Perkins Loan - Terms & Repayment

Perkins Loan Changes

The College Cost Reduction and Access Act (Pub. L. 110-84), signed into law on September 27, 2007, and the Higher Education Opportunity Act (Pub. L. 108-315), signed into law on August 14, 2008, changed the terms of loans made under the Federal Perkins Loan Program.  The revised Perkins Master Promissory Note (MPN) has been updated to reflect these changes to the terms and conditions of Perkins Loans.

The Department of Education has developed an Addendum to explain the changes made by the CCRAA and the HEOA to borrowers who signed the current Perkins MPN before the revised MPN was implemented, or who previously received Perkins Loans under an MPN or promissory note that was signed before the Addendum was made available. The statutory changes reflected in the revised Perkins MPN and Addendum include the following:

• Change in the number of consecutive monthly payments required for loan rehabilitation from twelve to nine.
• Change in forbearance requirements to allow for oral forbearance requests.
• Changes to the active duty military deferment provisions and addition of a new post-active duty deferment.
• New loan cancellation provisions for attorneys employed in a defender organization, firefighters, tribal college or university faculty, librarians, and speech-language pathologists.
• Expansion of teacher cancellation to include teachers who perform qualifying service at a school or location operated by a low-income educational service agency.
• Expansion of Head Start cancellation to include full-time staff members in a pre-kindergarten or child care program that is licensed or regulated by the State.
• Increase in the maximum amount that may be cancelled for military service from 50 percent to 100 percent

View the complete Perkins Loan Addendum here.

Interest/Grace Period

Interest shall accrue at the expiration of your initial nine (9) month grace period at the annual percentage rate of 5% on the unpaid balance, except that no interest shall accrue during any deferment period. All payments made during the grace period are interest free.

Repayment

The first monthly payment will be due ten (10) months from the time you cease to be at least a half-time student and all payments are due by the first of the month.

Prepayment

The borrower may prepay all or any portion of the principal plus any accrued interest at any time. If you remit more than the amount due for an installment, the excess will be applied to principal unless you designate it as an advance payment on the next regular installment. Note, if paying in advance, you must remit the total installment amount.

Deferments/Cancellations (Perkins, Nursing and Schell Loans)

The borrower should refer to their promissory notes for the specific deferments and cancellations available to them. All deferment and cancellation privileges are discussed during the exit interview, as well as provided with the loan exit materials. A deferment/cancellation can be processed only after timely remittance of a properly certified deferment/cancellation form and all required supporting documentation. The borrower may lose deferment/cancellation benefits if they fail to file the request on time.