The new bill says $528 a month. The last one said $0.
SAVE is gone, interest is running, and you have weeks to pick from five-plus cryptic plan options — with no side-by-side totals and no neutral second opinion. One wrong pick can cost thousands over the next decade. See every plan's 10-year cost, computed from your own numbers, before you choose.
Free tier: loan profile + default timeline preview + plan payment ranges. No card required.
Not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Education or any loan servicer. Figures on this page are illustrative until the operator verifies the seeded policy values — verify current policy values on studentaid.gov.
Why this bill hits different
The pause era ended — and it left you a 10-year decision due this month, made alone.
The bill landed: $528 a month where $0 used to be
An illustrative version of the 2026 shock: SAVE struck down, interest running again, and servicers issuing the first real bills in years. Community-reported jumps range from about $89 to $400+ a month — and the envelope doesn't say which of your options is cheapest over ten years.
Five-plus plans, zero translation
IBR, ICR, standard 10-year, forbearance, consolidation. The portal lists cryptic acronyms with no side-by-side totals — you're being asked to make a 10-year financial commitment from a dropdown menu.
One wrong pick compounds for a decade
Choose a plan $150 a month more expensive than the one you qualified for and the 10-year cost grows by $18,000 — illustrative math, but it compounds every single month you're on the wrong plan. Nobody is required to show you that comparison.
The recertification trap
Income-driven plans recertify every 12 months. Miss the deadline — buried in a portal most people open twice a year — and you can be dropped into worse terms with a payment that jumps, with no warning letter that reads like one.
Every path, priced
Five ways forward — including the honest worst case
Your payment is set by statute, not by whatever number appears in your servicer's portal — and the cheapest plan for your neighbor can be the expensive one for you. The engine prices every path from your own loan profile, and always shows the do-nothing baseline next to it.
IBR
Income-Based Repayment caps payment as a share of discretionary income — 15% for borrowers before 2014-07-01, 10% after. We compute both from your AGI and household size, so you can check the servicer's number.
ICR
Income-Contingent Repayment is the lesser of 20% of discretionary income or a 12-year fixed amortization — and after consolidation, it's the only IDR path for Parent PLUS borrowers.
Standard
The classic 10-year amortization — usually the highest monthly payment but the lowest total interest. Sometimes it's the right exit ramp; you'll see it priced, not hidden.
Forbearance
Pausing feels like relief, but the engine shows the 12-month interest accumulation on your balance so the deferral's true cost is on the table before you choose it.
Do nothing
The honest baseline: 270 days to default, up to 15% of disposable pay garnished without a court order, and your tax refund exposed to offset. IDR is almost always cheaper than this path — now you can see by how much.
The traps have dates
Your deadlines, dated from your own inputs
- Day 0
First missed payment
The default clock starts quietly. Most borrowers don't know it's running.
- Day 90
Pre-default notice window
The 90-day pre-default notice is your early warning — and the moment to dispute a wrong status with a formal letter.
- Day 270
Default
The full balance accelerates, credit takes the hit, and collection powers switch on.
- After default
Offset & garnishment
Tax refunds can be taken to cover the debt, and up to 15% of disposable wages can be garnished without a court order.
- The way out
Rehabilitation or consolidation
Rehabilitation: 9 payments in 10 months and the default record comes off your credit. Consolidation: faster, but the default stays on file. We price both, side by side.
There is no statute of limitations on federal student loans — the debt never expires. The full timeline, dated from your own inputs, is free.
Paperwork that gets answered
Five formal letters, ready to mail
Picking the plan is half the fight — the other half is paper the servicer must act on. Every letter is generated from your case facts — loan types, balances, servicer, dates — with a built-in disclaimer. No placeholders, no “fill in the blanks later” templates. Download as .docx, mark as sent, and regenerate as your facts change.
Status-mismatch dispute
When your servicer's portal, mail, and phone answers disagree, this letter documents the contradiction and disputes the wrong status before a default clock starts.
IDR application cover letter
Attaches to your income-driven repayment application and states which plan should apply, with the income documentation checklist spelled out.
Hardship forbearance request
Requests a pause when you genuinely cannot pay — with the interest-accumulation consequence acknowledged in writing.
Rehabilitation plan request
Asks your servicer to set up the 9-payment rehabilitation program and confirm the terms in writing.
FSA Ombudsman complaint
The escalation path when the servicer won't fix it: servicer → FSA Ombudsman → CFPB/state AG, with your documented history attached.
The shock is real. So are the options.
From bill shock to a plan priced by statute
What borrowers are reporting
After SAVE ended, borrowers have reported monthly payments jumping several times over. These are community-reported figures, not our claims — your numbers depend on your loans, income, and household size.
What the right plan looks like
of discretionary income — what IBR caps your payment at (by borrower date), computed from your actual AGI and household size. The engine shows your number next to the garnishment baseline before you choose.
Four steps to a defensible decision
How Student Loan Rescue works
Build your loan profile
Enter your loans (Direct/FFEL/Parent PLUS), balances, rates, servicer, AGI, and household — 5 minutes with the new bill and a statement in front of you.
See every option, priced
The engine computes IBR (10%/15%), ICR, Standard 10-year, forbearance cost, and — critically — the do-nothing path: garnishment vs IDR, month by month.
Track the deadlines that matter
270-day default clock, the 90-day pre-default notice, rehabilitation's 9 payments in 10 months, and your annual recertification — dated, from your own inputs.
Send letters that get answered
Generate five formal letters as .docx: status-mismatch dispute, IDR application cover letter, hardship forbearance, rehabilitation request, and the FSA Ombudsman escalation.
What you get
Built for the mess, not the brochure
- Plan-comparison engine: IBR 15%/10% (2014-07-01 borrower boundary), ICR (lesser of 20% discretionary or 12-year fixed), Standard 10-year amortization
- Do-nothing consequence model: 270-day timeline, 15% wage garnishment estimate vs your IDR payment, tax-refund offset exposure
- Parent PLUS path check: the consolidation-then-ICR route and its post-2026-07-01 uncertainty, flagged honestly
- Deadline tracker: pre-default notice, rehabilitation windows (~29–31 day monthly spacing), annual recertification
- Five servicer letters (.docx), fully interpolated with your case facts — no placeholders, ready to mail
- Case panel: log every call, letter, and servicer response so escalation (servicer → Ombudsman → CFPB/state AG) is documented
The $29 decision
Priced against what picking wrong costs
The math the servicer won't show you
Pick a plan $150 a month more expensive than the one you qualified for and the standard 10-year cost grows by $18,000 (illustrative: $150 × 120 months). The Rescue Kit that shows you the difference costs $29, once — and a missed recertification can push you into worse terms on top of it, which is what Guardian ($9/mo) watches. For scale: debt-relief companies commonly charge $500–$1,500 upfront for the same free-to-file federal paperwork.
Free
$0
Decode the bill before you pay anything.
- ▸ Loan profile (all loan types)
- ▸ Default timeline preview
- ▸ Plan payment ranges
One-time
Rescue Kit
$29
The decision, made with math — and the paperwork to execute it.
- ▸ Full plan-comparison report
- ▸ All 5 servicer letters (.docx)
- ▸ Deadline tracking
- ▸ Default-risk profile
Subscription
Guardian
$9/mo
The deadlines, watched — so a missed recert can't reset the clock.
- ▸ Everything in the Rescue Kit
- ▸ Deadline reminders + recert countdown
- ▸ Unlimited letter regeneration
The bill already arrived. The decision is still yours — make it with the totals in front of you.
Start free: build your loan profile and see the default timeline preview in minutes. Upgrade when you're ready to compare every plan's 10-year cost and send the letters.
Questions, answered honestly
Why not just use studentaid.gov directly?
You should use it — it's the official source, we're not affiliated with the Department of Education, and this tool tells you to verify every figure there. But accurate isn't the same as decision-ready: the plan details are spread across dozens of pages, the Loan Simulator quotes monthly payments without a side-by-side 10-year total-cost comparison, and it won't generate a dispute letter or watch your recertification date. If you have the hours and the patience, go free. The $29 Kit is for the borrower staring at a $528 bill this week who needs the totals and the paperwork finished, not another tab to read.
Why not hire a debt-relief company instead?
Look at what they charge for what it is: debt-relief companies commonly take $500–$1,500 upfront to file federal paperwork that is free to submit — IDR applications, forbearance requests, rehabilitation enrollment. Student Loan Rescue is $29 one-time for the side-by-side plan report and the five servicer letters as ready-to-mail .docx files you submit yourself. We never take power of attorney, never contact your servicer on your behalf, and never promise forgiveness — anyone who guarantees forgiveness is running a scam.
Why not just ask r/StudentLoans on Reddit?
Do both — it's free, active, and often honest about what actually happened to people. But it's generalized: the plan that's right for a $25,000 undergraduate borrower can be exactly wrong for a Parent PLUS parent, and no thread computes your 10-year totals from your AGI, household size, and loan mix — or remembers your recertification deadline next year. Use the subreddit for lived experience; use the Kit for your numbers.
Is this legal advice?
No. Student Loan Rescue is a self-help planning and document tool. It is not a law firm, does not provide financial or legal advice, and does not negotiate with servicers on your behalf. Every output tells you to verify current rules with official sources.
How accurate are the payment numbers?
The engine implements the statutory formulas (amortization, IBR percentages by borrower date, ICR's lesser-of rule) and labels every policy constant with an as-of date and confidence level. Until the operator re-verifies the seeded values, treat every figure — here and in the product — as illustrative and confirm current values on studentaid.gov. Your servicer's official recalculation always controls; if our estimate and their number differ, that gap is exactly what the dispute letter documents.
What if the rules change again?
They will. Every rule row in the product carries an as-of vintage (currently 2026-09) and a confidence label, and the product displays a sitewide policy-volatility warning. Guardian subscribers get policy-change brief notes in the dashboard.
Do you promise loan forgiveness?
Never. We compute what programs' published formulas say, show eligibility conditions, and tell you to verify. Anything promising 'forgiveness guaranteed' is a scam — we don't do that and we say so explicitly.
What's the difference between the Rescue Kit and Guardian?
Rescue Kit ($29, one-time) unlocks the full report, all five letters, deadline tracking, and the default-risk profile. Guardian ($9/mo) adds deadline reminders, the recertification countdown, and unlimited letter regeneration as your facts change.
I'm in default already — is this for me?
Yes. The engine prices rehabilitation (9 payments, 10 months, credit cure) against consolidation (fast, default stays on file), and the rehabilitation request + Ombudsman letters are part of the Kit.