Is forbearance the best option if I can’t afford my monthly student loan payments?

Forbearance allows you to temporarily stop making student loan payments, but also disqualifies you from accumulating time towards loan forgiveness.

Written by James Park
Updated on October 10, 2023

If you are starting residency/internship or joining the Peace Corps or AmeriCorps, it is better to get on an IDR plan to get that time counted towards forgiveness.
- Often times, you can get $0 payments which is effectively the same thing as forbearance.
Servicer’s sometimes mistakenly report forbearance periods as late payments to the credit agencies.
- Check your credit annually to make sure there are no irregularities.
Being in forbearance causes DTI to be calculated at 1% of .5% of total student loan balance, hurting your chances of getting approved for a mortgage.

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