Federal student loan repayment changed more on July 1, 2026 than in any year since income-driven repayment was created. This guide is the map: what each plan is now, which ones still exist, and how to work out which one a borrower actually belongs on.

The short version

RAP has been the default plan for most federal borrowers since July 1, 2026.
SAVE is gone. PAYE is closed to new enrollment, and a borrower who left it cannot return. IBR and ICR still exist but reach different populations.
The lowest monthly payment is often not the lowest lifetime cost, because forgiveness timing and the tax treatment of forgiveness differ by plan.
Parent PLUS is a separate track with its own rules and its own deadline.
Which plan a borrower can use is decided by loan types, dates, income and filing status, and household composition. All four come from records, not recollection.

How to use this guide

Most borrowers arrive at repayment with one question: what will this cost me each month, and when does it end. Those two answers now depend on which plan a borrower is eligible for, and eligibility changed on July 1, 2026. Work through the sections in order if the situation is unfamiliar, or jump straight to the comparison if the plan set is already clear.

A note on the numbers. Every payment figure published across these pages is produced by the same deterministic engine that advisors use inside Finology Software, then re-verified on a schedule against the live public calculator. Where a figure comes from regulation rather than calculation, the regulation is cited inline. Nothing on these pages is estimated.

For advisors

The practical problem is rarely a single client. It is finding which clients in a book are affected before a deadline passes, then showing the tradeoff in a form a client can act on. The comparison and calculator pages are built for that conversation: same scenario, every eligible plan, side by side, with the assumptions visible.

Start here

July 1 student loan changes, explained simply. What changed, who it hits, and in what order.
What is the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP)? The new default plan, in plain terms.

Choosing a plan

RAP vs SAVE vs PAYE vs IBR: which plan now? The full comparison, including the new Standard plan.
RAP payment calculator. What the plan actually costs, month one.
How long until student loans are forgiven? Forgiveness timelines by plan.

Making the switch

How to switch to RAP, step by step. Eligibility, what you need, and the application path.
Should I consolidate my student loans? When consolidation helps and when it costs you.

When payments are not affordable

Which plans still exist in 2026?

RAP is the default for most federal borrowers, and the new Standard plan remains the option that is not income-driven. IBR still exists. ICR still exists but reaches a narrower population, including consolidations that repaid excepted loans. SAVE is gone, and PAYE is closed to new enrollment, so a borrower who left it cannot go back.

The practical effect is that the menu now depends on history as much as on income. Two borrowers with the same balance and the same income can face different option sets based on when they borrowed, what they borrowed, and which plans they used before. The full comparison puts them side by side.

Is the lowest monthly payment the right answer?

Frequently not. A lower monthly payment extends the period over which interest accrues and pushes forgiveness further out, and what is eventually forgiven is not taxed the same way across plans. Forgiveness under PSLF is not taxed. Forgiveness at the end of an income-driven term is treated as income federally, and several states tax it as well.

So the comparison that decides the outcome is lifetime cost including the tax consequence, not the first month’s payment. That is the calculation borrowers are least equipped to run themselves, and it is where an advisor changes the answer rather than confirming it. What repayment programs actually save runs real profiles through it.

What determines which plan a borrower can use?

Four inputs, none of them guesswork. The loan types on file decide whether excepted-loan rules apply. The dates those loans were disbursed or consolidated decide whether closed plans are still reachable. Income and filing status decide whether a spouse’s income counts. Household composition feeds the calculation itself.

All four come from the federal loan record and the tax return rather than from memory. Getting one wrong does not produce an error message. It produces a confident number that is quietly incorrect, which is harder to catch and more expensive to act on.

Where does this most often go wrong?

Three places, repeatedly. Assuming RAP is available to everyone, when excepted loans are excluded from it. Assuming a closed plan can be re-entered later, when several are shut permanently. And treating a plan enrollment or a payment count as something established in conversation rather than verified against the borrower’s record.

Each of those is invisible at the moment it happens and costly years later. That delay is the through-line of the 2026 changes, and it is the reason to work from records at the start rather than reconstruct them at the end.

What about borrowers already in trouble?

Default and unaffordability are different problems from plan selection, and they come first. A borrower in default is not choosing between plans, they are restoring eligibility. A borrower who cannot make this month’s payment needs the options that exist now, not the optimal plan for the next decade. Both paths are covered in the sections below.

Every figure on the pages above is produced by the same deterministic engine advisors use in Finology Software, and is re-verified on a schedule.

Student Loan Repayment Guide (2026)