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Federal Student Loan Deferment
Your deferment options may vary, depending on what kind of loans you have.
An important fact about deferment:
Deferment does NOT lock in your interest rates. While your federal student loans are deferred, they continue to have variable rates unless you are deferring a consolidated loan (which has a fixed interest rate). Currently, interest rates are at 39 year lows; if you consolidate now, you can defer after the consolidation is done and have these rates locked in for the life of the loan, and still perform federal student loan deferment on payments for up to 3 years or 36 months.
Click here to consolidate your student loans before deferment!
Stafford and Perkins loans:
Principal and interest payments may be deferred while the borrower is:
- Attending school at least halftime.
- Unemployed (up to three years).
- Studying in an approved graduate fellowship or rehabilitation program for the disabled.
- Experiencing economic hardship (up to three years).
Click here to download deferment forms >>
Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students (PLUS)
PLUS deferment options are based on the parent borrower's eligibility – for example, if the parent is unemployed, not the student on whose behalf the parent took out the loan. Federal student loan deferment may take place for principal and interest payments while the parent borrower is:
- Attending school at least halftime.
- Unemployed (up to three years).
- Studying in an approved graduate fellowship or rehabilitation program for the disabled.
- Experiencing economic hardship (up to three years).
Click here to download deferment forms >>
Alternative Loan:
Principal and interest payments for federal student loans may be deferred while the borrower is continuously enrolled up to a maximum of 48 months. Additional deferments are available based on your grade level, program of study and specific loan program. Read your application and promissory note carefully for details. You may also want to consider a federal loan forbearance for your alternative loan.
Eligibility for interest subsidy during deferment:
Consolidation loan applications received on or after January 1, 1993, and before August 10, 1993. Applications received on or after August 10, 1993, and before October 7, 1998, if the consolidation loan includes only subsidized federal Stafford Loans, subsidized federal consolidation loans or federally insured student loans. Applications for federal student loan deferment received on or after October 7, 1998, on the portion of the consolidation loan that represents subsidized federal stafford, subsidized federal consolidation loans or federally insured student loans.
