The student-loan plan you chose a few years ago may no longer be an option. A federal court order ended the SAVE plan, and Federal Student Aid says borrowers who were enrolled in it must choose a new repayment plan. Pick the eligible plan whose payment your household can sustain, and check what it may cost over time and how it responds if your income changes.
Find out what you have before comparing plans
Check your loan type, disbursement dates, current repayment plan, interest rates, and servicer in your StudentAid.gov account, because those details decide which plans you can use.
The Federal Student Aid IDR guide lists four income-driven plans: the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP), Income-Based Repayment (IBR), Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR), and Pay As You Earn (PAYE). PAYE and ICR will be retired no later than July 1, 2028. Under RAP, the payment is 1% to 10% of adjusted gross income divided by 12, reduced by $50 a month for each dependent on your tax return, with a $10 monthly minimum, over a 30-year repayment period. IBR payments are 15% of discretionary income over 25 years, or 10% over 20 years for new borrowers, and IBR is open to most Direct Loans disbursed before July 1, 2026.
Borrowers whose loans were all disbursed on or after July 1, 2026 have RAP as their only income-driven option. Parent PLUS loans cannot be repaid under RAP, and the same guide says loans made to parents are not eligible for IBR if consolidated after July 1, 2026. Earlier loans and mixed borrowing histories can have different options.
If you were in SAVE, watch for your servicer’s notice: the Department of Education said servicers would begin sending notices on July 1, 2026, and borrowers who do not choose a plan within the 90-day period in their notice will be placed in either the Standard Repayment Plan or the new Tiered Standard Plan. MOHELA’s SAVE FAQ says borrowers do not have to wait for the notice to choose a new plan.
Federal repayment plans cover federal loans only, so for private student loans, ask the lender about its own terms and hardship options.
Work out what a payment would leave in the household budget
A payment can be affordable under a plan’s formula and still leave you short after rent, childcare, transportation, and other debt. Put the proposed payment into a complete monthly budget before treating it as manageable.
An illustrative budget:
| Monthly household budget | Amount |
|---|---|
| Take-home income | $3,500 |
| Housing and other essential costs | −$2,700 |
| Other minimum debt payments | −$200 |
| Money set aside for less-frequent bills | −$150 |
| Left before the student-loan payment | $450 |
A $400 student-loan payment would leave $50, and a $200 payment would leave $250. With $50 left, one car repair or a week of lost hours puts the household behind.
Use actual statements and include costs that do not arrive every month.
Compare more than the monthly amount
Use Federal Student Aid’s Repayment Calculator with your own loan information. It shows the plans your loans are eligible for, the estimated monthly payment under each, and the estimated total you would pay, and you can sort the results by monthly payment, total paid, or fastest payoff. Logging in fills in your loan details, and you can let it import your IRS income information for the income-driven estimates.
Save the results for each eligible option and ask:
- How much would I pay now?
- How long could I be repaying?
- What is the projected total cost?
- How would income or family changes affect the payment?
- Am I relying on a forgiveness or discharge outcome whose requirements I still need to meet?
Read the assumptions behind each estimate, especially when a long repayment period is involved.
Know what refinancing gives up
A federal Direct Consolidation Loan combines federal loans into one, at a fixed rate that the CFPB describes as the weighted average of the loans’ rates, rounded up to the nearest one-eighth of a percent. Refinancing federal loans into a private loan is different: you lose access to income-driven repayment, Public Service Loan Forgiveness and other forgiveness programs, federal deferment and forbearance, and death and disability discharge, and the CFPB notes the decision can’t be reversed.
Compare the offered term, payment, total cost, and the protections you would lose. For existing private loans, put the actual refinancing offer next to the actual loan you hold, and ignore the lowest rate in the advertisement.
Before taking an action that changes eligibility, get an explanation specific to your loan type and borrowing history. If you are a parent borrower, check the RAP and consolidation rules above before you consolidate or refinance.
If the payment does not fit, call before you miss one
Federal Student Aid advises borrowers who cannot afford payments to contact their servicer as soon as possible to discuss lowering the payment or temporary relief. Ask what you qualify for, whether interest would accrue, and what the change would mean for any discharge or forgiveness progress.
Get the required next steps and written confirmation of your loan’s status, and keep paying what is due until the servicer confirms a change.
If payments stop, the same page says a federal student loan goes into default after at least 270 days without scheduled payments. After more than 360 days without a payment, the government can collect through wage garnishment of up to 15% of your paycheck or by withholding your tax refund, and the default is reported to the major credit bureaus.
Applying for a federal income-driven plan is free: the IDR guide points borrowers to the IDR Plan Request at StudentAid.gov/idr, so you do not need to pay a company to submit the application.
Sources checked October 5, 2026. All worked examples are illustrative, not survey estimates. General financial education, not individualized financial advice.
