Some of the most common questions I get about student loans are, “do I qualify for a discounted payment plan or student loan forgiveness?” And, “Am I on the right payment plan?”
Good questions, and we’ll get to the plan. But picking a plan is the easy part. The trouble usually starts with something smaller: a missed recertification deadline, or loans parked in forbearance and forgotten while the interest kept running.
So managing student loans is mostly a routine: know what you owe and who you pay, stay on a plan that fits, recertify on time, keep interest from piling up and pay on time every month. This guide walks through each one.
The short answer
- Your federal loans and your servicer are listed under My Aid on studentaid.gov. Private loans aren’t there.
- SAVE is over. If you were on it, pick a new plan before your servicer’s deadline or you’ll be placed on a Standard plan.
- On an income-driven plan, recertify every year. Giving consent to share your tax info makes it automatic.
- Forbearance costs you: $30,000 at 6% builds $1,800 of interest in a year.
- Pay on time every month. Late payments hit your credit at 90 days, and RAP and PSLF only count on-time payments.
Know what you owe and who you pay
Start with a list. Log in to studentaid.gov, go to your dashboard and open My Aid. That shows every federal loan and the servicer you pay for each one. You can also call 1-800-433-3243 to find your servicer.
Private loans won’t be there. Pull those from your lender’s site or your credit report. Our step-by-step guide to organizing your student loan information has a simple layout for the whole list.
Then make sure each servicer has your current email and mailing address. Every important deadline in this guide arrives as a notice. If it goes to an old address, you won’t see it.
Good to know
Servicer help is free. You never need to pay an outside company to switch plans, recertify or apply for forgiveness on federal loans. Here’s who the federal servicers are and how to reach them.
Check that you’re on the right repayment plan
The plan menu changed a lot. If you haven’t looked at your plan in a while, look now.
| Your situation | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| You were on SAVE | SAVE is over. Your servicer sends a notice, and you have 90 days from it to pick a new plan. If you don’t pick, you’re placed on the Standard plan, or Tiered Standard if you have a loan from July 1, 2026 or later. |
| All your loans were made before July 1, 2026 | You can use Standard, Graduated, Extended, IBR or RAP. ICR and PAYE close no later than July 1, 2028. |
| You have any Direct Loan or consolidation from July 1, 2026 or later | All your Direct Loans, old ones included, have to be on RAP or Tiered Standard. |
| You want Public Service Loan Forgiveness | You need a qualifying plan: an income-driven plan (RAP, IBR, ICR or PAYE) or the 10-year Standard. Tiered Standard doesn’t qualify. |
| You have Parent PLUS loans | Different rules apply. Parent PLUS can’t use RAP, and its plan options depend on when the loan or consolidation was made. |
Need a lower payment? RAP sets it from your adjusted gross income, minus $50 a month for each dependent, with a $10 minimum. Want to pay the least interest? The 10-year Standard plan usually wins if you can afford it. Our repayment plans guide compares every option side by side.
Next stepEstimate your RAP payment in two minutes with the RAP calculator.
Recertify your income every year
If you’re on RAP, IBR, ICR or PAYE, you have to update your income and family size every year, even if nothing changed. This is the deadline that trips up the most people.
The easy fix is to give consent for the Department of Education to pull your federal tax information from the IRS when you apply. Then it recertifies you automatically each year and tells you the new payment before it starts.
Miss it, and the payment jumps.
- On RAP, your payment becomes what you’d pay on a 10-year Standard plan, based on what you owed when the loan entered repayment.
- On IBR, you get the same kind of Standard-based payment, and any unpaid interest is capitalized, which means it’s added to your principal and starts earning interest itself.
Lost income or had a baby? You don’t have to wait for the yearly date. You can recertify early whenever your income drops or your family size changes, and a lower payment can start sooner.
Keep interest from piling up
Forbearance feels like a break, and it is one. But interest keeps running on every loan type while you’re in it.
Example from studentaid.gov: one year of forbearance
- Balance
- $30,000
- Interest rate
- 6%
- Interest built up in 12 months
- $1,800
- Higher Standard payment afterward
- about $18 a month
- Extra cost over the loan
- about $613
This is Federal Student Aid’s own example of a year in forbearance right after entering repayment, on the Standard plan. A longer forbearance or a higher rate costs more.
A few ways to keep the balance from growing:
- Try an income-driven plan before forbearance. A RAP payment can be as low as $10, and that month still counts toward forgiveness.
- Stay on time if you’re on RAP. When your full, on-time payment is less than the month’s interest, the unpaid interest for that month is waived.
- Pay the interest on unsubsidized loans during your grace period if you can. It builds up on unsubsidized loans while subsidized ones are covered.
- Know what consolidation does. Any unpaid interest is added to the new loan’s principal, and a consolidation made on or after July 1, 2026 moves all your Direct Loans to RAP or Tiered Standard. Read our consolidation guide first.
Pay on time, every month
A loan is delinquent the day after a missed payment. At 90 days late, the servicer reports it to the credit bureaus, and after 270 days with no payment a Direct Loan is in default. If you’re already behind, our guide to getting out of default covers your options.
Auto pay takes the whole problem off your plate. On federal Direct Loans it also takes 1 point off your rate through June 30, 2028 if you enroll by December 31, 2026. Here’s how to set up student loan autopay.
Talk to your servicer the right way
Most of what you need is on the servicer’s website, and that’s usually the fastest route. When you do call, treat it like a business call.
- Write down who you talked to and what they said.
- Ask for anything important in writing, like a plan change or a payment count.
- Check your account a few weeks later to confirm the change actually went through.
- If your loans move to a new servicer, log in to the new one, set up your account and confirm your plan and auto pay came over.
Servicer transfers do happen. Navient handed its loans to MOHELA, and if that was you, our Navient lawsuit explainer covers what changed.
Your student loan routine
Every month: confirm the payment posted. Once a year: recertify (or confirm it happened automatically), look at your plan, and check your credit report for errors. Whenever your income or family changes: recertify early.
Once that’s running, put any extra money toward the highest-rate loan. Federal loans have no prepayment penalty, so every extra dollar goes to work. Our strategies to pay off student loans fast pick up from there.
Log in to studentaid.gov, go to your dashboard and open My Aid, then View loan servicer details. You can also call the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-433-3243. Private loans are not listed there.
Your payment stops being based on income. On RAP it becomes the 10-year Standard amount based on what you owed when the loan entered repayment. On IBR you get a Standard-based payment and unpaid interest is capitalized. Recertify as soon as you can to get back to an income-based payment.
It is costly. Interest accrues on all loan types during forbearance. Federal Student Aid’s example: $30,000 at 6% in forbearance for a year builds $1,800 of interest and raises a Standard payment by about $18 a month. An income-driven plan is usually the better first move.
Pick a new plan before the deadline in your servicer’s notice. You get 90 days from the notice. If you do not choose, you are placed on the Standard plan, or Tiered Standard if you have a loan first disbursed on or after July 1, 2026.
Yes. You have to recertify every year you are on an income-driven plan, even if nothing changed. Giving consent to share your federal tax information lets it happen automatically.
Sources (11)
We use primary sources wherever we can: Federal Student Aid, the U.S. Department of Education, the IRS, federal regulations and each company’s own site.
- Federal Student Aid. Who’s My Student Loan Servicer?. studentaid.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Federal Student Aid. Income-Driven Repayment Plans. studentaid.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Federal Student Aid. Big Updates to Federal Student Loans. studentaid.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Federal Student Aid. Definitions: RAP, Tiered Standard and loan limits. studentaid.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Federal Student Aid. What SAVE borrowers need to know. studentaid.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Federal Student Aid. Public Service Loan Forgiveness. studentaid.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Federal Student Aid. Get Temporary Relief: Deferment and Forbearance. studentaid.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Federal Student Aid. Student Loan Consolidation. studentaid.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Federal Student Aid. Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans. studentaid.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Federal Student Aid. Student Loan Delinquency and Default. studentaid.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- U.S. Department of Education. U.S. Department of Education Extends Enrollment Period for Student Loan Interest Rate Reduction. ed.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
