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student loan deferment and advice

HalberdBlueHalberdBlue Registered User regular
edited May 2008 in Help / Advice Forum
Hi, I'm an undergrad right now. I'm figuring out how much in loans I need to take out for the coming school year (my 2nd) and researching on deferment periods and all that. I discovered that the loan I took out for my first year only allows for a deferment of 4 years in graduate school - I plan on doing my PhD in Physics which typically takes about 6 years, so that obviously isn't going to work. The loan I got for my first year is a CitiAssist loan, which is from CitiBank. I need to find a new bank that allows a longer deferment period in graduate school. It also needs to have a deferment period for up to 5 years in undergrad, since thats how long I plan on taking (whats funny is that the CitiAssist loan allows deferment for up to 10 years as an undergrad - go figure). Does anybody have any suggestions? Maybe I'm just bad at navigating bank websites but finding information on loan deferment periods seems to be very difficult.

Also, what can I do about the CitiAssist loan? I know that its a looong way off before I will have to worry about it, I just don't want to end up in a situation where I am paying back loans while going to school.

HalberdBlue on

Posts

  • DaenrisDaenris Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    I'm not 100% positive, but I believe SallieMae loans allow deferment for as long as you're in school at least half-time. You may want to poke around the website a bit to see (or just call them up tomorrow and ask). That's one option, and it's where nearly all my loans are from so really the only one I'm personally familiar with.

    Edit: Though with probably any unsubsidized loan, interest will accrue even during the deferment period, so you'll end up paying a lot more back if you're deferring payments for like 10 years until you get your PhD.

    Daenris on
  • HalberdBlueHalberdBlue Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    Yeah, I know I'm going to have a pretty large sum of money to pay back when I finish school. Not a whole lot I can do about that though. I'll look into Sallie Mae.

    HalberdBlue on
  • ElinElin Registered User regular
    edited May 2008
    My advice is to see if the loan has an option for interest only payments during the deferment period. The payment should be small and it will stop you from killing yourself with loans. Most private student loans have compound interest and it's a bitch. Also, you aren't paying the loan company itself, you're paying the guarantor i.e. Great Lakes Higher Education or Direct Loans (that's usually for federal loans.) Find out who that company is and contact them directly, you'll get better information that way.

    Elin on
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