For unemployment deferment (as opposed to deferment due to other hardships), you’ll have to reapply every six months, and you’re limited to 36 months of deferral, according to the Department of Education.  For an extension on your unemployment deferment, you may have to show that you’ve made at least six honest attempts to find a job in the past six months. 

“If a customer has exhausted deferment options or does not meet the criteria for deferment, then he or she can request forbearance,” says Christel. Forbearance allows you to change the terms of your loan. This could mean lowering monthly payments, instead of stopping them altogether.

Be aware that different lenders may have different rules.

For example, regardless of your income, if you’ve worked for several years since graduating, you’re unemployed and you have a student loan with Bank of America (Stock Quote: BAC), you’re only eligible for a type of forbearance that lets you reduce your monthly payments to an amount decided on a case by case basis, according to Bank of America spokesman Jim Pierpoint.

“They’ll decide on the best payment schedule that would be available for the borrower,” says Pierpoint, “But they won't reduce it down to zero.”

To find out what rules apply to your loan, contact your lender directly.

 

 

 

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