Congress passed the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act of 2008 in May, and this week extended the loan purchase authority by a year. This means that education lenders are still making Stafford and PLUS loans, and will continue to provide them next year as well.

The legislation also allows Parent PLUS loan borrowers to defer repayment while the student is in school and for six months afterward. Previously parents had to start repaying the loan 60 days after full disbursement.

A good starting point for finding a PLUS loan is to talk to the financial aid administrators at your college. They will often have a preferred lender list of lenders that they recommend. You can also search for lenders online. You can Google "PLUS loan" to find many advertisements for such loans. On the FinAid site I list all the major lenders who offer PLUS loans.

Most lenders have stopped offering any loan discount other than a quarter of a percentage point interest rate reduction if you sign up to have the monthly payments direct debited from your bank account.