Find the best options for repaying your student loans
Developed in partnership withBased on your loans and income, you qualify for 7 repayment plans.
Choose a plan below to see how it compares to all the others.
You pay a fixed amount each month of at least $50 for up to 10 years.
You make monthly payments that increase every 2 years and last for up to 10 years. Each payment must cover at least the monthly interest on your loan. Any single payment cannot be more than 3 times greater than the amount of any other payment.
You make monthly payments that are no more than 15% of your discretionary income for up to 25 years. If your payment is less than the monthly accrued interest, the government may subsidize the unpaid interest on your subsidized loans for the first three years. Parent PLUS loans are not eligible for this plan.
You make monthly payments that are no more than 10% of your discretionary income for up to 20 years. If your payment is less than the monthly accrued interest, the government may subsidize the unpaid interest on your subsidized loans for the first three years. FFELP and parent PLUS loans are not eligible for this plan. To qualify for IBR for new borrowers, you must have had no outstanding balance on a Direct or FFELP loan when you borrowed a Direct loan on or after July 1, 2014.
You make monthly payments that are 10% of your discretionary income for up to 20 years. If your payment is less than the monthly accrued interest, the government may subsidize the unpaid interest on your subsidized loans for the first three years. FFELP and parent PLUS loans are not eligible for this plan. FFELP loans, other than parent PLUS loans, can become eligible through loan consolidation. To qualify for PAYE, you need to have borrowed your first federal student loan after October 1, 2007, and you need to have received a disbursement of a Direct Loan or a Direct Consolidation Loan on or after October 1, 2011.
You make monthly payments that are no more than 10% of your discretionary income for up to 20 or 25 years. If your payment is less than the monthly accrued interest, the government may subsidize the unpaid interest on your subsidized loans for the first three years. They will subsidize half of the unpaid interest on all loans under this plan for as long as the monthly payment amount is less than the monthly accrued interest. FFELP and parent PLUS loans are not eligible for this plan. FFELP loans, other than parent PLUS loans, can become eligible through loan consolidation.
You make monthly payments that are either no more than 20% of your discretionary income or what you would pay under a standard 12-year plan based on your income, whichever is less for up to 25 years. FFELP and parent PLUS loans are not eligible for this plan; however, these loans may become eligible for this plan if they are consolidated into a Direct Consolidation loan. This is the only income driven repayment plan available to parent PLUS loans that have been consolidated.
Discretionary Income: Your discrectionary income is your adjsuted gross income (typically what you declare in your income tax returns) minus 150% of the Fedral Poverty Guideline for your family size.
Partial Financial Hardship: If your annual payment under the Standard Fixed 10 year plan is greater than a percentage of your discrectionary income, you qualify as having a partial financial hardship. The percentage is 15% for IBR plans, and 10% for PAYE plans.