The SAVE Plan — the income-driven repayment program that promised especially low monthly payments and a path to forgiveness — is no longer an option. A March 2026 court order ended it, after legal challenges concluded it exceeded the Department of Education's authority. Roughly 7.5 million borrowers were enrolled at the time. * If you were on SAVE, you're not being cut off without warning. Loan servicers began sending transition notices in waves starting July 1, 2026, continuing roughly every two weeks through March 2027. Each notice comes with a specific deadline, and borrowers get at least 90 days from their notice date to pick a new repayment plan. * Miss that 90-day window, and you don't stay on SAVE by default — you get automatically enrolled in either the Standard Repayment Plan or a new Tiered Standard Plan, neither of which is income-based, which can mean a significantly higher monthly payment than you were used to. * Two new plans became available July 1, 2026, to replace the income-driven options SAVE was meant to be part of. The Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) bases your monthly payment on income and number of dependents, but only offers forgiveness after 30 years of qualifying payments — longer than SAVE's timeline. The Tiered Standard Plan offers fixed 10, 15, 20, or 25-year terms based on how much you owe, without an income-based calculation at all. * If you're unsure which option fits, don't wait for your notice to start comparing — the earlier you move, the more control you have over which plan you land in instead of getting defaulted into Standard repayment.