Interest will restart for SAVE borrowers whose loans remain in a general forbearance on Aug. 1. Viva Tung/CNET
If you're a student loan borrower enrolled in SAVE, you have just over a week left to switch repayment plans before interest will begin accruing on your loans on Aug. 1. While you can't avoid interest, it also may not make sense for you to switch payment plans just yet.
Earlier this month, the Department of Education announced that interest would resume for the nearly 8 million borrowers on the Saving on a Valuable Education plan on Aug. 1. Monthly payments, however, still remain on hold in a general forbearance. That gives you roughly two weeks to decide if you want to move onto another income-driven repayment plan or continue to stay on SAVE until the forbearance period ends.
"It's crucial for borrowers to act based on their own personal situation," said Elaine Rubin, a student loan policy expert and director of corporate communications at Edvisors. "A borrower who chooses to stay in the forbearance or who is waiting for their payment plan application to be processed will have their loan remain in good standing."
The SAVE repayment plan was officially shot down by the courts earlier this year, but borrowers' payments are expected to remain on hold until mid-2026 unless an upcoming court decision speeds up the timeline.
If you're not sure the best move for your loans, here's what experts suggest and the one thing you should do if you leave your loans in SAVE.
Should PSLF borrowers enrolled in SAVE do anything before Aug. 1?
If you're working toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness and are enrolled in SAVE, you can either stay in forbearance or switch to another repayment plan.
"For borrowers pursuing PSLF, this won't mean very much," said Betsy Mayotte, president and founder of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors. "They can still either ride out the forbearance and plan on using what's called buy-back to get the months to count for PSLF purposes or switch plans now to another qualifying plan."
If you decide to stay in forbearance, you'll be able to claim the months your loans were on hold using a process called PSLF buy-back. This allows you to pay for the months when your loans were in an administrative forbearance, to help you reach 120 on-time payments to receive forgiveness.
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