When it comes to student loans, one thing is certain…you’ve gotta pay them back! There are however, several options regarding the manner in which you pay back your student loans, such as how much you pay per month and for how long.

The first thing to realize is that by lowering your monthly payments and take longer to pay back your loan, it is going to cost you much more in interest in the long run. But what if your current financial situation is severely limiting your ability to pay back your student loans?

Understanding your repayment options

There are several different payment options available to you to ensure that you are able to make monthly payments that reflect your current financial status. These repayment plans are automatically available to you as part of the Federal Direct Loans program, and private lenders usually offer similar choices.

Standard repayment requires you to make the same fixed payment each month over a period of ten years. (For relatively small loan balances, the term may be even shorter.) Monthly payments must be at least $50.

Extended repayment stretches your payment schedule over a longer term—anywhere from 12 to 30 years. The result is smaller monthly payments, but much higher interest paid over time. Borrowers with a high level of debt frequently choose this plan.

Graduated repayment enables your monthly payments to start out smaller at the beginning of your loan term and increase incrementally over time. The monthly dollar figure you pay at the end of your loan term can never be more than three times your initial payment amount, and additionally your monthly payments can never be more than $150.

Income-contingent repayment specifies that payments fluctuate with changes in the borrower’s salary over a period of 25 years. The higher your salary at a given point in time, the greater your monthly payment. The minimum monthly payment is $5.

Income-sensitive repayment (private lenders only) requires the borrower to submit information about their salary to the lender, who then calculates a monthly payment amount based on a debt-to-income ratio. Payments increase and decrease based on this ratio.

Note that choice of a repayment plan doesn’t have to be set in stone: If you want to switch from one plan to another, you can do so once per year. The only requirement is that the maximum loan term for the new plan must be longer than the amount of time your loans have already been in repayment. (For example, you can’t switch to a 25-year income-contingent repayment plan if you’ve already been paying back your loans for 26 years.)

Keep in mind that you should only choose a repayment plan that lowers your monthly payment if it is absolutely necessary: Extending the term of your loan will bring you short-term relief, but could likely cost you thousands of dollars (or even tens of thousands of dollars!) in interest.

If you’re still running into a monthly money crunch, you may be able to qualify for deferment or forbearance, which could grant you some time in which you could hold off on making monthly payments (although interest will continue to accumulate, except for subsidized loans).

No matter what repayment plan you choose, it is always a good idea to pay more than the monthly minimum payment whenever possible. There is no pre-payment penalty on Federal student loans, and the more you pay at an earlier date, the larger the interest savings over the life of your loan.