I don’t really know what to do. When there was no interest and I qualified for $0 payments a month because of my income I still tried to put money towards my $26k loans when I could. It may have been like $700 total but I was proud to be a somewhat recent grad making progress.
I eventually lost my job, it’s been 6 months well past my unemployment and I’ve had countless interviews and no offers. I’m living off of doordashing to get some money to get by. I can’t pay any sort of loans but I’m terrified about not switching repayment plans and then being screwed or do I stay on SAVE and just hope and pray something works out? The interest is already eating the money I even put towards it so that feels pointless.
I have so much medical and credit card debt my priorities have been focused on those. Any advice???
Are we pushing loans off or switching plans??
byu/crystalizedwolf inStudentLoans
Posted by crystalizedwolf
5 Comments
Starting on July 1, 2026, borrowers on the SAVE forbearance will start receiving notices giving them 90 days to move themselves to another plan. If you do not switch plans by yourself then you will be put into the Standard plan at the end of your 90 days. Not every borrower will get their 90 day notice on July 1st. They will go out in waves.
Currently ICR, PAYE, and IBR are available as far as IDR plans go. RAP will start July 2026. By July 2028 there will only be IBR and RAP. ICR and PAYE will be gone.
With low/no income you can get a $0 payment on any of the current IDR plans. The minimum on RAP would be $10 but it would also subsidize the monthly interest not covered by your payment and offer a matching principal payment as well. These may be beneficial and keep your loan balance from growing while you are job hunting. You can read more about RAP here: https://www.reddit.com/r/StudentLoans/s/lsHO2ct2JR
You’ll have to switch plans within 90 days of being notified by your servicer (which begins July 1) or you’ll automatically be placed on the standard plan. If you have little income right now, then plan on switching to another income driven repayment plan to keep your payments really low or $0.
RAP isn’t available until July, so I would probably hang tight for now.
When deciding which IDR plan to go on, you might want to consider not only your current income, but your expected future income trajectory. (Unlike IBR and PAYE, RAP doesn’t have a payment cap).
You can also switch your plan at anytime. You won’t miss out on any options just keep an eye on it.
I was on the phone with Mohela & on hold for about an hour today. I am in pslf. Laura, the senior specialist, said that I should go to the IDR plan and then pick the ibr plan. But I have to do that through the studentaid.gov website. But it’s not simple. Looking at what I have to do to make a change right now it just invokes more with stress. It literally sets my heart racing. For now I’m going to hold onto SAVE. We don’t know when they will change the rules again. I have been throwing small amounts of money at my $64,000 which has now become $67,000 since I consolidated. I had to consolidate in order to be eligible for pslf.
I had a revelation today that having these debts is a form of control. I first took out loans in 1997. And I’ve had that sort of heavy doom feeling the whole time. My mother actually defaulted on student loans & she could have avoided that by just paying like $5 a month. So my suggestion is that even if it only hits the interest, to keep making payments forever and they cannot say that you defaulted.
Thinking about it sets my heart racing and hurts my throat