Watching Your Wallet: What to know for new student loan repayment options

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Student borrowers tin expect caller repayment options disposable to them for the upcoming schoolhouse year.

"The 'One Big Beautiful Bill' was signed into instrumentality connected July 4, 2025, but a batch of those changes don't spell into effect specifically for pupil loans until July 1, 2026," says Prep Expert CEO Shaan Patel. "It has immense implications for parents and students."

Students readying to commencement postgraduate schoolhouse successful oregon aft Fall 2026 volition request to question alternate financing. That July 1 day marks the discontinuation of the Federal Graduate PLUS program.

Patel says different large alteration -- less options to repay your pupil loans.

"Previously, parents and students had astir fractional a twelve options to take from," Patel said. "Now, there's truly conscionable 2 antithetic options. One is simply a standardized enactment to repay your pupil loans, and the 2nd is an income-driven option."

The modular repayment enactment tin beryllium a 10 to 25-year word based connected however overmuch the pupil is borrowing.

"If you're borrowing little than $25,000 for your higher education, you'll beryllium connected a 10-year modular term," Patel said. "If you're borrowing implicit $100,000 to wage for your higher education, past you'll beryllium connected a 25-year term. Those are the modular options."

The Repayment Assistance program enactment is an income-driven repayment.

"You utilized to person 20 oregon 25-year options for indebtedness forgiveness with those IDRs," Patel said. "Now, you person to beryllium connected those repayment assistance plans for up to 30 years."

Patel says different enactment to see is the Parent Plus.

"One strategy, if you person aggregate siblings successful the household, is to person a genitor instrumentality retired a indebtedness and beryllium associated arsenic a babelike for 1 child, and the different genitor instrumentality retired the indebtedness for the different child, due to the fact that you'll get amended rates and won't get dinged for having that archetypal indebtedness for the archetypal child," Patel said.

Current borrowers tin voluntarily power to the caller Repayment Assistance Plan.

"Reach retired to your pupil indebtedness supplier and marque definite that you are getting grandfathered into your existing option," Patel said.

There are fiscal assistance options, including grants and scholarships, and it's ne'er excessively aboriginal to get a assemblage 529 relationship started.

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