The Education Department will start sending 90-day notices on July 1 to borrowers in the SAVE Plan, warning them to switch to another repayment option before the program is phased out. The earliest anyone will be moved off SAVE is September 29, 2026.
That deadline matters because borrowers who miss the notice or do nothing could be pushed into a Standard repayment plan, where monthly bills can be much higher and progress toward loan forgiveness can disappear. The department said borrowers whose loans are in forbearance because they enrolled in or applied for SAVE must choose a new repayment plan and start repaying their loans.
The move puts a date on a transition that has been building for months. SAVE was created under the Biden administration and has been tied up in legal fights for more than two years, with millions of borrowers stuck in forbearance since the summer of 2024 after a federal appeals court blocked the program. Last December, the Trump administration and the GOP-led states that challenged SAVE reached a settlement agreement ending the plan, and that deal was entered into court in March.
The notices will not arrive all at once. The department said they will be staggered, which means some borrowers may get more time than others before they have to act. It also said borrowers should move now rather than wait, because the next plan choice will determine whether they stay on an income-driven path or fall into a Standard repayment schedule that can raise payments sharply.
That advice comes even as the department faces another lawsuit challenging its termination of SAVE, a reminder that the legal fight is still not fully settled. Advocacy groups say borrowers should look at their own finances before choosing a replacement plan. The main alternatives mentioned by the department include the Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) Plan, the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program, and the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program, but the right option will depend on each borrower's circumstances.
For now, the key date is July 1, when the first notices go out. After that, the transition will be gradual, but the direction is fixed: borrowers in SAVE will have to move, and the earliest forced move off the plan will come on September 29, 2026.
