Man it blows. I just checked and even though I make almost double the payment my overall loan is hardly getting touched at this point. That is because of the graduated repayment plan, I had to double my payments because I was LOSING ground with my regular payment. We have several thousand in loans between the two of us and I don't regret it, it got us to where we are which will be making over 6 figures, but eek, it is a lot to repay. I am scrimping to pay out of pocket for this final year (about $6k) because I just cannot stand the thought of MORE loans!

I would defer them. Since you're at least half time that should be no problem at all.

I paid off my loans and am now just going off of pell grants. Woot for being low income. Eric is also a student and has loans but we just keep paying year round rather than deferring because we, especially I, want them over with.

yep yep

What is teh point of deffering them? Then I will just have MORE to pay off lol I need to get the repaid!!

Yup - $340/mo is our payment and I can't defer because of the consolidation. The payment goes up to $500+ in several years too. Once we get our debt snowball far enough (paying off cars first) we plan to send double or triple and get it paid off in 10-15 instead of 30. No regrets - he needed the degree and it's certainly helped his career since a degree is required for his position. I'm only using enough to cover tuition and books -- the excess is getting set aside for once I transfer and it costs 3-4x as much.

That's a great idea. We plan on using my overage to offset the costs of Eric's pricier uni. Still hoping to come out of it all with the bare minimum amount of loans.

We deferred the loans when we were really struggling but since we can afford the payment we're rolling along. I'd hate to drag repayment out if we don't have to.

Our loans went into repayment when we were 29. We have a graduated 20-year repayment (meaning the payments start small and increase). We did this so we would have a small required payment just in case, but we pay more than we are required to. They are fixed at about 4% so not TOO bad on the interest BUT, we have retirement and our children's college to think about so, definitely not planning on taking anywhere NEAR 20 years to repay (hopefully in under 5 - so about 3 years from now). I don't regret our loans at all. But they are a harsh reality and we need to get the paid off asap.

Well, I was under the impression that money was tight. Depending on the type of loan, deferring may not increase what you owe by much, if any. That money would be better spent paying off higher interest debt (assuming you are choosing one or the other, if you can do both then yeah, deferring them doesn't make any sense).

If you are doubling up on payments or paying more than your minimum, I would recommend that you send the lender a note with your payment that you want the additional money to go do the principal of the loan and not the interest. The principal is what causes the interest and the intrest keeps rising if the principal is not paid down. You can make the min. to the intrest and start hacking away at the principal so over time the payment will be reduced. *** per banker****

Now that said... I have put my loan on deferment, HOWEVER, I am still sending in something ($150) each month, that way my loan is still being paid down, but I don't have the pressure of HAVING to make that huge payment and can drop the payment down if I need to.

Since 1996 :( for my first degree.

Class that I am taking now I pay out of pocket (community college, one class, not a big deal)

yea, it totally sucks paying these. With money already being tight, I wish there was a way to defer mine. However I have already defered them for a couple of years and am not sure if I can do that again. I bet I have 5 years left on mine.

omg...yes. we have a very very large student loan. NO end in sight.