Practical Tips and Other Resources
There are several other options to consider if your payments under income-driven repayment (IDR) plans are not affordable.
- Consider filing taxes separately. If you are married and file joint tax returns, you may want to consider filing separate tax returns. If you file taxes separately, only your income will be used to calculate your IDR payment.
- If you and your spouse both have federal loans, your overall payment may be more affordable if you both pay in an IDR plan.
- You can read more about special considerations for married borrowers on the U.S. Dept. of Education’s website.
Many federal loans come with a Standard repayment plan that has a 10-year term. Depending on when you took out your loans there may be several ways to extend this time. Extending your loan’s repayment term will lower your payments (sometimes dramatically) but will result in higher total loan costs.
- If you have more than $30,000 in federal student loans, you may be eligible for an extended repayment plan, which may allow you to make payments over up to 25 years. You can request an extended plan by contacting your servicer. Alternatively, you can find the Repayment Plan Request form in the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Forms Library, located under “Loan Repayment,” and submit it to your servicer.
- Consolidating may be another way to extend your repayment term. The length of time you will have to pay depends on the size of your consolidation loan. For example, a Direct Consolidation Loan with a balance over $60,000 comes with a 30-year repayment term. Keep in mind, however, that consolidating restarts the clock on IDR forgiveness, including wiping out any IDR credit you received through the payment count adjustment. Consolidating also adds any outstanding interest to your loan's principal balance. Additionally, consolidating on or after July 1, 2026 will affect the repayment plans available to you. Learn more about the pros and cons of consolidation on the U.S. Dept. of Education’s website.
- Please note: payments made on a standard consolidation plan or extended plan will not count toward PSLF or IDR forgiveness. However, you may have received credit for past payments in these plans through the payment count adjustment (a temporary debt relief initiative).
Don’t set it and forget with graduated plans. While graduated plan payments start out low, they increase every two years. Pay close attention to your monthly payment and when that payment will increase. Graduated plans have higher total loan costs and may become unaffordable in the long run. They also typically don’t count toward PSLF or IDR forgiveness.
As a last resort or if you’re facing a short-term financial hardship, you can request to temporarily pause your payments through deferment or forbearance. Keep in mind that interest accrues on unsubsidized loans during deferment and on both subsidized and unsubsidized loans during forbearance. Prolonged use of forbearance or deferment can substantially add to your loan costs.
Saving and Downloading Records
Borrowers should regularly take screen shots of the information available on the studentaid.gov account dashboards, including pending repayment applications, payment counts, loan histories, employment certifications, and previously approved employment certifications for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).
Borrowers should regularly download their NSLDS records. NSLDS stands for the National Student Loan Data System. It is the U.S. Department of Education's central database for federal student aid and loans.
You can find your NSLDS records by visiting studentaid.gov and logging in to your account. After logging in, you will see your account dashboard. In the My Aid box at the top of the screen, click the View Details button. Then click Download My Aid Data to download a .txt file listing your federal student loans.
Borrowers should save any communications, like letters and emails, sent to them by their student loan servicer or Federal Student Aid. Borrowers should keep copies of what they send to FSA or their loan servicers, including any applications, and keep notes of the days and times of any phone calls.
Beware of Scammers
Do not trust unsolicited phone calls, letters in the mail, emails, texts, or social media messages from entities offering student loan debt relief. Never give out your FSA ID or password. If you think you have been the victim of a student loan scam, contact your loan servicer and revoke any power of attorney or third-party authorization agreement. Change your passwords and contact your bank or credit card company to stop payments to the scammer. Demand the student loan debt relief company entirely remove your personal information from its records.
