Yes. If you have federal student loans and you’re not enrolled in a deferment, forbearance, or another approved program, you have to pay your student loans back right now. Payments resumed in October 2023, and the temporary on-ramp period that protected borrowers from the worst consequences of missed payments ended on September 30, 2024.1Congress.gov. On-Ramp to Repayment Policy Miss a payment today and your servicer will treat it the same way any lender would.
Where Repayment Stands Now
Interest on most federal loans started building again on September 1, 2023, and the first monthly bills came due the following month. During the on-ramp year, borrowers who fell behind weren’t reported to credit bureaus and weren’t placed into default.1Congress.gov. On-Ramp to Repayment Policy That grace is over. Late payments now show up on your credit report, and after enough time, they push you into default.
If you finished school and used your six-month grace period, you’re on a repayment plan already — most likely the Standard Repayment Plan, which spreads your balance over fixed payments for up to 10 years. You can switch plans by contacting your servicer or logging into StudentAid.gov, but you can’t simply opt out of paying without qualifying for a specific program.
Private student loans are a different story only in the sense that they were never paused. If you borrowed from a bank, credit union, or online lender, your payments have been due the whole time under whatever terms you agreed to in your promissory note. Those lenders generally don’t offer the same menu of relief options federal borrowers have.
If You Were on the SAVE Plan
The Saving on a Valuable Education plan has been tied up in federal court since 2024, and borrowers enrolled in it were moved into administrative forbearance while the litigation played out.2eCFR. 34 CFR 685.209 – Income-Driven Repayment Plans For a stretch, that meant a zero-dollar required payment and no interest accruing.
That changed in July 2025, when the Department of Education notified more than 7.6 million SAVE borrowers that interest would begin accruing again on August 1, 2025, and encouraged them to switch to a different plan.3U.S. Department of Education. U.S. Department of Education Announces Agreement with Missouri to End SAVE Plan The litigation is still ongoing, and the plan’s future is uncertain. If SAVE was your plan, check your servicer account and StudentAid.gov/courtactions for current status and available options.
If You Can’t Afford Your Current Payment
An income-driven repayment plan bases your monthly payment on your income and family size rather than your loan balance. If your income is low enough, your payment can be as little as zero dollars. After 20 or 25 years of qualifying payments, whatever balance is left gets forgiven.
Three IDR plans remain available regardless of the SAVE litigation:
- Income-Based Repayment (IBR) is open to most Direct Loans and FFEL loans, though not parent PLUS loans. Borrowers whose first loan was taken out after July 1, 2014, pay 10 percent of discretionary income with forgiveness at 20 years; older borrowers pay 15 percent with forgiveness at 25 years.
- Pay As You Earn (PAYE) caps payments at 10 percent of discretionary income with forgiveness at 20 years. You qualify only if your first loan was after October 1, 2007, with a disbursement on or after October 1, 2011.
- Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) sets your payment at the lesser of 20 percent of discretionary income or what you’d pay on a fixed 12-year schedule, with forgiveness at 25 years. It’s the only IDR plan open to parent PLUS borrowers, and only after they consolidate into a Direct Consolidation Loan.
Defaulted loans aren’t eligible for any IDR plan — you have to bring the loan back into good standing first.4Federal Student Aid. Top FAQs About Income-Driven Repayment Plans Older FFEL loans not held by the Department of Education need to be consolidated into a Direct Consolidation Loan before most IDR plans open up.5Federal Student Aid. What to Know About Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program Loans If you work full-time for a government agency or qualifying nonprofit, look into Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which wipes out your remaining Direct Loan balance after 120 qualifying monthly payments.6eCFR. 34 CFR 685.219 – Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program
If You Can’t Pay Anything Right Now
When even a reduced IDR payment is out of reach, you can apply to pause payments through deferment or forbearance. The key difference: during most deferments, the government covers interest on subsidized loans; during forbearance, interest builds on all your loans and gets added to your balance.
Deferment
Federal rules allow deferment for specific situations, including unemployment and economic hardship.7eCFR. 34 CFR 685.204 – Deferment An unemployment deferment is available for up to three years total while you’re actively looking for full-time work. An economic hardship deferment is also capped at three cumulative years and requires proof of financial difficulty, such as income below 150 percent of the federal poverty guideline or receipt of certain public benefits.
Forbearance
General forbearance is more flexible. Your servicer can grant it for financial hardship, medical expenses, or other reasons, typically for up to 12 months at a time. Because interest keeps accruing, forbearance can meaningfully increase what you owe over the life of the loan. Use it as a short-term bridge, not a strategy.
Applying
Contact your servicer or pull the right form from the Federal Student Aid forms library at StudentAid.gov. You’ll need to document your situation: pay stubs if you’re employed, a signed statement of expected monthly gross income plus proof of your business if you’re self-employed, or your award letter if you’re on unemployment.8Federal Student Aid. Acceptable Forms of Documentation Keep making payments while the application is processed. Servicers can take weeks to decide, and anything that comes due in the meantime is still your responsibility.
If a Disability Keeps You From Working
A total and permanent disability discharge wipes out your federal student loans entirely. You can qualify with any one of the following:
- Certification from a doctor of medicine or osteopathy, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, or licensed psychologist that you are totally and permanently disabled.
- An SSA notice of award or other documentation showing you receive SSDI or SSI, with your next disability review scheduled five to seven years out or an onset date at least five years before your application.
- Documentation from the Department of Veterans Affairs showing you’ve been determined unemployable due to a service-connected disability.9eCFR. 34 CFR 685.213 – Total and Permanent Disability Discharge
Veterans applying with VA documentation don’t have to provide any additional medical records.
What Happens if You Just Stop Paying
Missing payments now triggers a predictable, escalating sequence. Knowing the timeline lets you act before it compounds.
Delinquency
Your loan is delinquent the day after a missed payment. Once you’re 90 or more days past due, your servicer starts reporting the delinquency to the three major credit bureaus, updated monthly in 30-day intervals: 90, 120, 150, and 180-plus days.10Federal Student Aid. Credit Reporting A single report can drop your credit score enough to affect renting an apartment, buying a car, or qualifying for other credit.
Default
After 270 days of missed payments, your loan is in default. That unlocks aggressive collection:11Federal Student Aid. What Are the Consequences of Default
- Administrative wage garnishment of up to 15 percent of your disposable pay, with no court order required.12eCFR. 34 CFR Part 34 – Administrative Wage Garnishment
- Treasury offset of your federal tax refunds and certain federal benefit payments, applied to the defaulted balance.
- Loss of eligibility for additional federal student aid, IDR plans, deferment, and forbearance until you resolve the default.
Getting Back Out
Loan rehabilitation is the main path back. You contact your loan holder and agree in writing to make nine affordable monthly payments within a 10-consecutive-month window, calculated as a percentage of your discretionary income, so the amount can be quite low.13Federal Student Aid. Getting Out of Default Once you complete rehabilitation, the default status comes off your credit report, though individual late-payment marks may remain. You can also exit default by consolidating into a new Direct Consolidation Loan, but consolidation doesn’t clear the default from your credit history.
A Warning About Refinancing Federal Loans
Refinancing federal loans into a private loan might lower your interest rate, but it permanently converts them into private debt. You lose access to income-driven repayment, unemployment and hardship deferment, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and every other federal relief program.14Federal Student Aid. Should I Refinance My Federal Student Loans Into a Private Loan There’s no way to undo the conversion later. If any part of your income or employment picture could change, the safety nets are usually worth more than a slightly better rate.