First Deadline to Switch Student Loans Out of the SAVE Plan Is This Week: Here’s What to Know

The first major deadline for SAVE plan student loan borrowers to switch repayment plans is just a few days away. And borrowers have some important decisions to make.

For the last several months, the Education Department’s contracted student loan servicers have been sending out notices to borrowers in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, giving them 90 days to switch to a different repayment plan. If they don’t act, the department will automatically put them into a Standard repayment plan. In many cases, Standard plan payments would be unaffordable and also usually won’t count toward student loan forgiveness.

The 90-day notices are going out in batches, and the first notices were sent to borrowers on July 1, 2026. That means that the first deadline for the initial group of SAVE plan borrowers is coming up on September 29, just a few days away. The SAVE plan notices are generally going out in waves every two weeks. More than 1.2 million student loan borrowers have already left the SAVE plan, according to Education Department data, released earlier this week. But that means that around six million additional borrowers are still in the SAVE plan and will soon need to move to a different plan.

Here’s where things stand for borrowers with student loans in the SAVE plan, and what to know about alternative repayment plan options.

If you don't act, your loans go into a Standard plan

Student loan borrowers who fail to apply to change their repayment plan by the 90-day deadline will be put into a Standard plan. There are three potential Standard repayment plan options:

• Borrowers with unconsolidated student loans that were all disbursed prior to July 1, 2026, will be put into a 10-year Standard plan.
• Borrowers with a Direct Consolidation Loan will be put into a consolidation Standard repayment plan, which has a term of between 10 and 30 years depending on the initial consolidated balance.
• Borrowers with any federal student loans disbursed on or after July 1, 2026 (including new Direct Consolidation Loans) will be moved to the new Tiered Standard repayment plan, which has a term of between 10 and 25 years, depending on the loan balance.

All of these Standard repayment plans base monthly payments on the amount needed to pay off the student loans in full over the course of the repayment term. A borrower’s income or ability to afford the payments is not a factor. And in most cases, payments made under these plans will not count toward student loan forgiveness, including for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). The exception is that payments made under the 10-year Standard plan can count toward PSLF, but that results in a full payoff by the end of the 10-year term, meaning there would effectively be no loan forgiveness awarded in most cases. And in most cases, income-driven repayment (IDR) plans are comparatively more affordable.

Borrowers need to move student loans to a different IDR plan

To avoid being placed into a Standard repayment plan, SAVE plan borrowers must affirmatively apply to move their student loans into a different IDR plan. 

In most cases, the main choices will be the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) plan and the new Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP). 

How IBR and RAP payments compare

There are some important distinctions between IBR and RAP:

• The IBR plan is generally a more expensive repayment plan than RAP in terms of the formula that is used to calculate monthly payments. But IBR has an income exemption feature, a cap on monthly payments equivalent to the 10-year Standard plan amount, and a more generous definition of family size. That means that for some student loan borrowers, IBR can sometimes have lower payments than they would have under RAP, even though technically it is a more “expensive” option in terms of the formula used to calculate the payments. A newer version of IBR for those who first took out their student loans on or after July 1, 2014, is even more affordable, and that version of IBR also features a 20-year repayment term for student loan forgiveness (compared to 25 years for borrowers with older student loans).
• RAP is a more affordable plan on paper, but that doesn’t always translate to lower payments. Lower-income borrowers and borrowers with larger, multigenerational or nontraditional families may have higher payments under RAP than under IBR because of a minimum monthly payment requirement and a stricter definition of family size. RAP also has no cap on payments, which means that higher-income earners may have much higher payments under RAP than they would under IBR if they would otherwise hit the cap or ceiling on IBR payments. RAP has an interest subsidy and principal benefit that can prevent balance growth during periods when payments aren’t high enough to cover interest accrual, which is an important benefit for some borrowers. But RAP also has a 30-year term for student loan forgiveness, which is far longer than IBR and other IDR plans. Those additional years in repayment can, in some cases, completely offset the savings associated with lower monthly payments.

How IBR and RAP count toward forgiveness

Both IBR and RAP are qualifying repayment plans for PSLF, as long as the payments are made on time and all other PSLF eligibility requirements are met. Payments made under IBR can also count toward 30-year student loan forgiveness under RAP if a borrower changes plans. But the reverse is not true; payments made under RAP cannot count toward 20- or 25-year student loan forgiveness under IBR if a borrower switches from RAP back to IBR.

Some borrowers can also switch to PAYE or ICR

Some borrowers may have some additional IDR options to consider, but there are important caveats:

• Borrowers who took out their student loans on or after October 1, 2007, and had a new disbursement on or after October 1, 2011, can potentially enroll in the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) plan. In many cases, PAYE is more affordable than both SAVE and IBR. But under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, PAYE will be phased out no later than July 1, 2028. So, enrollment in PAYE will be temporary, and borrowers who choose PAYE will have to switch again to either IBR or RAP by 2028.
• The Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) plan is also getting phased out by July 1, 2028. ICR tends to be more expensive than the other IDR options, so most borrowers won’t miss this plan. But Parent PLUS borrowers who consolidated their student loans before July 1, 2026, will need to enroll that consolidation loan in ICR and make at least one payment under ICR before the plan is phased out in 2028. That will allow them to then transition to IBR so they can continue having payments tied to their income, with the possibility of eventual student loan forgiveness. Parent PLUS borrowers who don’t follow these steps will be entirely cut off from IDR plans and loan forgiveness under the terms of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

How to choose your next plan before the SAVE deadline

Ultimately, SAVE plan borrowers who are coming up on their 90-day deadline to move their student loans to a different repayment plan should carefully evaluate their options and eligibility and consider the pros and cons of any particular IDR program.