Borrowers in the first wave of the SAVE repayment plan’s wind-down have until Sept. 29 to choose a new federal repayment plan, and the payment jump waiting for some of them is steep. Forbes reported that one example payment shifts from $170 a month under SAVE to somewhere between $650 and $1,150 once a borrower moves to a different plan, a difference that can equal a second rent or car payment for an affected household.
The Sept. 29 deadline for the first SAVE wave
Forbes contributor Adam Minsky, who covers student loans for the outlet, reported that the first wave of borrowers being pushed off the SAVE plan, those who received notices starting July 1, face a Sept. 29, 2026 deadline to select a new repayment plan. Borrowers who miss that window risk being defaulted into a plan the servicer picks rather than one they chose, which can mean a higher payment than a borrower would have picked for themselves.
Inside the kit: Stopping overdraft fees and a protected-funds and dispute log help a household absorb a suddenly larger automatic loan payment without a second bank charge stacking on top of the first bill increase. Open The Bank Account & Debt Protection Kit before a new payment amount hits a checking account.
How a $170 payment could become $650 to $1,150
The size of the jump comes down to how SAVE calculated payments compared with the plans replacing it. SAVE set payments as a share of discretionary income using a formula more generous to lower earners than most other federal repayment plans, so a borrower paying $170 a month under SAVE can see that figure multiply several times over once income is run through a standard or income-based plan’s formula instead. Forbes’ reporting frames the $650-to-$1,150 range as an illustration of how wide that swing can be depending on income, family size and which replacement plan a borrower selects.
Why the SAVE plan is winding down
SAVE, formally the Saving on a Valuable Education plan, has been tied up in litigation since shortly after it launched, and the Department of Education has spent this year unwinding it for the millions of borrowers who enrolled. The Department describes its position in a press release on its repayment-options work, calling SAVE an unlawful Biden-era program and saying the agency has continued moving borrowers off it, consistent with the rolling notices, including the July 1 batch covered by Forbes, that started this wind-down process.
Choosing a repayment plan before the deadline
Borrowers moving off SAVE are choosing among the repayment options still open to new and existing federal loan borrowers, including income-based repayment, the standard 10-year plan and the newer Repayment Assistance Plan, created for loans first disbursed on or after July 1, 2026 and now the only income-driven option open to new borrowers. Each calculates a monthly payment differently, and Forbes’ reporting notes that the size of an individual borrower’s increase depends heavily on which of those options a borrower picks rather than a single, uniform jump every SAVE borrower will see.
What a missed deadline could mean
A borrower who does not act by Sept. 29 does not necessarily lose access to federal repayment options altogether, but risks being placed into a plan automatically rather than choosing one that fits a household’s finances, according to Forbes’ reporting on the transition. Because the first wave’s deadline applies specifically to borrowers notified starting July 1, later waves of SAVE borrowers face their own, later deadlines as the Department continues working through the millions of accounts still enrolled in the plan. A borrower unsure which wave applies can check a loan servicer’s account portal directly, since the notice date rather than the loan’s origination date determines which deadline a given account is working against.
The scale of the transition is part of why the deadlines are staggered rather than uniform. Roughly 7.5 million borrowers were enrolled in SAVE at various points, according to the figure Forbes cited in its reporting, and moving that many accounts off one repayment plan and onto several others is not something a loan servicer can process for every borrower on a single date. Borrowers notified in later waves have more time before their own version of the Sept. 29 deadline arrives, but the same jump in the required monthly payment is likely waiting for many of them once their window closes.
What determines the size of an individual jump
Not every SAVE borrower faces a jump as steep as the $170-to-$650-or-more example Forbes highlighted. The size of the increase depends on a combination of income, family size, loan balance and which replacement plan a borrower selects, since each of the available options runs its own formula against those same inputs. A borrower with a smaller loan balance or a lower income relative to family size is likely to see a smaller percentage increase than the example in Forbes’ reporting, while a borrower with a larger balance and higher income could see an even steeper jump than the range cited. That variation is why Forbes’ reporting frames the $170-to-$650-or-$1,150 figure as one illustrative example rather than a number every affected borrower should expect to see on a new bill.
A student loan payment jump and the checking account that absorbs it
A payment that multiplies several times over lands directly on a checking account already carrying rent, utilities and groceries, and the gap between the old and new amount is exactly the kind of sudden expense that triggers an overdraft fee if the timing is off by even a day. The unfinished job the Sept. 29 deadline leaves every affected borrower is making sure a checking account can absorb the new number before it is automatically debited.
The Bank Account & Debt Protection Kit covers stopping overdraft fees and the 2-month bank protection rule, plus a protected-funds and dispute log for tracking what changed and when.
Compare stopping overdraft fees against a new loan payment in The Bank Account & Debt Protection Kit.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are attributed to the reporting that verified them.
