A Beginner’s Guide to Repaying Student Loans

One critical piece of information you need: Who is the so-called service that will collect your payments each month on behalf of the federal government? You may have more than one, and you’ll want to know how to contact them to ask any questions you may have about your payments.

In her book “Cliffs Notes Graduation Debt,” Reyna Gobble suggests starting a simple spreadsheet to track every loan. For people who need to track down all of their private loans from non government lenders, she suggests they should get copies 

from compartmentalization of all three of their credit reports. These loans should show up on at least one report, though not all loans may be on all of the reports.

WHEN AND TO WHOM 

The first payments on your loans may be due at different times. Some federal loans give you a six-month grace period after you graduate while others give you nine months. With private loans, it varies.
Assume here (and really, everywhere throughout this process) that services will fail to find you and give you clear repayment instructions before the first payment is due. If you’ve moved or changed your email address since you took out your first loan and haven’t told the services about it, be especially vigilant. Also, have user names and passwords at the ready so you can check accounts online and call if you need more information.

When you do pay, you may be able to send in one check even if you have multiple loans from multiple years with one service. Find out, as it can save you some hassle. Then check to make sure the service is crediting the payment properly to every loan.

The Education loan calculator fails to account for the fact that un subsidized loans accrue interest while the student is in school. This is a...This country needs to teach high school students a basic life course on money management. Many people do not realize co-signing a loan

Thanks for mentioning the "bad actors" The thing I dislike most about fed student loans is that unlike other financial products, there is... Having the services pull the monthly payment from your checking account automatically can spare you some effort and risk, but that works only for people with regular sources of income who won’t bounce the payments for lack of bank funds. Again, check for problems. Sometimes the direct debits don’t start in the month they’re supposed to.

TAKING LONGER

The normal repayment period for federal student loans is 10 years. But depending on the loan and the balance, you may be able to lower your monthly payments by taking as long as 30 years to pay them off.
There are several ways to do this. One is through something called extended. Loan consolidation, where you combine many loans into a single one, is yet another possibility. If you want to consolidate all of your loans, make sure you don’t forget one. You can also enroll in a graduated payment program while in consolidation (and in some other circumstances) that allows you to pay increasing amounts over time.
The big downside to taking more than a decade to pay is that the total interest costs can be much higher. The Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project of the National Consumer Law Center has an extensive guide to loan consolidation on its website that outlines these and other trade-offs.

INCOME-DRIVEN REPAYMENT 

For people without much income, there are several government programs that set payments on federal student loans based on how much money you make. You can see a list of them on the right side of the Department of Education’s main income-based repayment web page. To see what your payment might be under the plans, visit its repayment estimator page. Your services will determine whether your income is low enough to make you eligible.

The income-driven payments may cause you to spend more on interest over time than you might have otherwise. Under certain circumstances, the federal government may eventually forgive the debt after a number of years as well.

The income-driven payments may cause you to spend more on interest over time than you might have otherwise. Under certain circumstances, the federal government may eventually forgive the debt after a number of years as well.

Sallie Mae, which said earlier this year that “nearly” 85 percent of its federal and private loan customers who were supposed to be making monthly payments were in fact up-to-date, offers one additional tip: If you’re confused or having trouble making payments, talk to your servicer

Source :http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/17/your-money/paying-for-college/a-beginners-guide-to-repaying-student-loans.html