Student loan laws changed on July 1st, 2026, for millions of borrowers. You need to do something very important before September 30th to minimize the negative impact. Timing matters. “Save” is gone; you have 90 days to choose another repayment plan. New plans were introduced. Some existing plans were eliminated and collections restarted. For you these changes could have a significant impact on your credit. Before this September 30th, you need to do something very important.
Rapid regulatory shifts like this usually cause widespread confusion leaving millions of borrowers unclear on their status. Worse, when millions of accounts are reassigned overnight, credit reporting errors increase significantly.
The new law did three big things:
One, it killed The Save Plan, which was the low payment plan that millions of people signed up for; it’s gone. And a couple of the older income based plans are being phased out, too. So, if you know someone who was on one of those plans, they’re getting moved off it whether they like it or not.
Two, it started new plans to replace them with new monthly payments that no one has budgeted for yet.
Three, student loan collections are no longer frozen. This leaves millions facing surprise monthly payments on brand-new plans, just as defaulted loan collections flip back on all at once. That’s where the confusion can really becomes costly. Eventually, those mistakes or missed payments can make their way onto your credit report potentially affecting your credit score and your ability to qualify for future credit or better financing options.
Many people don’t even know that their payments have started back up again. A federal loan goes into default after about 270 days of missed payments. That’s why timing matters. A late payment on a credit report is a cleanup job. A default is a crisis.
September 30th can save you some big money. Anyone who sets up automatic payments by September 30th will lock in a 1% interest cut that runs all the way through mid 2028. That’s 1% savings on a loan balance for years. That is money back in your pocket and almost no one knows to do it. So, let me give you the exact steps.
Step 1. Find Out Who You Owe: Go to www.studentaid.gov, log in, go to your dashboard, click into “My Aid” to see your loans and who services them. If you can’t get in, call Federal Student Aid at 1 800-433-3243 and they’ll tell you right there.
Step 2. Check if a payment date is active and check if a payment date is coming up. Once you know your servicer, log into their website. The link is right there in your studentaid.gov dashboard. It shows your next due date and the amount. It shows a date your payments came back on even if you never got a letter.
Step 3. Turn On Autopay in the loan servicer’s website before September 30th. Find the autopay setting, switch it on, and put in your bank information. That’s it. just do it before the 30th so you lock in that 1% cut. That full 1% is for loans first taken out in 2012 or later, and only while the loan is actually being paid on. Other than that autopay still gets you a quarter point. So, either way, that’s free money for two minutes of work.
So go check out your loan before September 30th. Use this Repayment Calculator to help choose a new plan.