After making it through college, landing a job, or going to graduate school, the looming debt of student loans usually arises. How are you going to pay all of that money back? Depending on how you financed college, you typically have a number of great options for paying back your loans.

In general, federal loans offer lower interest rates and more flexible repayment plans than most private, consumer loans. You can also deduct up to $2,500 in student loan interest even if you don't itemize deductions on your income tax return.

With federal student loan interest rates still at their lowest levels in the past 30 years, students should look at consolidating their loans to lock in low rates and extend the amount of time over which they pay back their loans. The interest on some student loans is tax-deductible for as long as it takes to pay them back.

Each private loan will come with a set payment plan, detailed in your agreement with the lender. This plan usually is set in stone, but not always. As interest rates shift, it's possible to ask for a lower rate or to move the loan to a different lender when rates drop.

There are four main repayment plans for Federal education loans, consisting of a Standard Repayment and three alternatives. Each of the alternatives has a lower monthly payment than Standard Repayment, but extends the term of the loan and increases the total amount of interest repaid over the lifetime of the loan.

Standard Repayment.

Under this plan you will pay a fixed monthly amount for a loan term of up to 10 years. Depending on the amount of the loan, the loan term may be shorter than 10 years. There is a $50 minimum monthly payment.

Extended Repayment.

The extended plan is similar to the standard plan, but allows a loan term of 12 to 30 years, depending on the total amount borrowed. Stretching out the payments over a longer term reduces the size of each payment, but increases the total amount repaid over the lifetime of the loan.

Graduated Repayment.

Unlike the standard and extended repayment plans, the graduated plan begins with lower payments, which gradually increase every two years. The loan term is 12 to 30 years, depending on the total amount borrowed. The monthly payment can be no less than 50% and no more than 150% of the monthly payment under the standard repayment plan. The monthly payment must be at least the same as the accruing interest, and it must also be at least $25.

Income Contingent Repayment.

Payments under the income contingent repayment plan are based on the borrower's current income and the total amount of outstanding debt. Monthly payments are adjusted each year as the borrower's income changes. The loan term is up to 25 years. At the end of 25 years, any remaining balance on the loan will be discharged. The write-off of the remaining balance at the end of 25 years remains taxable under current law. There is a $5 minimum monthly payment. Income contingent repayment is available only for Direct Loan borrowers.

As an alternative to income contingent repayment, FFELP lenders offer borrowers Income Sensitive Repayment, which pegs the monthly payments to a percentage of gross monthly income. The loan term is 10 years.

All four plans are available for student loans, but only the first three plans are available for parent-related loans.

All Federal education loans allow prepayment. For loans that are not in default, any excess payment is applied first to interest and then to principal. However, if the additional payment is greater than one monthly installment, you must include a note with the payment telling the processor whether you want your prepayment to be treated as a reduction in the principal. Otherwise, the government will treat it as though you paid your next payment(s) early, and will delay your next payment due date as appropriate. (It is best to tell them to treat it as a reduction to principal, since this will reduce the amount of interest you will pay over the lifetime of the loan.)

Due to the way the income contingent repayment plan treats interest, it is not advisable to prepay a loan in the income contingent repayment plan.

If you want to switch from one plan to another, you can do so once per year, so long as the maximum loan term for the new plan is longer than the amount of time your loans have already been in repayment. (In other words, if you are in year 26 of a 30-year extended repayment plan, you cannot switch to the income contingent repayment plan and have the remaining balance written off.)

FinAid offers a number of different calculators for evaluating the tradeoffs of various repayment plans.

This calculator helps estimate what your monthly payments are under the standard and extended repayment plans.

http://www.finaid.org/calculators/loanpayments.phtml

Similar to the loan payment calculator, this tool compares up to three loans side by side.

http://www.finaid.org/calculators/loancomp.phtml

This calculator estimates monthly payments for income contingent repayment plans and compares the total payments with the standard and extended repayment plans.

http://www.finaid.org/calculators/icr.phtml

Undergraduate:

http://www.finaid.org/calculators/undergradadvisor.phtml

Master's:

http://www.finaid.org/calculators/mastersadvisor.phtml

Doctoral:

http://www.finaid.org/calculators/doctoraladvisor.phtml

These loan calculators provide an estimate of the amount of debt a student can afford, given the expected starting salary for their field.

This loan tool provides parents with an estimate of the amount of educational debt they can afford, given current salary and other debt obligations:

http://www.finaid.org/calculators/parentadvisor.phtml

This tool calculates the additional cost over the lifetime of a loan if a student capitalizes the interest of an unsubsidized Stafford loan during the in-school period:

http://www.finaid.org/calculators/interestcap.phtml