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Step 4: Know Your "Decision Points" and Keep a Calendar

Step 1: Know what you borrowed, from whom you borrowed, and who services the loans.

Step 2: Know the "relative cost" of your student loans.

Step 3: Know your grace periods, deferment options, and forbearance options.

Step 4: Know your "decision points" and keep a calendar.

Step 5: Run the numbers before choosing a repayment option of consolidating your student loans.

Step 6: Commit to keeping good records.

Step 7: Keep a budget and know when you need the help of a financial professional.

Step 8: Know and use your support systems.

This involves knowing when to file deferment forms and even forbearance requests (if you need forbearance), as well as when to choose repayment options including loan consolidation. The Federal Loan Repayment Timeline may help.

No one knows better than a resident how demanding work hours are, and how little time there may be to keep track of student loans. Residents may find that there are times when they do not really have to do anything to keep their loans in good standing. However, there are other times when they must be actively involved, whether that means filing a deferment form or forbearance request, placing a call to their loan servicer to notify them of an address, phone number, or email change, or notifying their school of similar changes.

Residents who subscribe to the FIRST for Residents Mailbox automatically receive periodic reminders throughout the year of when to file for deferment and forbearance, and when they may have to actually select a repayment plan.

As referenced above, the Loan Repayment Timeline may help you know when to do what. Just remember when reading the appropriate timeline, always remember that deferments must be applied for on an annual basis. In addition, please note that if you have a HEAL loan, the grace period actually starts after the deferment period is completed. Since processing deferment and forbearance forms does take time, borrowers are urged to contact their loan servicer(s) early. In general, for most servicers, 30 days should be enough time to process deferment, forbearance, and other requests from borrowers.

You will note from looking at the Loan Repayment Timeline that each borrower may have more than a few decision points for his or her portfolio throughout the life of their loan, especially during residency. For example, the decision points for a borrower with multiple loans might be something like this:

Around graduation, notify your loan servicer(s) and institution of any address, phone number, and email changes
About five months after graduation, watch for a notice from your loan servicer regarding the expiration of your 6 month grace period and begin filing for either deferment or forbearance (depending on eligibility) or select a repayment plan
About eight months after graduation, watch for a notice from the servicer of any Perkins Loans you may have regarding the expiration of your 9 month grace period and begin filing for either deferment or forbearance, or enter active repayment

You get the idea, these are just examples of how to read and follow the Loan Repayment Timeline. The actual decision points will obviously vary by borrower.

Please note that a May graduation date is assumed for the graduating class in the timeline we provide in the Guide, so you may need to adjust your decision points slightly if you graduated at another time.