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You have student loans to repay

Federal student loan repayment is in flux. A 2025 law and court actions changed the plans, so plan names you read in older articles may be out of date. Start with the list of what you owe, then check the official pages below.

First 3 things this week

About 30 seconds to read. Ticks stay on this device.

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How it works

  1. List every loan

    Federal and private loans follow different rules. The federal ones appear on studentaid.gov, and private ones appear on your credit report. For each, note the servicer, balance, interest rate and monthly payment.

  2. Know that the rules are changing

    Public Law 119-21 rewrote federal repayment in 2025, and court actions affect older plans, including SAVE. Dates and eligibility have shifted more than once, so treat any plan name or deadline in this guide as a pointer and confirm it on studentaid.gov.

  3. Understand the Repayment Assistance Plan

    The Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) became available on July 1, 2026. Your payment is a share of adjusted gross income from 1% to 10%, divided by 12, reduced by $50 for each dependent, with a $10 monthly minimum. A balance left after 360 qualifying payments is forgiven. The Tiered Standard plan, a fixed payment, is the other plan for new loans.

  4. Learn the PSLF basics

    Public Service Loan Forgiveness forgives the balance after 120 qualifying payments made while working full time for a qualifying employer, such as a government agency or a nonprofit. Your employer must certify your employment, so keep the forms.

  5. Weigh the refinancing trade-off

    A private lender may offer a lower interest rate. Refinancing federal loans into a private loan ends federal options such as income-driven plans, deferment and PSLF, and it cannot be undone. Forgiven balances can also be taxable income outside PSLF, so ask a tax pro.

A worked example

Sample, not your numbers

Two ways to pay the same loan

Sample numbers: $30,000 borrowed at a 6.5% rate, with an adjusted gross income of $48,000.

RAP, no dependents
$160.00 a month (4% of income, divided by 12)
RAP, one dependent
$110.00 a month
Tiered Standard, 15 years
$261.33 a month

RAP follows your income, so the payment moves when your pay or household changes. A fixed plan follows the balance. The plan with the lower payment can take longer or cost more in total, so compare the totals in the simulator.

What to ask HR, your lender or a tax pro

Your loan servicer

  • Which plan am I on today, and will it change?
  • Which loans are federal, which are private, and what are their rates?
  • How many qualifying PSLF payments do you have on record for me?

HR at a government or nonprofit employer

  • Can you certify my employment for PSLF, and how often?

A tax pro

  • Is any forgiven balance taxable for me, and how does my filing status change my payment?

Run your own numbers

Chapter 6: credit & debt management covers how loan interest and payoff plans work with your own numbers. Chapters 4 to 18 are Pro.

Sources

Figures read from these pages on October 6, 2026. This is the least settled of the eight moments. Plan names, dates and eligibility changed during 2025 and 2026 and may change again. Where this page and studentaid.gov differ, studentaid.gov is right.

Education, not financial, tax or legal advice. The example uses sample numbers, and your own situation will differ.