What happened to the SAVE plan?
A federal court order ended the SAVE plan on March 10, 2026, and the Department of Education's replacement system launched on July 1, 2026. If you were enrolled in SAVE, your servicer is sending you a notice between July 1 and August 15, 2026, and you have 90 days from the date that notice is sent — not received or read — to choose a new plan. Borrowers who don't choose are placed automatically into a fixed plan (Standard or Tiered Standard). The official timeline lives at StudentAid.gov's SAVE court actions page.
One more thing worth knowing: the rules implementing the new system were published on May 1, 2026 and are under active litigation, which is why every figure on this site carries a "Rules as of" date.
Which repayment plans can I still choose?
Up to eight, depending on when you borrowed. For loans that existed before July 1, 2026 (that's every former SAVE borrower, unless you've since taken a new loan or consolidated), that includes three older fixed-schedule plans — Graduated, Extended Fixed and Extended Graduated — which the comparison on the homepage prices alongside the income-driven and Standard plans below:
- RAP (Repayment Assistance Plan) — the new income-driven plan. Your payment is 1–10% of your entire adjusted gross income depending on income bracket, minus $50 a month per tax dependent, with a $10 monthly minimum. Unpaid interest is waived in on-time months (your balance never grows), and forgiveness comes after 30 years of payments. See the full RAP bracket table.
- IBR (Income-Based Repayment) — the only legacy income-driven plan that continues past July 2028. You pay 10% of discretionary income (income above 150% of the poverty guideline) with 20-year forgiveness if your first loan came on or after July 1, 2014, or 15% with 25-year forgiveness for older borrowers. Payments are capped at the 10-year Standard amount.
- PAYE (Pay As You Earn) — 10% of discretionary income with 20-year forgiveness, but it's being retired no later than July 1, 2028, so enrolling means switching plans again mid-stream (what happens when PAYE ends). Eligibility also has borrowing-date tests (no federal balance as of October 1, 2007, plus a Direct Loan disbursed on or after October 1, 2011).
- ICR (Income-Contingent Repayment) — the oldest formula: the lesser of a 12-year amortization multiplied by an income factor, or 20% of income above 100% of the poverty guideline. It also retires no later than July 1, 2028, and its 25-year forgiveness only counts payments made on or before that date — which puts that forgiveness out of reach for anyone starting now (why ICR is a bridge, not a destination).
- Standard 10-year — fixed payments that amortize your balance. If you're already in repayment, official tools quote your current balance over the months remaining on your original 10-year schedule, not a fresh 10 years — this tool does the same.
- Tiered Standard — the new fixed plan, with a 10-, 15-, 20-, or 25-year term set by your balance. It's only available to borrowers with a loan or consolidation from on or after July 1, 2026, so most former SAVE borrowers will see it marked ineligible (the comparison on the homepage tells you why).
The three fixed-schedule plans have guides of their own: how the steps work, and why the last payment can be triple the first, in the graduated repayment plan; and what a 25-year term really costs, plus the more-than-$30,000 test it turns on, in the extended repayment plan.
Eligibility is personal. Which of these you can actually enroll in depends on your borrowing dates and loan types — that's what the flags in the calculator on the homepage work out. When a plan is off the table for you, the comparison says so and says why, rather than silently hiding it.
How do the payments compare?
There's no universal answer — the plans price income differently. RAP applies its percentage to your entire AGI (a borrower with $45,000 of AGI lands in the 4% bracket: $1,800 a year, or $150 a month before any dependent reduction). IBR and PAYE first subtract 150% of the poverty guideline for your family size, so family size matters much more there; ICR subtracts only 100%. Fixed plans ignore income entirely. Depending on where your income, family size, and balance sit, any of them can come out lowest — which is exactly what the calculator on the homepage compares, using your real numbers, without storing any of them.
For the head-to-head on the two plans most former SAVE borrowers weigh, see RAP vs IBR.
How do I actually switch plans?
Income-driven plans (RAP, IBR, PAYE, ICR) are applied for through the official IDR application at StudentAid.gov, which can import your tax data. Fixed plans (Standard, Tiered Standard) go through your loan servicer. Applying before your 90-day deadline is what prevents automatic placement — the details of what happens if the window closes are in what happens if you do nothing during your 90-day window.