About 6 million federal student loan borrowers who were enrolled in the SAVE plan have until September 29, 2026 — or their own 90-day servicer deadline — to choose a new repayment plan. Miss the window and servicers will auto-place you on a Standard or Tiered Standard plan, potentially pushing payments from $0 to nearly $400 a month. The three options are RAP, IBR, and Tiered Standard. Log in to your servicer's account and pick one now.

The SAVE plan (Saving on a Valuable Education) was ruled unlawful by federal courts and officially wound down in 2026. Now the Department of Education is moving borrowers out — and the first wave of deadlines arrives September 29.

If you haven't picked a new plan yet, you're not alone. Of the 7.5 million borrowers previously enrolled in SAVE, roughly 1.5 million have already switched. That leaves approximately 6 million who still haven't selected a replacement.1

The clock is running.

When Your Deadline Actually Falls

September 29 is the first major deadline, but your personal cutoff depends on when your loan servicer sent you a 90-day notice. Servicers began sending those notices on July 1, 2026. If yours arrived in early July, your deadline is around October 1. If it arrived in August, you may have until November.

Your 90-day clock started on the date YOU received your servicer's notice — not on a single fixed calendar date. Check your email, servicer account inbox, and any mail from Aidvantage, MOHELA, Nelnet, Edfinancial, or ECSI. Your deadline is printed on that notice. Don't wait for it.

The practical advice: don't schedule this around your personal deadline. Choose a plan now, and you're done.

What Happens If You Miss It

Borrowers who don't choose a plan within their 90-day window get automatically placed on the Standard or Tiered Standard plan — with billing starting immediately.

The payment shock can be severe. Nearly half of SAVE borrowers had a $0 monthly payment under the program's income-driven formula. On the standard 10-year repayment plan, a borrower with $35,000 in loans at 6.5% interest would owe roughly $397 per month — up from zero.2

There's a second reason not to get placed by default: Public Service Loan Forgiveness. If you're working toward PSLF, the plan you're on determines whether your payments count toward the required 120. The Tiered Standard plan does not qualify for PSLF. Getting auto-placed on it when you're already halfway to forgiveness can cost you years of progress. Our income-driven repayment guide covers how each plan interacts with PSLF counts.

The full risk picture for borrowers who get placed by default is also covered in our 2026 student loan repayment changes explainer.

Your Three Replacement Options

Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) is the primary income-driven option that replaced SAVE. Monthly payments are capped at 1–10% of your discretionary income. Forgiveness is available after 30 years of payments. RAP is generally the right starting point for borrowers with lower incomes or high debt-to-income ratios — and it counts toward PSLF.

Income-Based Repayment (IBR) is the other income-driven choice. It caps payments at 10–15% of discretionary income (the percentage depends on when you first borrowed) and offers forgiveness after 20 or 25 years. IBR has a longer track record and may be the better fit if you have older loans or are close to a forgiveness milestone.

Tiered Standard Plan is the new version of the traditional fixed-payment structure. Your loan term — 10, 15, 20, or 25 years — is set based on your total outstanding balance, giving borrowers with larger balances more time. Payments are fixed, not income-dependent. Right choice if you have a stable income, want a predictable bill, and are not pursuing PSLF.

If you're working toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness, only RAP and IBR count toward your 120 qualifying payments. Choosing Tiered Standard — or getting placed on it by default — resets your PSLF track. This is the one choice that's hard to undo without losing payment history. When in doubt, pick RAP first and request a PSLF employer certification form to confirm eligibility.

The student loan repayment plans guide walks through how to estimate your monthly payment under each option for your specific balance and income.

How to Switch in Under 10 Minutes

  1. Log in to your servicer's website — Aidvantage, MOHELA, Nelnet, Edfinancial, or ECSI
  2. Go to "Repayment Plan" or "Change My Plan" in the account menu
  3. Select your plan and submit the application
  4. Save or screenshot your confirmation

If you're not sure which servicer holds your loans, log in to StudentAid.gov under "My Aid" — your servicer is listed there.

Don't wait to call. Most servicers process plan switches entirely online. With 6 million borrowers in the same position right now, phone hold times will get worse as September 29 approaches. Do it online today.

For the full context on what else changed in federal student loans this fall, see the September student loan deadlines post — it also covers the separate September 30 deadline to lock in the temporary 1% autopay interest rate reduction. Both deadlines are this week.

If you're a current student wondering how much federal debt is too much before you even graduate, the how much student debt is too much guide gives you a framework for thinking about repayment before you borrow.

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Footnotes

  1. CNBC. (2026, September 19). Student loan borrowers exiting SAVE may face sharply higher payments if they don't take action soon. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/19/save-student-loan-deadline-avoid-higher-payments.html ↩

  2. NerdWallet. (2026). End Finally Comes for SAVE Student Loan Plan: Millions Given Deadline to Switch. NerdWallet. https://www.nerdwallet.com/student-loans/news/save-plan-switch-ultimatum ↩

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