Income-related repayment plans can make your student loan debt more manageable by lowering the amount of your monthly payments. To lower your monthly payments, you may consider one of three plans including Income-Based Repayment Plan (IBR Plan), Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan, or an Income-Contingent Repayment Plan (ICR Plan). Each of these has criteria that must be met in order to qualify, mainly that you must benefit by having your payment amount under the plan be less than your standard payment. Also, your student loan debt must be higher than your annual income or a significant portion of it.
Keep in mind that the time period for each of these programs is up to one year only, though you can continue to reapply. With IBR you may reapply until your loans are paid-in-full or until you quality for loan forgiveness. With deferment, you may reapply for up to a total of three years’ time.
