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Home » For Borrowers » Basics of Student Loans » Understanding Your Student Loan Situation » What is the Status of Your Loans?

What is the Status of Your Loans?

Depending on your situation, your the status of your loans may be any of the following:

  • In Repayment: monthly payments are due on your student loans
  • Grace Period: the waiting period after graduating from or leaving school before repayment begins
  • Deferment:  a pause on student loan payments where interest does not typically accrue, usually because of specific situation such as economic hardship, military service, cancer treatment, enrolling in school, or unemployment
  • Forbearance: a temporary pause of student loan payments due to a hardship, but interest usually still accrues
  • Delinquent: behind on student loan payments, but not yet in default
  • Default: after missing a set number of payments (usually nine months of payments for federal student loans, but may be different for private loans), your loans are declared to be in default

For federal student loans, this information can be found on your Dashboard when you log in to your studentaid.gov account. For private student loans, you will likely need to review your account online with your loan servicer or contact your lender directly. See our page on Finding Your Student Loan Information for more help.

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The National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) shares stories about borrower issues with lawmakers and policy advocates on a regular basis. Share your story and help us fight to make the law better for borrowers!


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