Get ready for principal and interest payments

Use your separation or grace period to organize and understand the next stage of your student loan payments.

What is a separation or grace period?

Often six months, a student loan separation or grace period is the time between when a student leaves school and principal and interest payments begin. During your separation or grace period, you’ll continue making the same payments, if any, you made in school.

  • If you made in-school payments (say, a fixed monthly payment of $25), you’ll continue to make those payments during the separation period.
  • If you deferred your payments while you were in school, you won’t have payments during the separation or grace period.

After your separation or grace period, you’ll begin making principal and interest payments. If you want to lower your Total Loan Cost, you can pay more than the Current Amount Due or make extra payments.

If you aren’t sure if your Sallie Mae student loan has a separation or grace period, you can review your loan documents by logging in to your account and heading to the Statements & Documents page. You can also chat with us by clicking on the blue icon in the lower right-hand corner of this page.

While you wait for principal and interest payments to begin, there are few things you can do to get ready. 

Get organized
By the time you leave college, you might have a combination of federal and private loans. Make sure you understand how many loans you have, what types of loans they are, their interest rates, and who the lenders are. Creating a simple spreadsheet can help you organize your loans.

Understand what your payments will be
Our How America Pays for College 2024 study shows that many undergraduate students aren’t aware of what their future loan payments will be. We can help you estimate your student loan payments.

Choose how to make loan payments
We offer several ways to make your loan payments. Auto debit is the most convenient way. When you enroll, your payments are automatically withdrawn from your authorized bank account each month. Plus, enrolling in auto debit may also qualify you for a 0.25 percentage point interest rate reduction.footnote 1

Consider the Graduated Repayment Period
The Graduated Repayment Period (GRP) is available for loans used to pay qualified higher education expenses at a degree-granting institution and gives you time to transition from school to career by making interest-only payments for a year after your loan enters principal and interest repayment.footnote 2

Take a look at some more advice
Our repayment tips can help you stay organized—and save time and money!

Related topics

Understand student loan payments

Learn how your student loan payments are calculated and how much you're paying for your student loans—and why.

Sallie Mae® app 

Make and manage your Sallie Mae student loan payments from your Apple® or Android™ phone anytime, anywhere.

Get help with special circumstances

If you’re faced with special circumstances, we can help. Learn how to handle your student loan when your life changes or you're having financial difficulties.

footnote 1. 0.25 percentage point interest rate reduction benefit applies only during active repayment for as long as the Current Amount Due or Designated Amount is successfully withdrawn from the authorized bank account each month and may be suspended during periods of forbearance or deferment, if available for the loan. Borrower or cosigner must enroll in auto debit through Sallie Mae. While auto debit is available for the K-12 loan program, the rate reduction benefit does not apply.

footnote 2. Available for loans used to pay qualified higher education expenses at a degree-granting institution. Graduated Repayment Period (GRP) allows interest-only payments for 12 billing periods after principal and interest repayment begins. At the time of the GRP request, the loan must be current (not past due). Customers may request GRP during the six billing periods before and the 12 billing periods immediately after the loan first enters principal and interest repayment. GRP does not extend the loan term. It increases the Total Loan Cost and monthly payments after the GRP will be higher than they would have been without it.