--- title: Millions of Student Loan Borrowers Will Soon Be Forced Out of SAVE Forbearance description: The Education Dept. is giving SAVE borrowers 90-day notices to switch to a new repayment plan. For the first wave of borrowers, time is up. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy has eight years of experience in personal finance journalism. At Money, he’s written extensively about student loans, including guides, explainers and breaking news. MuckRack named Adam one of the top 10 journalists covering student loans in the nation. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 505 covers: - Education - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Kaitlin Mulhere role: Editor url: https://money.com/author/kaitlin-mulhere/ bio: Kaitlin Mulhere is an editor at Money.com. Since joining in 2015, she’s written and edited about a variety of personal finance topics, including banks, credit, student debt, saving strategies and more. education: University of Florida at_money_since: 2015 articles: 217 covers: - Education - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://twitter.com/KMulhere - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaitlin-mulhere-64503048/ published: '2026-09-30T18:35:24.000Z' modified: '2026-09-30T18:35:24.000Z' section: Education word_count: 643 canonical: https://money.com/student-loans-save-deadline-switch-repayment-plans/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![College hat and denied door](https://img.money.com/2026/09/News-SAVE-student-loan-denied.jpg) Millions of student loan borrowers could soon be moved into new repayment plans, which could drastically change their monthly loan bills. The deadline has been a long time coming. It affects those who remain enrolled in the defunct Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan. For months, the Department of Education has been advising SAVE holdouts to [switch to one of several other repayment options](https://money.com/new-student-loan-repayment-plans-save-borrowers/). In July, the Education Department began sending out notices to some SAVE borrowers with a 90-day deadline to switch. For the first wave of recipients, the clock is supposed to run out this week. According to the latest federal data, about [6.5 million borrowers](https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fstudentaid.gov%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Ffsawg%2Fdatacenter%2Flibrary%2FDLPortfoliobyRepaymentPlan.xls&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK) are still in SAVE. (At its height, about 8 million borrowers were enrolled in the plan.) It’s not clear how many of them received the first batch of 90-day notices in July or what action the Education Department will immediately take this week now that the first deadlines are here. Nonetheless, all borrowers in SAVE are staring down an impending deadline. SAVE was an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan launched during the Biden administration. The plan was quickly challenged as an executive overreach, and borrowers were put in forbearance while multiple lawsuits played out. For some borrowers, the SAVE forbearance period overlapped with pandemic-era protections, meaning some folks have not been required to make student loan payments for over six years. Since then, much has changed with the economy, and returning to repayment will pose a challenge for struggling borrowers. Already, [more than 9.3 million](https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/library/electronic-announcements/2026-09-22/federal-student-aid-posts-updated-reports-fsa-data-center) federal student loan borrowers are in default, which occurs after 270 days (about nine months) of missed payments. That number will likely increase as SAVE borrowers lose their forbearance status and some begin to fall behind on payments. ## Switching from SAVE While the exact deadline to leave the SAVE plan may vary, experts say it’s important to weigh your options as soon as possible. Ignoring the deadline could be a costly mistake. “Based on the Department of Ed's guidance, if you ignore it, they're going to put you on the standard plan,” [Betsy Mayotte](https://money.com/changemakers/betsy-mayotte/), president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors, previously told Money. “And that will be — for many people — very expensive.” That’s like going from zero to 100. The standard plan sets a fixed payment based on how much you borrowed — not how much you can afford to repay. However, there are several other options that do base payments on your income. Those are the IDR plans, and they can result in much lower monthly payments for lower-income borrowers as well as higher earners who have significant debt. There are currently four different IDR plans borrowers in SAVE can switch to. ([Our guide breaks down the different options](https://money.com/new-student-loan-repayment-plans-save-borrowers/).) Compared to SAVE, which offered especially affordable payments before the forbearance was put into place, all repayment options are likely to result in higher monthly payments, but the standard repayment plan will be especially expensive for most. That's why it's so important to prepare in advance for the change. Each one has unique pros and cons, and experts recommend using a student-loan repayment calculator to find the best option for your situation. The Education Department has its [own calculator](https://studentaid.gov/repayment-calculator/). Student loan advice groups like [TISLA](https://studentloanplans.app/) and [Student Loan Planner](https://www.studentloanplanner.com/free-student-loan-calculator/) offer their own free calculators, too. As an added incentive to get more borrowers back into repayment, the Education Department on Tuesday extended its autopay enrollment deadline to receive a temporary 1% interest rate discount. Folks who enroll in autopay by the end of 2026 can receive the rate discount through June 2028. “We are excited to see millions of borrowers take advantage of this temporary benefit,” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a [news release](https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-extends-enrollment-period-student-loan-interest-rate-reduction), “which is already driving up repayment rates and improving the overall health of the federal student loan portfolio.” ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/student-loans-save-deadline-switch-repayment-plans/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Education", "item": "https://money.com/education/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Millions of Student Loan Borrowers Will Soon Be Forced Out of SAVE Forbearance" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/student-loans-save-deadline-switch-repayment-plans/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/student-loans-save-deadline-switch-repayment-plans/", "name": "Millions of Student Loan Borrowers Will Soon Be Forced Out of SAVE Forbearance", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2026-09-30T18:35:24.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/student-loans-save-deadline-switch-repayment-plans/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/student-loans-save-deadline-switch-repayment-plans/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2026-09-30T18:35:24.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Millions of Student Loan Borrowers Will Soon Be Forced Out of SAVE Forbearance", "articleSection": "Education", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2026/09/News-SAVE-student-loan-denied.jpg", "width": 2880, "height": 1920, "caption": "News-SAVE-student-loan-denied" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adam Hardy", "url": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/#author", "description": "Adam Hardy has eight years of experience in personal finance journalism. 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