Deferments

A deferment is one way in which payments on your student loan account may be postponed.  Deferments are available as entitlements to borrowers who meet certain specified conditions.  This means that if you provide your lender, in a timely fashion, with a request for deferment that fully documents your eligibility for that deferment, your lender must grant the deferment.

If you have loans that are subsidized (i.e., you were not responsible for the interest accruing on them while you were in school), the interest accruing on them during a deferment will be paid by the federal government.  If you have loans that are not subsidized, you will be responsible for the interest that accrues on them during periods of deferment.  You may arrange to pay this interest to your lender as its accrues; or, you may elect to have the accrued interest capitalized (i.e., added to the principal balance of your loans).

There are 14 different deferment types available in the Federal Family Education Loan Program.  Not all of them are available to all borrowers.  Instead, eligibility for deferments is determined by when you borrowed the earliest of your outstanding student loans (i.e., loans that are not yet paid off).  Select one of the three choices below to view the deferments for which you may be eligible.