Defering Your Student Loans
If you are having trouble paying your student loans you might want to think of applying for a deferment. A deferment gives you time to get your finances together so you can begin to pay your student loans back again. One way you can apply for a deferment is if you have financial hardship. This means you have lost a major source of income due to illness or losing your job. You might have taken on the extra responsibilities of taking on a dependent or you might have had a baby. With the financial hardship clause you can have six months to a year deferment applied and you can restructure your life so that student loans will not take away from your quality of life.
If you are in the military and you get deployed over seas, your student loans will be put on hiatus until your unit comes back stateside. You will be able to serve your country and your student loans will be fine. You will still accrue interest on non-subsidized loans but your subsidized loans will be waiting for you when you come back stateside. You can check with your financial officer on your base for more details. If you are in the National Guard the same policy applies to you. Whether you are in the reserves or active duty, you have to apply for it. It does not automatically happen.
Another way to avoid payment for a time is to enroll back in school. If your employer pays for your classes or you have a grant or scholarship, enroll in classes for at least six credits a semester and you will be able to have your student loans deferred for as long as you are in school. It is better to pay off your loans as fast as you can, but if life gets in the way, deferment is the best option. When you get your ducks in a row, you can pay back those loans and get on with life. You don’t want to spend the decades of your twenties and thirties paying back what you spent in four years.
|