Repaying Your Student Loan

Repayment Obligations and Responsibilities

To manage the repayment of your student loan(s), you need to be aware of your responsibilities and obligations.

Please refer to your Promissory Note and Rights and Responsibilities Statement for the complete terms and conditions of your loan. Your Note and Statement govern the terms and conditions of your loan. Recent legislation changed some of the terms of Federal Stafford, PLUS, and Consolidation loans.

To help you better understand your responsibilities and obligations, we've highlighted the following areas: Change of Status and Grace Period.

Change of Status

As a borrower under the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP), you are required to notify your school and/or lender if any of the following events occur before a loan is repaid.

You must notify your school's financial aid office if any of the following events take place:
- You reduce your enrollment status to less than half time.
- You withdraw from school.
- You stop attending classes.
- You fail to re-enroll for any term.
- You have a change in your expected graduation date, and/or
- You change your name, local address, permanent address, or e-mail address.
Shortly before your enrollment ends, you must participate in exit counseling with your school, during which you will update your loan records about your:
- Permanent address,
- E-mail address,
- Telephone number,
- Future employer, and
- References.
You must notify the lender of a particular loan if you fail to enroll with respect to such loan:
- At least half time for the loan period certified, or
- At the school that certified your eligibility.
You must promptly notify your lender(s) if any of the following events occur before loans held by your lender(s) are repaid:
- You change your address, your telephone number, or your e-mail address,
- You change your name (for example, maiden name to married name),
- You withdraw from school or begin attending less than half time,
- You transfer from one school to another school,
- You change your employer or your employer's address or telephone number changes, and/or,
- You have any other change in status that would affect your loan (for example, the loss of eligibility for an unemployment deferment by obtaining a job).

Grace Period for Stafford loans

You will receive a grace period (generally six months) before the first payment of your Federal Stafford Loan must be made. The grace period begins the day after you cease to be enrolled at least half time at an eligible school.

Your grace period does not include any period up to three years during which you are called or ordered to active duty for more than 30 days from a reserve component of the Armed Forces of the United States, including the period necessary for you to resume enrollment at the next available regular enrollment period.

Commencement of Repayment for PLUS loans
Unlike Stafford loans, a PLUS loan does not have an "automatic" in-school deferment and grace period. However, PLUS loans do offer some flexibility when it comes to beginning repayment. At the borrower's option the first payment of a PLUS loan is due

within 60 days after the final loan disbursement is sent to the school; or
for a graduate or professional student borrower, when he or she ceases to be enrolled in school at least half time (i.e., graduates, withdraws, or reduces coursework); or
for a parent borrower, the day after six months after his or her dependent student ceases to be enrolled at least half time.

If a borrower decides to have his or her payments temporarily postponed, the borrower must pay the interest on the loan or may allow it to be capitalized (added to the principal).