The Federal Direct Loan Program offers various repayment plans. For assistance finding a repayment option that best suits your needs, please visit studentaid.gov.
 

• The Standard Repayment Plan: A Standard Repayment Plan with a fixed annual repayment amount paid over a fixed period of time not to exceed 10 years.

• The Graduated Repayment Plan: Paid over a fixed period of time not to exceed 10 years. With this plan, your payments start with a relatively low amount and then increase, generally every two years.

• The Extended Repayment Plan: With a fixed annual or graduated repayment amount to be paid over a period not to exceed 25 years. If you’re a FFEL borrower, you must have more than $30,000 in outstanding FFEL Program loans to be eligible for this plan. If you’re a Direct Loan borrower, you must have more than $30,000 in outstanding Direct Loans This means, for example, that if you have $35,000 in outstanding FFEL Program loans and $10,000 in outstanding Direct Loans, you can choose the extended repayment plan for your FFEL Program loans but not for your Direct Loans. Your monthly payment will be lower than it would be under the Standard Plan, but you’ll ultimately pay more for your loan because of the interest that accumulates during the longer repayment period.

Income Driven Repayment Plans

• REPAYE Plan: The REPAYE plan which became available on December 17th, 2015, enables more Direct Loan borrowers to cap their monthly student loan payment amount at 10% of monthly discretionary income. Payments are recalculated each year and are based on your updated income and family size. If you're married, both you and your spouse’s income or loan debt will be considered, whether taxes are filed jointly or separately (with limited exceptions). Your monthly payment can be more than the 10-year Standard Plan amount. Any borrower with eligible federal student loans can make payments under this plan. The REPAYE Plan improves upon the current Pay As You Earn Plan while extending its protections to all student borrowers with Direct Loans.  The REPAYE Plan also will provide a new interest subsidy benefit to prevent ballooning loan balances for those whose income-driven payments cannot keep up with accruing interest. In addition to the monthly payment cap, REPAYE will forgive remaining debt after 20 years for those who borrowed only for undergraduate study and 25 years for those who borrowed for graduate study. You may have to pay income tax on any amount that is forgiven. 
   
• Income-Based Repayment (IBR) Plan: The Income-Based Repayment Plan became available July 1, 2009. To qualify for the IBR Plan, you must have a partial financial hardship. Under this plan, during any period when you have a partial financial hardship, your required monthly payment amount will not exceed 15 percent of the difference between your adjusted gross income and 150 percent of the Federal Poverty Guideline amount for your family size and state. You are considered to have a partial financial hardship if the amount you would be required to repay on your eligible student loans under a Standard Repayment Plan with a 10-year repayment period is more than the amount you would be required to repay under the IBR Plan. If you repay under this plan and meet certain other requirements over a 25-year period, any remaining balance on your loans may be canceled. Contact the Direct Loan Servicing Center (for Direct Loans) or your FFEL lender (for FFEL Program loans) for more information about the IBR Plan.

• Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan: Monthly payments are 10% of discretionary income, the difference between your adjusted gross income and 150% of the poverty guideline for your family size and state of residence (other conditions may apply). You must also prove partial financial hardship. Additionally, you must be a new borrower on or after October 1,  2007, and must have received a Direct Loan disbursement on or after October 1, 2011. If you repay under the Please note that for private loans, repayment options will vary according to lender.