When Are Student Loans Due?
When you took out a student loan, if you are like most people, you didn’t pay any attention at all to when you would have to start paying it off, or how much the loan was really going to cost you in the long run. That’s a big mistake most teenagers make, and it is unfortunate that all the adults in their lives rarely step in to help them find a better way to pay for college. Especially, since so many of those adults are still paying for their own student loans and understand the long term pain and anguish they cause.
But, if you, too, have found yourself with the uncomfortable roommate of a student loan, you need to know when you are required to start paying it off. The short answer is: as soon as possible. The sooner you pay off your loan, the less interest you will pay on it and the sooner it will stop living rent-free in your mind.
Whether you choose to pay as much as you can as soon as you can on your loan to defeat it quickly, or whether you just want to make the smallest possible payments as rarely as possible so that it can cling to you for the rest of your life, there is a requirement to start paying it at some point, and you came here to find out what that requirement is:
Whoever provided the student loan is the loan servicer. The loan servicer is required to provide a loan payment schedule. This schedule will tell you when your first payment is due, how often you need to make payments, and how much you need to pay at a minimum.
If the government is your loan servicer, your loan comes with an automatic deferment. As long as you are still attending school at least half time, you won’t have to start paying back the loan…yet. Some loans come with a grace period, too: Six months after you drop below half-time enrollment or leave school, you’ll have to start paying the loan back for direct subsidized, direct unsubsidized, or federal family education loans. However, the longer you wait to start paying back your loan, the longer it will take you to repay it, and the more money you will have to pay overall thanks to the interest that accrues.
Want to learn how to afford college without relying on debt, or do you need help paying off your student loans? Schedule an appointment with a financial coach today to get started.
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