Repayment Plans

Federal student loan repayment is not a single thing. It is a set of overlapping rules: which plan you are on, how your payment is calculated, what happens if you pause payments, and what it costs when something goes wrong. Each of those questions has its own page here, because conflating them is one of the most common sources of confusion for borrowers.

The pages in this section move roughly in the order you will face decisions. Start with how plans differ from one another, then read about the specific plan that seems right for your situation. If your income is the main constraint, the income-driven pages explain both the core idea and the annual recertification process that keeps your payment accurate. The grace period and pause options—deferment, forbearance, and the interest rules that apply during each—come next, because many borrowers encounter those before they have fully settled into a plan.

The final group of pages covers strategy and mistakes: how extra payments are applied, what autopay changes, how to choose a plan at graduation, and the errors families most often make. Reading those before you need them costs nothing. Reading them after a missed payment or a misapplied extra payment can cost considerably more.