Consolidation

Consolidation is the most common action taken by majority of college students out there attempting to pay off student loans. This can be a great option when you have numerous loans and you are paying $300 a month on each loan. Obviously that is nearly a grand a month that you are paying. On top of that it is annoying to be making that many payments, especially when you have other payments with utilities, rent, car payments, mortgages, the list can go on and on.

This option is recommended only once because if you have to attend further school after your undergraduate then this is going to be a challenge to get another subsidized loan. Companies don’t like it when you consolidate the loan and transfer your payments to someone else. If a company sees you do this once then there is a good chance you would do this again with them.

Forbearance

This option gives you three months of no payments. This is often done with many graduates when they can use that money initially for a down payment on a house or car, a rent deposit, or a medical situation that comes up. This is important for you to do when you have a situational circumstance. Often lenders will be fine with this even though they don’t have to do this for you.

Deferment

This is the most difficult way to delay payments. I suggest that you use this only if you have some good reasons like loosing a job, serious medical problems that will require a lot of medical attention and bills that come along with that, or some other long term issue that will require them to put of your payments. This could go for a while, but eventually you will have to be responsible for paying this loan back.

Also the interest could still be accruing during this time period if your loan isn’t subsidized by the government. So you could end up spending majority of your life paying off a student loan. That is something you want to avoid. With all of these options make sure that you make them as short as possible so you don’t have to worry about money.