SAVE Student Loan Plan Timeline Estimates: What To Expect | The College Investor Podcast

The future of student loan repayment for SAVE borrowers is now caught between a pending court ruling and how quickly the Department of Education can execute on the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) that just passed.

Borrowers in administrative forbearance under the SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education) plan know the future now, but they don't know when. The OBBB makes it clear that borrowers in the SAVE forbearance will migrate to amended IBR, or have an option to enroll in the new Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) in 2026. But the question as to when remains.

When will the SAVE forbearance officially end and borrowers be required to make payments again? Note: This isn't about interest accruing - that's starting back on August 1 and no payments are still due. This is about when payments may resume.

Several scenarios are on table for SAVE repayment resuming

1. ED forces SAVE borrowers into repayment before July 2026: The Department of Education could return borrowers to repayment as soon as December 2025, then still force them to move repayment plans between July 2026 and June 2028. 
2. The Department of Education keeps borrowers in forbearance until migration in mid-2026: The Department of Education simply migrates all borrowers on SAVE to amended IBR by July 2026, coinciding with the RAP plan beginning.
3. Other Timelines: Literally any timeline could happen between December 2025 and June 2028. But it would be rare to keep borrowers in forbearance until 2028, and logistically it would be a nightmare for loan servicers NOT to coordinate with the other changes happening.

The fastest option could see payments start again is the very end of 2025, though it's the least likely, because SAVE is enjoined they cannot simply restart SAVE payments. Our opinion is the highest probability of payments resuming is mid-2026 for SAVE plan borrowers.

Here's a more in-depth look at these three scenarios.