7 Million SAVE Borrowers Must Act by Sept 29

The SAVE plan is officially gone. If you were enrolled, your loan servicer has started sending 90-day notices — and the earliest any borrower's deadline falls is September 29, 2026. You have a choice of four repayment plans to move to. If you don't choose, the government will choose for you: Standard Repayment, which almost always means a higher monthly payment.

The SAVE student loan repayment plan is over. After nearly two years of legal battles and court-ordered forbearance, the Department of Education is now notifying the roughly 7 million borrowers who were enrolled that they must switch to a different plan.1

The earliest any borrower's 90-day deadline falls is September 29, 2026.2 Notices are going out in waves through December, so your specific deadline may be later. But the closer those deadlines get, the longer servicer phone lines will be.

Why SAVE Is Gone

The SAVE plan — Saving on a Valuable Education — was the Biden administration's most generous income-driven repayment option, setting payments as low as 5% of discretionary income for undergraduate loans. In 2024, Missouri and several other states sued, arguing the plan exceeded the Secretary of Education's legal authority. Federal courts agreed.3

Borrowers spent two years in court-ordered forbearance with payments paused. The plan was formally wound down under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed July 4, 2025. That forbearance period is ending now.

If you don't pick a new plan before your 90-day deadline, your servicer will automatically place you on the Standard Repayment Plan or the new Tiered Standard Plan. Standard repayment typically means fixed payments spread over 10 years, which for most borrowers is significantly more per month than any income-driven option. Don't let the government make this choice for you.

Your Four Options

Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP)

RAP is the new income-driven plan created by OBBBA, available to all federal Direct Loan borrowers. Payments scale from 1% to 10% of your adjusted gross income (AGI), with a floor of $10 per month if you earn $10,000 or less annually. Loan forgiveness comes after 30 years — longer than SAVE's 20-to-25-year timeline.4

One important restriction: Parent PLUS loans are not eligible for RAP.

Income-Based Repayment (IBR)

IBR remains available and was not eliminated by OBBBA. Payments are capped at 10% of discretionary income (15% for older loans). Forgiveness comes after 20 years for borrowers who took out loans before July 1, 2014, or 25 years for those who borrowed after. IBR is a strong default choice for most borrowers who want an income-driven option and forgiveness protection.4

PAYE and ICR (Legacy Plans)

Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) are no longer available to new borrowers under OBBBA, but if you were already enrolled in one, you can still switch to either. SAVE borrowers switching to PAYE or ICR now would benefit from the broader 2028 transition deadline before another required change occurs. See our full breakdown of how repayment plan options changed on July 1.

Standard Repayment

Fixed payments over 10 to 25 years. Monthly amounts are higher, but you pay less total interest and clear the debt faster. This is the right choice if your income is stable and you don't need income-driven protections. Learn more about how repayment plans compare before committing.

Before picking a plan, run the numbers at studentaid.gov's Loan Simulator. Log in with your FSA ID, go to your loan dashboard, and select "Loan Simulator." It uses your actual balance and income to estimate monthly payments under each option — five minutes there is worth more than guessing. You can also explore the average student loan payment by balance to benchmark what's normal.

A Note on Public Service Loan Forgiveness

If you're working toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness, a separate court ruling has protected PSLF eligibility — but you still need to be on a qualifying repayment plan. Both IBR and RAP qualify for PSLF credit. If you're a PSLF borrower coming off SAVE, switching to IBR or RAP as quickly as possible matters, because months spent on a non-qualifying plan don't count toward your 120 payments.

What to Do Right Now

  1. Log into studentaid.gov and check your current loan status and which servicer manages your loans.
  2. Use the Loan Simulator to estimate payments under RAP, IBR, and Standard based on your income.
  3. Submit your repayment plan change through your loan servicer directly — not through a third-party company.
  4. Update your contact information with your servicer so deadline notices reach you.

If you're carrying a balance that feels unmanageable regardless of plan, read how much student debt is too much to understand your options. And if your budget is tight right now, the student loan default data from Q1 2026 shows what's at stake when payments restart without a plan in place.

The deadline is real. The choice is yours to make.

Footnotes

  1. U.S. Department of Education. (2026). U.S. Department of Education Announces Next Steps for Borrowers Enrolled in the Unlawful SAVE Plan. U.S. Department of Education. https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-announces-next-steps-borrowers-enrolled-unlawful-save-plan ↩

  2. Minsky, A. (2026, July 15). Education Department Begins Notifying Student Loan Borrowers They Have 90 Days To Switch Plans. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamminsky/2026/07/15/education-department-begins-notifying-student-loan-borrowers-they-have-90-days-to-switch-plans/ ↩

  3. Student Loan Borrowers Assistance. (2026). The SAVE Plan is Ending: What Borrowers in SAVE Need to Know. studentloanborrowerassistance.org. https://studentloanborrowerassistance.org/the-save-plan-is-ending-what-borrowers-in-save-need-to-know/ ↩

  4. BestColleges. (2026). SAVE Plan Ending: What Borrowers Need to Do Next. BestColleges. https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/save-plan-ending-what-borrrowers-should-know/ ↩ ↩2