toward PSLF is officially updated only when you update your employment certifications.

Digital signatures from you or your employer must be hand-drawn (from a signature pad, mouse, finger, or by taking a picture of a signature drawn on a piece of paper that you then scan and embed on the signature line of the PSLF form) to be accepted. Typed signatures, even if made to mimic a hand-drawn signature, or security certificate-based signatures are not accepted.

Note: In-grace, in-school, and certain deferment, forbearance, and bankruptcy statuses are not eligible for credit toward PSLF.

Have questions? Find out what loans qualify and get additional information about student loan flexibilities due to the COVID-19 emergency.

Qualifying Employer

Qualifying employment for the PSLF Program isn’t about the specific job that you do for your employer. Instead, it’s about who your employer is. Employment with the following types of organizations qualifies for PSLF:

  • Government organizations at any level (U.S. federal, state, local, or tribal) – this includes the U.S. military
  • Not-for-profit organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code

Serving as a full-time AmeriCorps or Peace Corps volunteer also counts as qualifying employment for the PSLF Program.

The following types of employers don’t qualify for PSLF:

  • Labor unions
  • Partisan political organizations
  • For-profit organizations, including for-profit government contractors

Contractors: You must be directly employed by a qualifying employer for your employment to count toward PSLF. If you’re employed by an organization that is doing work under a contract with a qualifying employer, it is your employer’s status—not the status of the organization that your employer has a contract with—that determines whether your employment qualifies for PSLF. For example, if you’re employed by a for-profit contractor that is doing work for a qualifying employer, your employment does not count toward PSLF.

Other types of not-for-profit organizations: If you work for a not-for-profit organization that is not tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, it can still be considered a qualifying employer if it provides certain types of qualifying public services.

Full-time Employment

For PSLF, you’re generally considered to work full-time if you meet your employer’s definition of full-time or work at least 30 hours per week, whichever is greater.

If you are employed in more than one qualifying part-time job at the same time, you will be considered full-time if you work a combined average of at least 30 hours per week with your employers.

If you are employed by a not-for-profit organization, time spent on religious instruction, worship services, or any form of proselytizing as a part of your job responsibilities may be counted toward meeting the full-time employment requirement.

Eligible Loans

Any loan received under the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program qualifies for PSLF.

Loans from these federal student loan programs don’t qualify for PSLF: the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program and the Federal Perkins Loan (Perkins Loan) Program. However, they may become eligible if you consolidate them into a Direct Consolidation Loan.

Student loans from private lenders do not qualify for PSLF.

Under normal PSLF Program rules, if you consolidate your loans, only qualifying payments that you make on the new Direct Consolidation Loan can be counted toward the 120 payments required for PSLF. Any payments you made on the loans before you consolidated them don’t count. However, if you consolidate these loans into a Direct Loan before October 31, 2022, you may be able to receive qualifying credit for payments made on those loans through the limited PSLF waiver. 

Qualifying Payments

A qualifying monthly payment is a payment that you make

  • after Oct. 1, 2007;
  • under a qualifying repayment plan;
  • for the full amount due as shown on your bill;
  • no later than 15 days after your due date; and
  • while you are employed full-time by a qualifying employer.

Most of the PSLF qualifying payment rules have been suspended through October 31, 2022. Under this temporary waiver, you may get credit for payments you’ve made on loans that would not normally qualify for PSLF. These payments will count even if you didn’t pay the full amount or on-time. However, only payments made after Oct. 1, 2007 can count as qualifying payments. For more information, visit the limited PSLF waiver page.

You can make qualifying monthly payments only during periods when you’re required to make a payment. Therefore, you can’t make a qualifying monthly payment while your loans are in

  • an in-school status,
  • the grace period,
  • a deferment, or
  • a forbearance.

If you want to make qualifying payments, but you’re in a deferment or forbearance, contact your federal student loan servicer to waive the deferment or forbearance. However, you can still receive credit toward PSLF during the COVID-19 payment pause.

Your 120 qualifying monthly payments don’t need to be consecutive. For example, if you have a period of employment with a nonqualifying employer, you will not lose credit for prior qualifying payments you made.

The best way to ensure that you are making on-time, complete payments is to sign up for automatic debit with your loan servicer.

About the author

The Editorial Team at Infolearners.com is dedicated to providing the best information on learning. From attaining a certificate in marketing to earning an MBA, we have all you need. If you feel lost, reach out to an admission officer.
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