President Joe Biden on Tuesday launched a promotional blitz for his new program that helps student loan borrowers repay their debt, just weeks before millions of Americans are set to receive a loan bill for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.
The Biden administration is mobilizing to convince borrowers across the country to sign up for the new income-driven repayment program — dubbed the “SAVE plan” — which caps interest accrual and lowers the monthly payment amount for many borrowers.
“It’s the most affordable student loan plan ever,” Biden said in a video released by the White House on Tuesday, describing the program as a major reform to a student loan system “that hurt borrowers for much too long.”
“If you’re eligible for the SAVE Plan, sign up now so you can lower your monthly payments in advance of payments resuming this fall,” Biden said.
Unfortunately, this new plan seems like it’ll increase my payments from about $200/mo to over $900/mo. The calculator says the $900/mo plan comes with an offer of $0 in forgiveness (and says so directly). Even if I keep the $200/mo plan and won’t be fully paid off until 2046 or something (vs 2027 at $900/mo), it still offers me $0 in forgiveness.
I still have $36k in loans and have been paying them off since 2005. I’ve already paid more than I’ve owed, due to interest. I used to be poor, but not really anymore; that kinda happens over 20 years. I suppose I can be happy everyone else, but this doesn’t mean squat for folks like me.
How did you figure this out? I’m trying to figure out if it’s worth me applying for it.
I received an email from studentaid.gov inviting me to apply. It points to a calculator—really a screening-level application—on their site I can use to compare before applying.
That’s weird. In reading the specifics of the plan, I don’t see how the math would work out towards increasing payments. Unless your income changes significantly, there isn’t really a provision that would increase payments here. It’s designed to drive down interest for all
If his income now is more than it was when he set up his first income based repayment plan I think It would go up. I would expect that to be the case for most people because over time salaries go up
It should be updated with each tax filing though
I was never on an income-based repayment plan. I was always on the standard plan. The Internet was really different in 2005, and the info available at my fingertips was much, much less than now. I don’t even know if it was an option, then.