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Guide: Student loan options change July 1. What you need to know : NPR
On July 1, a host of new student loan changes from last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act will kick in, including the end of a short-lived Biden-era repayment plan, the start of two Republican-designed repayment plans and strict new borrowing limits for some students.
There’s a lot to parse, and not every change will impact every borrower. So we’ve designed this story to make it easy to find the guidance that does apply to you, or to the borrower in your life.
To get started, click on the student loan status that best describes your situation below:
You’re enrolled in the SAVE repayment plan
After a few contentious years of paused payments and a legal battle that made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Biden-era Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan is officially ending.
If you’re one of the more than 7 million borrowers still enrolled in SAVE — the most flexible and generous income-driven repayment plan — you may have already gotten a notice from the U.S. Department of Education warning you that you’ll have to switch plans soon. Well, you’ll likely be getting another note from your loan servicer, starting a roughly 90-day clock.
If you don’t act, the department says it will enroll you in one of the least flexible repayment plans.
Financial aid experts have told NPR that this effort, beginning July 1, to push millions of borrowers into repayment and into new plans that will cost more than SAVE, could exacerbate an alarming rise in student loan defaults – especially considering that many borrowers enrolled in SAVE precisely because their low incomes qualified them for a $0 monthly payment.
What are your repayment plan options? You’ve got lots. Keep reading.
You’re a current borrower with old (pre-July 1) loans and no plans for new loans
Whoever you are, whatever your story, whether you enrolled in the SAVE plan or not, you’re in good company: About 43 million Americans hold about $1.7 trillion in federal student loan debt.
As long as your loans were issued before July 1, and you have no plans to borrow any more money, you’ll have quite a few repayment options, including one brand new plan. They are:
Standard Repayment Plan
- How it works: This plan divides your loan balance into equal monthly payments (plus interest, of course) over a 10-year period. If your loans have been consolidated, they may be spread out over a longer period, up to 30 years.
- The upside: Monthly payments are all the same, predictable as the sunrise.
- The downside: Payments can be pretty high relative to income-based plans.
- A note for borrowers: Republicans also created a new version of this Standard plan, called the Tiered Standard Plan, but it’s not available to borrowers with only older loans.
Graduated Repayment Plan
- How it works: Monthly payments start out low, but as the name suggests, they increase every two years and are spread out over a 10-year period. As with the Standard plan, borrowers with consolidated loans may qualify for a longer repayment term.
- The upside: It allows borrowers to start small, and, ideally, as your payments increase over time, so too does your income and your ability to keep up with them.
- The downside: Over time, your payments could grow, even double in size.
Extended Repayment Plan
- How it works: Monthly payments can be either fixed or graduated, but there’s one big difference. Payments can last up to 25 years, instead of the common 10 years.
- The upside: Twenty-five years makes for smaller monthly payments.
- The downside: You’re paying a lot in interest over the long run.
The plans above do not take a borrower’s income into account when calculating a monthly payment. So-called income-driven repayment plans do — and come with a few other perks:
Income-Based Repayment (IBR)
- How it works: If your loans are older than July 1, 2014, your monthly payments are based on 15% of your discretionary income and spread over a 25-year period. Anything left after that is forgiven. For loans taken out after July 1, 2014, monthly payments will be based on 10% of discretionary income and spread over 20 years before the remainder is forgiven.
- The upside: Loan forgiveness!
- The downside: Twenty to 25 years repaying a loan is a long time.
Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR)
- How it works: ICR bases monthly payments on a larger share of a borrower’s discretionary income — 20%. Borrowers also have to make payments over a relatively long period of time — 25 years — before they can qualify for forgiveness.
- The upside: Up to now, for Parent PLUS borrowers, this was often the only income-driven repayment plan they could qualify for.
- The downside: It will generally cost more each month than its fellow income-driven plans.
- A note for borrowers: This is arguably the least generous member of this plan family. It’s also being phased out by 2028, so, if you do enroll, you’ll have to change plans again in two years.
Pay As You Earn (PAYE)
- How it works: PAYE’s terms are similar to what newer IBR borrowers enjoy: Payments are based on 10% of discretionary income over a 20-year period, then the remainder is forgiven.
- The upside: Switching to PAYE, for now, could mean two years of lower payments.
- The downside: Like ICR, Republicans voted to shut down PAYE by July 1, 2028; so you’ll need to switch plans again within two years.
Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP)
- How it works: RAP bases monthly payments on a borrower’s adjusted-gross income (AGI). The more you make, the higher your monthly payment. For example, a borrower earning $30,001-$40,000 can expect a monthly payment around $75-$100. Earn $50,001-$60,000 and it jumps to $208.34-$250.
- The upside: RAP waives any monthly interest that exceeds the plan’s monthly payment. It also comes with a principal-matching payment that makes sure lower-income borrowers see their loan principals go down each month. And, for parents and caregivers, it allows you to slash $50 from your monthly payment for every dependent in your household.
- The downside: Unlike IBR, ICR and PAYE, RAP requires that borrowers be in repayment for 30 years before any remainder is forgiven. By then, there’ll be little if any debt left. And, a nerdy but important facet: This plan isn’t indexed for inflation, which means modest income gains could trigger big increases in monthly payments.
- A note for borrowers: This is the new kid on the block for legacy borrowers. You can enroll starting July 1.
We recommend using the department’s Loan Simulator — or maybe this one, developed in partnership with The Institute of Student Loan Advisors, a nonprofit — to see which plan makes the most sense for you.
You’re a current borrower with old (pre-July 1) loans and future loan plans
So, you’ve already got some loans, and you’re planning to take out more. The good news/bad news is you won’t have a lot of repayment options to choose from.
Any borrower who takes out a loan on or after July 1 will be limited to the two new repayment plans created in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act: The Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) or the…
Tiered Standard Plan
- How it works: Like the original Standard, the new Tiered plan divides a borrower’s principal and interest into equal monthly payments over a set period. Again, predictable as the sunrise. What’s different is that that period of time grows with the size of the debt.
- Owe less than $25,000 — repay over 10 years.
- Owe $25,000-$49,999 — repay over 15 years.
- Owe $50,000-$99,999 — repay over 20 years.
- Owe $100,000 or more — repay over 25 years.
- The upside: A longer repayment period for larger balances means smaller payments.
- The downside: Longer repayment periods also mean, well, a long-term relationship with debt.
You’re a new undergraduate borrower taking out loans after July 1
Hello, fresh face! Welcome to your higher education adventure. Let’s be honest, you’re probably not thinking much about your repayment options yet. You’re headed to school, and we wish you well.
As you get on your way, here are a few things to keep in mind: Lending limits haven’t changed for undergraduate borrowers. Dependent/independent undergrads are still limited to borrowing:
- $5,500/$9,500 in their first year
- $6,500/$10,500 in their second year
- $7,500/$12,500 in the third and subsequent years
In total, dependent/independent undergrads can borrow up to $31,000/$57,500.
When it does come time for repayment, you’ll likely have just two options to choose from: Either the Repayment Assistance Plan or the Tiered Standard Plan.
You’re a new grad school borrower taking out loans after July 1
Many of you probably have undergraduate loan debt, though hopefully not too much. And for the moment, you’re probably not thinking about repayment since you’re headed back to school. We wish you well!
Still, there are a few things to keep in mind: As of July 1, lending limits change dramatically. Until now, grad students could borrow up to the cost of their program. Your program costs $40,000 a year? You could borrow $40,000 every year. Soon, though, you’ll be limited to $20,500 a year and a total of $100,000. That’s a big difference.
Only a small group of so-called “professional” degrees will be exempted from these lower limits and qualify instead for $50,000 a year in loans, or $200,000 in all. These degrees fall into 11 categories: chiropractic, clinical psychology, dentistry, law, medicine, optometry, osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, podiatry, theology and veterinary medicine.
You can learn more about these grad school loan caps at this link, including why they have many advocates worrying about an eventual shortage of nurses and other healthcare providers.
You’re in graduate school right now. Do the new loan limits apply to you?
This is complicated. The Education Department is making some exceptions for grad school borrowers who are in the middle of their higher education adventures. You may be exempted from the new loan limits if:
- You were enrolled by June 30, 2026.
- By then, you also have to have received a loan for your program.
- And you have maintained enrollment in the same program, at the same school.
If you do qualify to be exempted from the new limits, the department’s website says you can lean on the old loan limits — i.e., borrow up to the cost of your program — for either three academic years or the difference between how long your program is supposed to last and how long you’ve already been enrolled, whichever number is smaller.
You’re enrolling in a short-term job training program and you’d like help paying for it
One of the biggest changes going into effect on July 1 is an expansion of the traditional Pell Grant for low-income students to include what’s known as short-term workforce training.
A Pell Grant is essentially free money from the federal government – unlike a loan, it does not need to be paid back. For 2026-27, the largest grant a student in a traditional program can qualify for is $7,395. Awards for short-term training will likely be prorated for the program’s length.
This expansion of Pell is meant to help workers learn new skills to become, say, a certified nursing assistant or a welder. For the first time, students will be able to get federal help paying for these training programs, which last between eight and 15 weeks.
The first, most important step you need to take to qualify is to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). You can’t get a Pell Grant without it.
One huge caveat: This expansion is so new that many current training programs may not qualify. And because it comes with some pretty strict federal guardrails, some never will.
It will take states and the federal government some time to figure it all out, so you’ll need to be patient. And while you wait, fill out the FAFSA!
You’re interested in Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)
Greetings (aspiring) public servants.
The good news for you is that the program known as Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) still exists. It’s a policy quid pro quo: If you pledge to work full-time (at least 30 hours a week) in public service — as a nurse or police officer or school teacher, etc. — for 10 years while making 120 monthly payments toward your student loans through a qualifying repayment plan, then whatever debt is left will be forgiven by the U.S. government.
Which plans qualify for PSLF?
In the income-driven category, IBR, ICR, PAYE and the forthcoming RAP all qualify.
We recommend using the department’s Loan Simulator to see which plan makes the most sense for you, i.e., which plan has you paying the least over the next decade.
The other question you may have is: Wait! Didn’t I see stories about how the Trump administration is changing the PSLF rules, maybe making it harder to qualify?
Good memory! Yes. Here’s one of those stories.
Effective July 1, the department says it can deny loan forgiveness to workers whose government or nonprofit employers engage in activities with a “substantial illegal purpose.” The job of defining “substantial illegal purpose” belongs to the education secretary. Last year, the department offered this short list: “terrorism, child trafficking, and transgender procedures that are doing irreversible harm to children.”
In late 2025, several large cities, including Boston and Chicago, sued over the rule change, worried that the administration might try to use a city government’s politics to exclude its public workers from PSLF. The fight over this rule is very much still playing out, so stay tuned.
You’re a parent interested in helping your student pay for college
The Parent PLUS program will see a few key changes take effect July 1. Here’s what to know:
- First of all, there will be new limits on how much parents can borrow. Parent PLUS loans will be capped at $20,000 per year, per dependent child, with an aggregate cap of $65,000 per dependent. That’s a big change from the previous rules which allowed PLUS loans up to the cost of a program.
- Repayment is also seeing big changes. Parent PLUS borrowers who take out a loan after July 1 will no longer qualify for any plan that bases their monthly payment on their income. They will only be able to use the new Tiered Standard Plan. This also means future Parent PLUS borrowers will no longer be able to qualify for either a plan that offers forgiveness after a set period of time or for PSLF.
- For Parent PLUS loans that were taken out before July 1, borrowers’ best bet for a long-term, income-driven plan is IBR, but only if you consolidate your loans first, make one payment on the less generous ICR plan (which, like PAYE, will be phased out in 2028) then switch to IBR. If this is news to you, it may already be too late. The Education Department’s website recommends borrowers start this process at least three months early to make sure their new consolidated loans are issued before the July 1 deadline.
Edited by: Nicole Cohen and Nirvi Shah
