Last week we touched on the basics of the Graduated Repayment Plan for student loans. This week we are going to cover the basics of the Extended Repayment Plan.

The extended repayment plan is for eligible federal student loans and has a 25 year maximum repayment period.

This plan allows for your student loan payments to be either fixed or graduated as long as the loan will be paid off within 25 years. As a general rule, your payments under the extended repayment plan will be lower than they would be if you were on the standard or the graduated repayment plans.

In order to be eligible for the extended repayment plan, you must have over $30,000 in outstanding direct student loans and/or $30,000 in outstanding FFEL Program loans. If you meet the $30,000 minimum balance for either direct or FFEL but have a lower balance on the other type of loan you can enter the extended repayment plan for one loan type and select a different repayment option for the lower balance loan.

As a reminder, this payment plan is not a qualified public service loan forgiveness plan.