Perkins Loan Repayment Options

Perkins Loans are given a maximum of ten years to repay the loan, and will generally have payments calculated to be the same every month for those ten years.

While Perkins loans do not have any specific lower payment options, the school, or the servicer hired by the school, has some flexibility to lower your payment based on long term illness, unemployment or low income.

Perkins loans borrowers may also consolidate their loans into the Direct Loan program. Once consolidated, they become eligible for all the Direct Loan repayment options.  Note that Perkins loans have some unique forgiveness programs that you will lose eligibility to if you consolidate them and that this action can never be reversed.

Payments made under the Perkins loan program are never eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness however eligible payments made on these loans once consolidated are.