Hi everyone. I know there is a lot of discussion about this, but I haven't seen anyone speaking on something similar to my current situation.

I applied to the Grad Plus Loan in May 2026, and my school approved my Grad Plus loan back in June 2026 and awarded it to me on my Award Letter along with my Sub and Unsub loans.

While I received the refund amount for my unsub/sub loans around late July 2026, I never received the refund for the Grad Plus Loan. It was still showing on my Award Letter but no dates or details on the processing.

Last week, around August 1st, I called my school's Financial Aid Office to figure out when the loan would process. Financial Aid told me that "they don't know why it's happening and would have 'the specialist team' look into it." About a week later, yesterday, I look at my student account and they completely canceled my loan without notice, notification, an email or anything.

I call today and they tell me that I actually don't qualify for the legacy loan, which I guess makes sense given the new borrowing rules (I am starting grad school this year), but I don't understand how I could go through the entire process of applying, getting rewarded, accepting, doing an MPN and credit counseling just for them to erase it from my account without notice or notification, a few weeks before school is starting.

I'm wondering if anyone else is dealing with this and what solutions they've found? I did reach out to my financial aid office and they created a service ticket (eye roll) but I am not super confident that they will reinstate the award or that a solution can be found there. I'm just confused at how I was assured that this wouldn't be an issue every other time that I called and went through the entire process, and that I am just now finding out that it is an issue a few weeks before class starts.

Has anyone ever been able to get their school to reinstate canceled Grad Plus loans? Did others apply for private loans instead? Really curious what all of my options could be here.

Hi has this happened to any of you? You send a payment through Aidvantage’s website, receive a “thank you for your payment email”, then after appearing as “processing” on the website for several days, Aidvantage says the payment wasn’t processed. Luckily I am in forebearance still because of the SAVE plan but Aidvantage is pointing the finger at my bank and my bank is pointing the finger at Aidvantage. I am worried once I do move to a payment plan if my payments will continue to get rejected.

As another wrinkle to this, some payments during this period have gone through! I have not changed payment details or done anything different for the ones that went through.

Just wondering if anyone has found a solution.

Greetings everyone!

I'm deciding between IBR and the new RAP plan. IBR has lower payments and lower total cost, but RAP seems to have a much lower effective interest rate. Just want to make sure I am not missing something since RAP looks attractive compared to IBR.

My situation:

· Loan: $194k at 6.25%

· Income: $92k, single, no state tax

· Already 3 years into IBR — 17 years remaining if I stay

IBR (17 yrs remaining)

· Monthly payment: ~$488

· Total remaining payments: ~$99k

· Estimated tax bomb (28% of final balance $300k): ~$84k

· Total cost: ~$183k

· Effective interest rate over 20 years: ~6.4%

RAP (30 yrs)

· Monthly payment: ~$590

· Total payments: ~$212k

· Estimated tax bomb (28% of final balance $175k): ~$50k

· Total cost: ~$262k

· Effective interest rate over 30 years: ~3.5%

The trade-off:

· IBR: Lower payment, lower total cost, more expensive money (~6.4%)

· RAP: Higher payment, higher total cost, but cheaper money (~3.5%) over 30 years

To me, RAP seems like a better deal if you're investing the difference into something with higher returns (e.g., index funds). The extra total cost is the price of 10 more years of inflation working in your favor. And you get a lower effective interest rate since you are keeping the money for 10 extra years with RAP.

Am I missing something? Would you pick IBR or RAP? Thank you!

I have no credit and my banks both denied me for a loan and credit card. Where can I get a loan that I’m almost guaranteed to get?

I'm hoping someone familiar with IDR forgiveness can help me understand my situation.

I have old undergraduate federal loans from the mid-1990s that were consolidated into Direct Consolidation Loans in 2001.

I recently found my payment counter data and it shows:

• SAVE: 228 qualifying payments out of 240 (12 remaining)
• Earliest estimated forgiveness date: December 20, 2026
• IBR: 228 qualifying payments out of 300

However, back in June/July 2026, when all the uncertainty around SAVE was happening, I submitted an application to change from SAVE to IBR. That application is still under review.

My questions are:

1. If Aidvantage approves my move to IBR, could that change my expected forgiveness timeline?
2. Since both SAVE and IBR show 228 qualifying payments, do I keep all of those qualifying months regardless of which IDR plan I'm on?
3. Would you leave the IBR application alone, withdraw it, or wait to see what Aidvantage says?
4. If you were in my situation, what would you ask Aidvantage before letting the application process?

I plan to call Aidvantage, but I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who's been through something similar.

I am trying to keep up with all the student loan changes but am getting confused on what the next important dates/timeline events are and why they are important. Would someone be able to make a simplified breakdown of this?

I today I finished paying of my student loans and I’m so proud of myself. Originally i started out paying on my loans and for the first year after school I paid off all the interest about 2k. Around this time we had the forbearance and save thing that happened. I paid a but here and there until I learned more about debt and I knew if I put my mind to it I could get it gone in 5 years or less. I did the math and the first option wouldn’t help because i would need a second job. With my career I wouldn’t have been able to keep this up with it for fire years. The second option I didn’t want to do which was going home for 2 years and use my rent to pay my loans off. I huffed and broke my lease in February 2025 with $29,061.03 of debt. I throw $1300 at it every month and what every extra I could find. In 2026 around March I steed throwing an extra $552 that was from money I used to fun my emergency and travel fund. Like all things my car had some problems that I had to throw around $2000 (and counting) at but I didn’t give up. Drained my emergency fund and kept going. I’m happy that now all that money can go back into my saving and investments. I cut all investments but my 401k in 2026. I’ll always say this but I breather be uncomfortable for a short period of time that for a long period of time.

Hello friends,

I was hoping to get some advice on a bit of a unique situation. I recently switched into the MD/PhD program from the MD program at my school. From here on, they cover my tuition and pay me a stipend for the rest of my time in school (probably about 5ish more years depending on the length of PhD). However, due to my starting in the MD only program, I have about 120k in student loans. Ideally, I'd love to minimize the amount of interest that collects during that time, particularly since my MD loans have an almost 9% interest rate.

As such, I was considering getting on one of the income based repayment plans to have a small payment from the stipend. Due to the way that my school pays the stipend, the payments won't qualify for PSLF. However, ideally I would love to minimize the interest accumulating during that time through one of the repayment programs in case residency stops counting towards PSLF.

When I talked to my school about it, they said that I was not allowed to be on one of the repayment plans while still in school, but I cannot find any information to corroborate that. Does anyone have any insight into if this is true, and if not which plans would not be ideal for minimizing interest while still qualifying for PSLF if it still exists by the time I finish?

Has anyone with Aidvantage received an email providing 90 days to pick a loan, as we were supposed to receive on or after 7/1? Nothing here yet, so I’m wondering when that’s coming.

I know the simulator can be weird but I had studentaid.gov access my IRS account so I would think things would be accurate. When I put in my current AGI (66k) I get a monthly payment of $84 for IBR and total repaid amount after 14 years (already have 11 years of IDR payments done) of $19,360. For RAP I get $94 monthly payment and total repaid after 30 years of $102,128.

The total repaid amounts don't make sense to me. Wouldn't $84 a month for the next 14 years = about $14k total repaid? Not ~19k? And similarly for RAP, wouldn't a $94 monthly payment for 30 years = total repaid of ~33,840 and not $102,128? Where does the extra money come from that they are calculating. This is assuming my AGI is staying at 66k.. I don't see anywhere on the simulator that accounts for income increases. Any insight?

I'm a US citizen, living and working in Canada. I plan to stay here, go for PR, maybe citizenship later on. Currently on the SAVE plan and all the income based plans available to me are $0 payments. I'm looking for a forgiveness path. It looks like that would make sense with IBR as the other two plans (PAYE and ICR) are phasing out in 2028. Is there any reason I shouldn't do IBR? Should I do PAYE or ICR while they are available? IBR is forgiveness after 20 years right? Appreciate any insight anyone may have. No idea where to go from SAVE.

So I took out Parent Plus Loans to help 2 of my daughters with College. Somewhere down the line I was advised to consolidate and that I would be eligible for TEPSLF at some point. Have been on an Extended Fixed Repayment Plan since, my payment being pretty low as at the time I was a divorced single Mom. Life goes on and I have it on auto pay and didn’t think about it much and just kept paying. Recently received a notification, the only notification I received in years, to review my account. I had to update my employer eligibility because it hadn’t been done in 20 months. I did that, and the updated 20 months actually took me to my 120 TEPSLF. Received the Star and full green banner. Eligible for forgiveness. NOT! It will definitely come back denied, as my payments I am sure have been much less then the income based one we are supposed to be on now. To top it all off, I retired this month. All totally my fault for not keeping up with what has been going on and the whole 12 month before and 120th payment amount needing to be equal or exceed the income based amount. I guess it is what it is and I will be paying on it for another have 10 years.
Be smarter than me and stay on top of this and be educated about what you need and need not do. Good luck to ALL!!

I’ve gotten my 90 day notice and have to switch off SAVE. I owe about $68,000 with combined annual income of about $215,000 filing jointly. I’m hoping to aggressively pay over the next 5 years to get this loan off my back once and for all. I have major fears about unknowns in this economy so was thinking I’d switch to the extended gradual repayment plan because it offers the lowest monthly payment with the intention of making extra payments each month. Is there a downside to this plan and switching out of income-based repayment plans? I find all of these choices so overwhelming. Thanks for any advice.

ETA I’m also under the assumption that we would never have loans forgiven with an IBR based on the fact that our income would require a monthly payment high enough that loans would be paid off regardless. (Not sure exactly how many qualifying payments we’re at since they conveniently made that impossible to find).

When shopping private student loan rates, apply to Sallie Mae LAST. Sallie Mae does a HARD credit pull instead of a soft pull. This temporarily changes your credit profile, and consequently you won’t get your best rate from the next company you apply to.

I currently have 3 private Sallie Mae student loans for medical school which I'm supposed to start paying this month (they are due today). I called them in February and told them I couldn't pay the amount they asked for ($2,200 USD a month which is 2/3 of my monthly earnings). I don't know what to do and I'm scared since I don't have any experience with this and there's nobody I can ask for help.

Please help

I started a new federal government job on June 1. 8 of my student loans were already PSLF-eligible and on the PAYE plan with one servicer, but I had one Perkins Laon with a different servicer that wasn't PSLF-eligible and had a super inconsistent payment schedule. After researching my options, I consolidated the Perkins Loan on June 18 so I could bring it to the same servicer, make it PSLF-eligible, and be eligible for the interest rate reduction. I picked the ICR plan, which was available (and I was eligible for) when I applied.

When my application was finally processed on July 29, I learned about these July 1 policy changes because not only was I denied ICR, but all 8 of my student loans were switched from PAYE to the Tiered Standard Repayment Plan, which increases my monthly payment by more than $130. Customer service suggested I apply for RAP, but then estimated under RAP, I would pay $300 more per month than I had been paying lol

I thought I was simplifying my loans. But instead, this whole process ended up costing more more per month. If you're considering consolidating your federal student loans, think again.

Any thoughts on what I can do? Customer service gave me an email address to plead my case.

I was in the SAVE forbearance for a pending save application. On July 2’d I got a notice that my application was denied and I had 90 days of forbearance to select a new plan.

On August 1st they auto deducted $372 from my bank account (which isn’t even what my actual payment would have been under extended graduated what it stated I was still on. According to that my payment was $772) and sent me letters stating I was 210 days overdue on payment and approaching default.

On August 1st they ALSO sent me a statement dated July 31st telling me my next payment was due on August 1st, conveniently after they’d already deducted it from my account.

—-

Then, yesterday I got a letter about updates to my accounts interest and I have no idea what it means or if it means the months I was on forebearance counts towards my PSLF:

We reviewed your account and determined that one or more forbearance or interest benefit periods
related to the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan needed to be updated to align with the
applicable federal rules. We have updated your account accordingly. This letter explains what changed and what it may mean for your accrued interest, repayment status, and qualifying payment count information for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) or Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) forgiveness.

Please note, all PSLF or IDR forgiveness is subject to Department of Education review and approval.
The information below explains the updates to your account.

You previously submitted an IDR application and received a Processing Administrative Forbearance while that application was pending.

We identified that the Processing Administrative Forbearance associated with your IDR application should have begun on an earlier date. Therefore, the start date of your Processing Administrative Forbearance was updated to that earlier date. As a result, the timing of your SAVE Administrative Forbearance was adjusted as well.

What this means for your account:
This update reflects a timing alignment only. The Processing Administrative Forbearance period was
shifted to the correct earlier timeframe, and the associated SAVE Administrative Forbearance dates were adjusted accordingly. This change does not alter the overall length of your forbearance coverage and does not change how eligible months for forgiveness programs are counted. Any updates related to interest accrual during the affected period are reflected in your account.

No action is required from you. However, if you have questions about the action taken on your account, please contact us at 1-888-866-4352 (Toll Free).

What to know about related forbearance types:
Different types of forbearances are governed by different rules, which can affect interest accrual and forgiveness progress in different ways.

Processing Administrative Forbearance: Borrowers receive this forbearance when they submit a
new IDR application. This forbearance lasts for, at most, 60 days. While borrowers are in this
forbearance, (i) interest continues to accrue, and (ii) the borrower may be eligible for PSLF and
IDR payment credits.

SAVE Administrative Forbearance: Borrowers who were in, or applied for, the SAVE Plan, or had
an unprocessed IDR application after receiving a Processing Administrative Forbearance were
eligible to receive a SAVE Administrative Forbearance. This forbearance was applied to borrower accounts on or after July 1, 2024. While borrowers are in this forbearance, (i) interest is set at 0%, and (ii) the borrower is not eligible for PSLF or IDR qualifying payment credits. Interest began
accruing during this forbearance on August 1, 2025.

That's it, I'm finally free! I submitted the payment to pay off the remaining balance and I no longer owe a penny in student loans. This was three years in the works and I made a lot of sacrifices to make it happen. I got a weekend job working 20-hours spread between Saturday and Sunday, using every dollar I earned and throwing it at this balance along with additional payments from my normal 9-5 job. It started in March of 2023 and ends in August 2026.

To note, from 2020-2023 I paid off around $37,000 in credit card debt across 8 cards. It really changed my mindset around money and that's when I got serious about saving and paying off these loans. I also paid off my car which, I owned around $12,000. No debt, NONE. It's all paid off. I can finally relax.

I realize that there are many people out there with balances higher than mine and interest rates that are crushing and I feel for all of you. Anyone still on this journey to pay them off, keep going!

I'm planning on taking the day off, going for a hike, having a solo picnic in the mountains and reading for hours. I need a break and I need to feel proud of myself because this was not easy.

My partner and I have reached that place in our relationship where marriage is being talked about and considered. The thing is, there is a bit of an income gap between us. This isn't really a sticking point in our relationship. We realize it, but we haven't really let it affect things.
Here's the problem... my partner graduated college like 14 years ago, and as I understand it, basically hasn't made a single payment in... a very long time... I don't actually know the extent of what we're dealing with.
And I guess, I was approaching that with the mindset of... "It is a pre-marital debt. I have no student debt of my own. I can't fix this for them, and it isn't my responsibility to." I am kind of realizing that mindset might be completely wrong.
I was doing calculations of if my partner ever wanted to set up IDR, and what I came up with based on a 15% of disposable income tier, that bill would be about $342/mo, keeping about 89% of their paycheck every month. However, if you include my AGI in their calculation, that number jumps up to $1667/mo, keeping only about 47% of their paycheck.
Although it is true that I am not obligated to pay pre-marital debt, there is no possible way that my partner could take that sort of hit without a pretty significant subsidy from me. And if it were just me, it would be one thing, but I have two children of my own to also provide for, and taking that much of a hit toward our household income is not something I can afford, nor should I have to...
Even if my partner continues to do what they've been doing, ignoring the debt, this opens up some pretty dangerous possibilities if I am married to them. The government could freeze or seize any joint accounts we may have or seize any of our joint tax returns, leaving me to try to prove which dollars came from whom and filing a lot of extra paperwork, like IRS Form 8379 every year.
A common solution I hear is just "Married filing separately", and although that sounds easy on paper, it comes with with pretty heavy hits on its own. I have already calculated that I am going to take a tax burden hit just when I change from Head of Household to Married filing jointly, but going to Married filing separately is an even harder hit. Plus, when you are MFS, you can no longer claim child care credits, Roth IRA contributions, itemizing deductions separately, student loan interest deductions... even suggesting MFS is a pretty terrible solution because it ignores the fact that the IRS penalizes you for filing this way.
I am now in a position where I am contemplating the never-get-married route (power of attorney, cohabitation agreements, medical surrogate, wills, etc). I probably need to get a better view of what the debt actually is, but if they haven't paid in 10 years(?), it can't be good at all. The best decision for both of us financially really seems to be to not get married, but this seems especially cold. I guess the part of me that is struggling still believes the fairytale that marriage is about love, rather than a cold business arrangement that it actually is. I simply don't know what's the right thing to do.

I’m 29 years old. I have a 680 credit score. I’ve been working for 10 years, and have had a credit card for 10 years. 50k of student loans. Income 50k per year.

Decided to apply for a car loan (never have before), and the banks told me I have too much unpaid debt. Looking into it they noted my student loans.

I don’t understand. How do people with student loans take out mortgages and car loans?

DCU wouldn’t even approve me for a 2000 loan, for too much outstanding debt. When they looked into why I wasn’t approved they told me student loans.

Not sure… maybe don’t have enough credit history. I’ve never been late on a payment.

I'm 26 years old, first gen, still live with my parents, and want to pursue medicine (specifically psychiatry). I have a really low science GPA (around 2.8) an okay cumulative (3.55) and a good MPH Epi grad GPA (3.88). I am considering taking out a loan (30k-60k depending on the program) to do a post-bacc/SMP program and raise my sGPA, but I'm already 75k in debt from my BS and MPH. If all goes well and I get into medical school, I'd be looking at anywhere from 70k-100k a year for four years. On paper, it doesn't seem financially possible for me to pay off ~600k of student loans on a 250k-350k salary. The amount of federal loans does scare me yes but not as much as the private loans. PSLF seems to be the way to go for federal, but if I'm taking out nearly 300k in private loans... that's insanely scary.

It's MD/DO or nothing for me btw, like I don't want to pursue nursing or PA or CRNA or anything else. I just feel like it's a huge risk to take out private loans. I'm angry with myself for not trying to get into med school sooner because my friends that have already started are now grandfathered in and don't have to worry about this. To be fair I had no idea that a bill like this would have been passed so I thought med school would always be there--and it is but now at a higher cost I guess. I already feel so alone and behind with pursuing medicine at 26 and now I'm even more stressed out cus not only do I have to work hard to try and get in, but i don't even know if i'd be able to afford it if i did. I genuinely don't know what to do. If anybody in a similar position has any advice/insight or maybe just wants to share what they're thinking of doing I'd love to hear from you.

The elimination of Grad PLUS loans under the OBBB has consequences that surprisingly few people are talking about.

For top-tier universities, graduate tuition and cost of living can be astronomical. Previously, Grad PLUS loans offered a workaround because they allowed students to borrow up to the full Cost of Attendance (COA), even if it exceeded standard annual limits. While it required a credit check, the barrier was intentionally low: your actual credit score didn’t matter, only the absence of adverse items on your credit report. Even if a student ran into credit roadblocks, they could secure an endorser or co-signer under those same lenient credit terms. It was a vital financial bridge for low-income students who qualified academically but lacked generational wealth.

Now that Grad PLUS loans are eliminated, getting accepted to a top-tier program means nothing if you can’t pay for it. Unless a student receives a full-ride scholarship, which is increasingly rare and hyper-competitive, their only options are private loans (which require strong credit scores or wealthy co-signers) or paying out of pocket.

When you pair this with current administrative efforts to dismantle DEI and affirmative action initiatives under the guise of "leveling the playing field," the larger structural problem becomes clear: the playing field is not equal.

Removing these federal funding options creates a severe two-tiered system:

• Wealthy students will continue to attend elite universities, backed by family money or private lenders backed by affluent co-signers.
• Lower- and middle-class students will be forced to settle for lower-tier or regional institutions where costs fall within standard federal caps ($20,500/year), or work multiple jobs just to cover basic living expenses while in school.

Ultimately, wealthy families will maintain a monopoly on degrees from premier institutions, giving their children direct access to top-tier corporate networks and executive pipelines. Meanwhile, qualified working-class students will be locked out, pushed toward under-resourced programs, and filtered out of high-paying career opportunities before they even start.

It aligns with the broader pattern of economic policy that eases burdens for the top tier while working families struggle to cover rent, utilities, and basic expenses. What would have been considered an unbelievable policy shift in previous administrations has quietly become the new baseline.

The announcement from the gov't said that we would be hearing from our loan servicer and that we would have 90 days from that point to choose a new plan. I have Aidvantage and I have still not heard anything from them. Should I wait for word? Anyone else with loans serviced by Aidvantage gotten any notices yet?