Tips for students with loans in Iowa

If you were lucky, studied hard or both, you may have had relatives or scholarships to help you pay for your education. If you're like most folks, though, you had to take out a couple of loans to take care of those bills. As long as you stay in school at least part-time, the government (or private lenders, if that's where you got your loans) generally won't come after you for payment. But once you're done, you have only six months before your first payment is due.

Assess - Your debt: How long will it take you to pay off? Your future: How will I pay off bills? Do I have a job to pay off these bills? If not, how can I get a job?

Help - Financial Counselors: Can consolidation loans save me? How do I budget my loan payments? Can my payments be lowered or deferred?

Got federal loans? Go to studentaid.ed.gov to find different methods of repayment like the Income Contingency Repayment Plan and the Graduated Repayment plan, plus how to let your lender know that you're currently unemployed and that you can't make any payments for the time being.