How do I defer student loan?

How long can you defer a student loan for?

• took out student loan as an undergrad, will attend med school and defer it again. will they start asking for payments as soon as i graduate med school, or can i defer again into residency? Is it possible not to make payments til i'm employed as a doctor?

• Answer:

  It is possible to defer a student loan as long as you are enrolled as a student, but generally there will be time limits (i.e. 3 years). You may be able to obtain a forbearance while you are in residency if you are having economic hardship. Keep in mind that while you are in forbearance, interest is still accruing. This can rapidly increase the amount that you owe, and many students are appalled at how quickly it gets out of hand. I generally recommend that rather than going into forbearance, you choose an income contingent payment plan. Although it does spread the loan out for a longer term, it can lower the payments to an affordable level, and making some progress is better than going backwards. If you make 120 ontime payments and you are working for a public service organzation (such as a hospital), you may be eligible to have the balance of your loans forgiven--which is a whole lot better than paying off a pile of accrued interest. Even if you don't qualify for the public service forgiveness plan, you can always switch to a higher payment or pay them off entirely later on when you begin working as a doctor.