Your Income-Driven Repayment Payment Is Still Too High? Here's What to Do

You thought you were doing the right thing. You enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan because someone said it would make your student loans affordable. But now you're looking at the monthly bill and your stomach sinks. Even with payments supposedly based on your income, you still can't afford it.

This situation is more common than you might think, and it's gotten dramatically more complicated in 2025. Between the elimination of the SAVE plan, new restrictions on repayment options, and economic pressures squeezing household budgets tighter than ever, millions of borrowers are discovering that "income-driven" doesn't always mean "affordable."

The good news? You have options. They might not be perfect, but falling behind or defaulting is worse. Let's break down exactly what to do when even your income-driven payment feels impossible.

Why Income-Driven Doesn't Always Mean Affordable

Income-driven repayment plans were created to help borrowers manage student loan payments by tying them to what you actually earn. The idea makes sense: if you're not making much money, your payment should be lower.

But here's what many borrowers don't realize until it's too late.

You might not qualify for the lowest payment. Different income-driven plans calculate payments differently. Some require payments starting at just above the poverty line, while others kick in higher. If you're enrolled in the wrong plan for your situation, your payment might be higher than necessary.

Your income went up, but your expenses went up more. Maybe you got a raise or took a new job. On paper, your income looks better. But if you also moved to a more expensive area, had a baby, or took on medical debt, that income increase doesn't translate to more available cash.

Family size calculations don't always reflect reality. Income-driven plans adjust payments based on family size, but their definition of family size might not match your actual financial obligations. Supporting aging parents or paying child support? Those often don't count.

Interest keeps accumulating. Even if your payment covers part of your loan, it might not cover all the interest that's piling up each month. This means your balance grows despite making payments, which can feel demoralizing and make your financial situation feel hopeless.

The 2025 changes made everything more expensive. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed in July 2025 eliminated the SAVE plan and is phasing out other income-driven options by 2028. The new Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) coming in July 2026 requires minimum payments of at least $10 monthly, regardless of income. That might sound small, but for someone truly struggling, it's the principle: you're required to pay something you literally cannot afford.

According to recent Department of Education data analyzed by higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz, more than 10 million borrowers were enrolled in forbearance in the third quarter of 2025, up from about 3 million the year before. Another 3.4 million had deferred payments. That's over a quarter of all federal student loan borrowers who've essentially said "I can't keep up with this."

You're not failing. The system is complicated and, for many people, genuinely unworkable.

Check If You're in the Right Repayment Plan

Before assuming you're stuck with an unaffordable payment, verify you're actually in the best plan for your situation.

As of December 2025, the landscape looks like this:

Income-Based Repayment (IBR) is currently the most accessible option. Recent changes removed the requirement to prove "partial financial hardship," meaning more borrowers now qualify. IBR caps payments at 10% or 15% of your discretionary income (depending on when you borrowed) and offers forgiveness after 20 or 25 years.

Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) are being phased out. If you're already enrolled, you can stay in these plans until July 2028. After that, you'll need to switch to either IBR or the new RAP plan. PAYE typically offers lower payments than ICR, capping at 10% of discretionary income.

SAVE Plan was eliminated following legal challenges. Borrowers who were enrolled in SAVE were placed in forbearance while the situation played out, and most are now being encouraged to switch to IBR.

Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) launches July 1, 2026, for new borrowers. It will be the main income-driven option going forward, with payments between 1% and 10% of your adjusted gross income. The big catch: everyone pays at least $10 monthly, and forgiveness doesn't kick in until 30 years instead of 20 or 25.

Here's what you should do right now:

Use the Department of Education's Loan Simulator (if it's working properly, which has been hit or miss). This tool at StudentAid.gov compares what your payment would be under different plans. Input your current income, family size, and loan balance to see if switching plans would help.

Call your loan servicer. Yes, wait times are brutal. But ask them specifically: "Am I in the cheapest repayment plan available for my situation?" Have your income information ready. If they suggest a different plan, ask for a payment estimate before you agree to switch.

Consider consolidation carefully. If you have older loans under FFEL (Federal Family Education Loan) or Perkins programs, consolidating them into a Direct Consolidation Loan can make them eligible for income-driven plans they didn't qualify for before. However, this resets your progress toward forgiveness and can cost you in the long run.

Recertify your income accurately. You're required to recertify your income annually for income-driven plans. If your income dropped but you haven't recertified, your payment might be calculated on old, higher income. This is especially common if you lost a job or took a pay cut.

Report family size changes. Had a baby? Got married? These changes can lower your payment. Got divorced and no longer support as many people? That might increase it. Either way, reporting changes as they happen ensures your payment reflects your current reality.

Understanding Why Your Payment Might Be Higher Than Expected

Even in the "right" plan, several factors can make your payment feel unaffordable:

Your income exceeded the threshold by just a little. Income-driven plans protect a certain amount of your income (typically 150% to 225% of the federal poverty line, depending on the plan). If your income is just above that protected amount, you suddenly owe a payment, but you might not actually have enough left over after basic expenses.

You live in an expensive area. The federal poverty line doesn't adjust for cost of living. If you earn $40,000 in rural Arkansas, that goes much further than $40,000 in San Francisco or New York City. But your student loan payment calculation doesn't care where you live.

Your income is irregular. If you're self-employed, work on commission, have seasonal work, or take gig economy jobs, your reported annual income might look decent on paper but not reflect the months you barely scraped by.

Tax filing status matters. If you're married filing jointly, both incomes count toward payment calculation even if only one of you has student loans. Filing separately can sometimes lower payments for the borrower, but it costs you tax benefits. This tradeoff often isn't worth it unless your student loan balance is very high.

Capitalized interest inflated your balance. If you've been in forbearance or deferment, unpaid interest might have been added to your principal balance. Now you're making payments on a larger loan, which affects some payment calculations.

Immediate Relief Options When You Can't Pay

If your income-driven payment is genuinely unaffordable right now, here are your short-term options:

Deferment

Deferment temporarily pauses your payments if you meet specific criteria. For federal loans, you might qualify if you're:

• Unemployed and actively seeking work
• Experiencing economic hardship, such as receiving public assistance, working full-time but earning below 150% of the poverty line for your state and family size, or serving in the Peace Corps
• In the military during wartime or national emergency
• Undergoing cancer treatment
• Enrolled in school at least half-time
• In a rehabilitation program for vocational training, drug abuse, mental health, or alcohol abuse treatment

The major advantage of deferment: if you have subsidized loans or Perkins loans, interest doesn't accrue during deferment. The government covers it. This is huge and why deferment beats forbearance when you qualify.

The downside: for unsubsidized loans, interest still piles up. You won't have to pay it during deferment, but it's waiting for you when deferment ends. Also, time in deferment typically doesn't count toward loan forgiveness programs.

Economic hardship and unemployment deferments typically last up to three years total (granted in one-year increments). Other types last as long as you meet the qualifying criteria.

Important 2027 change: For loans taken out on or after July 1, 2027, unemployment and economic hardship deferments will no longer be available. If you might need these options, apply before that date if possible.

To apply: contact your loan servicer and ask for a deferment application. You'll need documentation proving you qualify, such as proof of unemployment benefits, public assistance enrollment, or income documentation.

Forbearance

If you don't qualify for deferment, forbearance is your backup option. It also pauses or reduces payments temporarily, but interest accrues on all loan types during forbearance.

There are two types:

General (discretionary) forbearance: Your loan servicer decides whether to grant this based on your situation. Common reasons include financial difficulties, medical expenses, job loss, or change in employment. You can get up to 12 months at a time, with a typical lifetime maximum of three years.

Mandatory forbearance: Your servicer must grant this if you meet specific criteria, such as serving in AmeriCorps, qualifying for medical or dental resident internships, or having student loan payments that exceed 20% of your total monthly gross income.

As of December 2025, more than 10 million borrowers are in forbearance, many of them placed there administratively during the SAVE plan chaos. If you're one of them, your servicer should have contacted you about options for staying in forbearance or transitioning to a different plan.

The cost of forbearance adds up quickly. According to Kantrowitz's calculations, a typical federal borrower (owing about $39,000 at 6.7% interest) sees their debt grow by approximately $219 per month just from interest accumulation during forbearance.

That's over $2,600 per year you're adding to your debt by not making payments. Over a one-year forbearance, you could increase your total loan burden by thousands of dollars.

Starting in 2027: Most forbearances will be limited to nine months in any 24-month period for new borrowers, down from the current 12 months maximum per forbearance period.

Use forbearance only when you absolutely must. It's better than defaulting, but it makes your problem worse in the long run.

$0 Payment Plans

Here's something many borrowers don't realize: under income-driven repayment plans, if your income is low enough, your required payment can be $0. That's not the same as forbearance or deferment.

A $0 payment under an income-driven plan:

• Counts toward forgiveness. You're still making "payments" (even though they're zero) and those months count toward your 20-25 year forgiveness timeline.
• Counts toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness. If you work for a qualifying employer, $0 payments count as qualifying payments toward PSLF's 120-payment requirement.
• Still accrues interest, but in some cases, the government subsidizes some interest on subsidized loans to keep your balance from growing.
• Keeps you connected to the system. You're still required to recertify annually, which means staying engaged with your loans rather than ignoring them.

If your income is very low or you have a large family, you might qualify for a $0 payment. This is actually one of the better outcomes in a bad situation because you're making progress toward forgiveness while not having to pay anything today.

The new RAP plan changes this, though. Starting July 2026, all borrowers in RAP must pay at least $10 monthly, even if their income would have qualified for a $0 payment under older plans. This is one reason the 2025 changes are controversial.

If you're currently on a plan that allows $0 payments and your income qualifies, stay there as long as you can before being forced to switch to RAP.

Longer-Term Strategies When Payments Stay Unaffordable

What if deferment and forbearance just delay the problem? What if your income-driven payment is going to be too high not just this month but for the foreseeable future?

Increase Your Income Protection

Remember how income-driven plans protect a certain amount of your income before requiring payments? The amount protected depends on your family size.

If you support people who aren't legally counted in your family size for loan purposes, you're getting squeezed. Loan servicers typically only count you, your spouse (if filing jointly), and your children. They don't count elderly parents you support, adult children, or other dependents.

However, you can sometimes adjust how you file taxes or allocate income to reduce your payment amount. This gets complicated and might require talking to a tax professional, but options include:

• Filing taxes separately (if married) to exclude your spouse's income from the calculation
• Maximizing retirement contributions to reduce your adjusted gross income
• Using pre-tax benefits for health insurance, FSA, or dependent care to lower your reportable income
• Documenting additional family members in cases where you're financially responsible for them

Explore Employment-Based Forgiveness

If you work for a government agency or qualifying nonprofit organization, Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) might be your best path out. After 120 qualifying monthly payments (10 years) while working full-time for a qualifying employer, your remaining balance is forgiven tax-free.

The key advantages:

• Forgiveness comes faster than regular income-driven forgiveness (10 years vs. 20-25 years)
• It's tax-free, unlike some other forgiveness programs
• $0 payments count if your income qualifies for them
• You don't need to minimize your payment since it's about number of payments, not total amount paid

To maximize PSLF:

• Submit employment certification forms annually to track your progress. This confirms your employer qualifies and counts your payments.
• Stay in a qualifying income-driven plan. Standard or graduated plans don't qualify for PSLF.
• Make sure you're working full-time by your employer's definition (typically at least 30 hours per week).
• Keep detailed records of everything. PSLF has a history of administrative errors, and you need documentation to fight back if payments aren't counted correctly.

Current concerns: President Trump's executive orders have raised questions about PSLF's future, particularly for nonprofits whose missions conflict with administration policies. The program still exists as of December 2025, but its long-term stability is uncertain. If you're counting on PSLF, pay close attention to news about any program changes.

Consider Refinancing (With Serious Caution)

Refinancing means taking out a new private loan to pay off your federal loans. The new loan typically has a different interest rate and repayment term.

This could lower your monthly payment if you qualify for a better interest rate or extend your repayment term. For example, extending from 10 years to 20 years cuts your monthly payment roughly in half (though you pay more interest over time).

However, refinancing federal loans into private loans means permanently losing federal protections:

• No more income-driven repayment options
• No loan forgiveness programs
• No deferment or forbearance options as generous as federal programs
• If you die or become totally disabled, the debt might not be discharged

Refinancing makes sense only if:

• You have strong credit and steady income to qualify for a good rate
• You're confident you won't need income-driven repayment or forgiveness
• You're not pursuing PSLF or any other forgiveness program
• The interest rate savings are substantial enough to offset losing federal benefits

Given the 2025 changes making federal repayment options more restrictive, some borrowers are considering refinancing. But be extremely careful. Once you refinance federal loans into private loans, you can't undo it.

Change Your Income Situation

This sounds obvious, but it's worth stating explicitly: if your student loan payment is unaffordable because your income is too low, finding ways to earn more can solve the problem.

Options to consider:

• Side gigs or freelance work in your field can supplement income without changing your main job
• Asking for a raise if you haven't in a while and your performance supports it
• Job hunting for positions that pay more, even if it means relocating
• Additional training or certification that qualifies you for higher-paying roles
• Negotiating flexible work arrangements that allow for secondary income

The flip side: if your income is high but expenses are even higher, look at whether you can reduce major costs. Moving to a cheaper area, downsizing housing, or cutting significant expenses might make your payment manageable without touching your income.

Build Emergency Savings to Cover Gaps

One reason income-driven payments feel unaffordable is that unexpected expenses wipe out the money you were planning to use for loans. Your car breaks down, you get hit with a medical bill, or your hours at work get cut means suddenly that payment you could barely afford becomes impossible.

Having even a small emergency fund ($500 to $1,000) creates breathing room. You can handle minor emergencies without derailing your loan payments.

This feels impossible when money is already tight, but try:

• Automatic transfers of $10 or $25 per paycheck into a separate savings account
• One-time windfalls like tax refunds, bonuses, or gifts go straight to savings
• Selling items you don't need for quick cash to kickstart your emergency fund

Think of emergency savings as insurance against having to go into forbearance. A forbearance costs you roughly $219 per month in interest accumulation. If that saves you from one forbearance, you've come out ahead.

What to Do If You're Already Behind

Maybe you're reading this because you already missed payments. The unaffordable payment caught up with you, and now you're staring at delinquency warnings or calls from your loan servicer.

First: breathe. Missing student loan payments is stressful and can have consequences, but it's fixable if you act quickly.

If you're 30-90 days late: Your loans are delinquent but not yet in default. Late payments get reported to credit bureaus after 30 days, which hurts your credit score. The longer you wait, the more damage accumulates.

What to do:

• Contact your servicer immediately. Explain your situation and ask about payment plans, deferment, or forbearance options. Many servicers can work with you if you communicate before you're too far behind.
• Get current if possible. If you can scrape together money to bring your account up to date, do it. This stops the bleeding on your credit score.
• Apply for an income-driven plan if you're not already in one. Once you're enrolled, your payment may be low enough to manage, and you can avoid further delinquency.
• Request a forbearance as a last resort to stop the bleeding while you figure out a longer-term plan. Yes, interest accumulates, but it beats default.

If you're 270+ days late (in default): This is serious. Federal student loans typically default after 270 days (roughly 9 months) of no payment. Once you're in default:

• Your entire loan balance becomes due immediately
• The government can garnish your wages (taking up to 15% of disposable income)
• Tax refunds and Social Security payments can be seized through Treasury Offset
• Your credit score tanks, making it hard to rent apartments, get car loans, or qualify for mortgages
• Collection fees (up to 18.5% of your principal and interest) get added to what you owe

In 2025, the Department of Education restarted collections on defaulted loans through the Treasury Offset Program after pausing during the pandemic. Wage garnishment also resumed. This means default consequences are fully back in force.

Your main options to get out of default:

Rehabilitation: Make nine affordable monthly payments within 10 months (you can skip one month). These payments are calculated based on your income and family size, which is typically 15% of discretionary income, but sometimes as low as $5 monthly. Once you complete rehabilitation:

• The default is removed from your credit report
• You regain eligibility for federal student aid and new repayment plans
• Wage garnishment stops
• You can only rehabilitate each loan once in your lifetime

Consolidation: Take out a new Direct Consolidation Loan that pays off your defaulted loans. To do this, you must either make three consecutive monthly payments on the defaulted loan or agree to repay the consolidation loan under an income-driven plan. The advantage is speed: you're out of default immediately. The disadvantage: the default stays on your credit report for seven years.

Pay off the loan in full: If you somehow come into money (inheritance, lottery winnings, you finally sell that screenplay), paying off the loan entirely resolves default instantly. For most people, this isn't realistic.

Which option is better? Rehabilitation is generally superior because it removes the default from your credit report. However, if you need to re-enroll in school soon or need to get out of default quickly for another reason, consolidation gets you there faster.

Using Ava While Managing Student Loans

Here's something most borrowers don't think about: your student loan troubles are probably hurting your credit score. Missed payments, high credit utilization from trying to cover expenses on credit cards, or just the stress of managing debt can damage your credit profile.

This creates a vicious cycle. Bad credit makes everything more expensive. You pay higher interest rates on car loans and credit cards, pay bigger deposits for utilities and rentals, and might even struggle to get hired for jobs that check credit.

Building credit while dealing with student loans isn't about ignoring the loans. It's about making sure other areas of your credit don't fall apart while you're managing student debt.

Ava's Credit Builder Mastercard offers a way to build positive credit history without taking on more traditional debt. You link your existing bank account and use the card for recurring payments like Netflix, Spotify, gym memberships, or phone bills. These payments report daily to all three credit bureaus.

Why this matters when student loans are bleeding you dry:

You're not taking on new debt. You're getting credit for bills you're already paying. There's no new financial obligation.

It doesn't require extra money. If you're already paying $15/month for Spotify, using Ava to pay it doesn't cost more. You just get credit for it.

Frequent reporting means faster improvement. Traditional credit products report monthly. Ava reports within a week, which is why 74% of members see score improvements in less than seven days.¹ When you need your credit to recover quickly, speed matters.

Better credit reduces your overall costs. A 100-point credit score improvement can save you thousands on car loans, credit cards, and eventually a mortgage. That savings can help you afford your student loan payments.

The monthly cost is $8 for the annual plan. Given that most borrowers in student loan trouble are also dealing with credit damage, that's a small investment to protect and rebuild one of your most important financial assets.

You could also consider Ava's Save & Build Credit Account. You pay $25 monthly for 12 months and receive $300 at the end. This builds credit through installment loan payments while forcing you to save. That $300 could be the emergency fund that prevents you from missing a future student loan payment.

The point isn't that Ava solves your student loan problem. It doesn't. Your loans are still there, and you still need to deal with them. But Ava can prevent your student loan troubles from destroying your credit and your financial options going forward.

What Not to Do

When you're desperate to make your student loans affordable, it's tempting to try anything. Some solutions are worse than the problem:

Don't pay for help. Companies that promise to lower your student loan payments for a fee are almost always scams. Everything they offer to do, you can do yourself for free by contacting your loan servicer or visiting StudentAid.gov.

Don't use credit cards to pay student loans. This converts federal loans (which have protections) into high-interest credit card debt (which has none). You're trading a manageable problem for a crisis.

Don't tap home equity to pay off student loans. Same logic: you're converting unsecured debt (they can't take your house if you don't pay) into secured debt (now your house is collateral). Plus, you lose all federal loan protections.

Don't ignore the problem. The single worst thing you can do is put your head in the sand and hope it goes away. It won't. It will become default, garnishment, and ruined credit. Face it head-on, even when it's terrifying.

Don't assume you have no options. The system is complicated and sometimes unfair, but there are legitimate paths forward. Explore all of them before giving up.

Real Talk: This Is Hard

Let's be honest about something most personal finance advice glosses over: having unaffordable student loan payments while trying to build a life is crushing.

You did what you were told. You went to college to get a better job. You followed the rules. And now you're stuck with debt that follows you everywhere, limits your options, and makes it hard to move forward.

The 2025 changes to federal student loan repayment make things worse for many borrowers. Eliminating the SAVE plan, restricting deferment options, requiring minimum payments even for people below the poverty line…these changes show a system moving away from helping borrowers and toward maximizing collections.

It's okay to be angry about that. It's okay to feel overwhelmed. Millions of people are in the same boat.

But you still need a plan. Anger and overwhelm don't pay the bills.

Your situation might not have a perfect solution. You might spend the next 20 years making payments toward eventual forgiveness. You might need to work a side hustle for years to get your income high enough to manage. You might need to make hard choices about where to live or what career to pursue based on student loan considerations.

None of that is fair. But it's reality.

The best you can do is understand your options, pick the least-bad path forward, and protect yourself from making things worse. Use income-driven repayment to keep payments manageable. Use deferment or forbearance only when necessary. Build credit so the rest of your financial life doesn't collapse. Look for every legitimate form of forgiveness you might qualify for.

And keep going. This isn't forever. Twenty years feels like an eternity right now, but it will pass. Get through it as best you can, and try not to let it consume your entire life.

Your Next Steps

If your income-driven repayment payment is too high right now, here's what to do this week:

1. Check what plan you're actually enrolled in. Call your loan servicer or check StudentAid.gov.
   
   
2. Use the Loan Simulator to see if a different plan would lower your payment.
   
   
3. If you qualify for deferment, apply for it immediately. Economic hardship deferment if you're receiving public assistance or earning below 150% of poverty; unemployment deferment if you're out of work.
   
   
4. If you don't qualify for deferment but genuinely can't pay, request a forbearance. Explain your situation and ask for the maximum time allowed.
   
   
5. If you're already behind on payments, contact your servicer today. The longer you wait, the worse it gets. Ask about rehabilitation if you're in default.
   
   
6. Protect your credit while dealing with loans by using tools like Ava to build positive payment history in areas you control.
   
   
7. If you work for the government or nonprofits, research PSLF immediately. This might be your fastest path to forgiveness.
   
   
8. Set a calendar reminder to recertify your income on time. Don't let your payment spike because you missed a deadline.
   
   

The student loan system is broken in ways that aren't your fault. But you still have to navigate it. Do what you can, use every tool available to you, and remember that this situation is temporary even when it feels permanent.

You're going to get through this.

Frequently Asked Questions

My income-driven repayment payment is $0. Is that really okay?

Yes, and it's actually one of the better outcomes. A $0 payment counts toward forgiveness timelines and Public Service Loan Forgiveness. You must still recertify your income annually to maintain the $0 payment. Interest will still accrue on unsubsidized loans, but some income-driven plans provide interest subsidies that limit balance growth. Stay in a $0 payment plan as long as you qualify, it's much better than forbearance or deferment.

Can I be on an income-driven plan and still apply for deferment or forbearance?

Yes. Being enrolled in an income-driven plan doesn't disqualify you from deferment or forbearance if you hit a rough patch. However, time spent in deferment or forbearance typically doesn't count toward the 20-25 years needed for income-driven forgiveness or the 120 payments needed for PSLF. Use these options only when your income-driven payment becomes truly unaffordable, not as a routine way to lower your payment.

What happens to my loans if I leave the country permanently?

Your loans don't disappear if you move abroad. The U.S. Department of Education can still attempt to collect, and private collection agencies sometimes pursue borrowers internationally. Your credit score in the U.S. will be destroyed if you stop paying, which matters if you ever want to return. However, practical enforcement of collections on borrowers living abroad is complicated. This is not legal advice, but borrowers who permanently relocate sometimes find that international distance creates de facto protection from collections.

Will student loan forgiveness be taxed?

Currently, most federal student loan forgiveness is tax-free through December 31, 2025. After that date, forgiveness may become taxable again unless the law changes. Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) is likely to remain tax-free due to its specific statutory protections. If you're pursuing forgiveness, plan for the possibility that your forgiven amount could be treated as taxable income, potentially creating a large tax bill.

My spouse makes good money, but I don't. Should we file taxes separately to lower my payment?

Maybe. Filing married filing separately excludes your spouse's income from your loan payment calculation, which could significantly lower your payment. However, you lose substantial tax benefits by filing separately, including education credits, student loan interest deductions, and typically higher tax rates. Run the numbers both ways. Generally, filing separately makes sense only if your student loan balance is very high (often $100,000+) and your payment savings exceed the lost tax benefits.

Can my wages be garnished even if I'm trying to work with my loan servicer?

If your loans are in default (you haven't made a payment in 270+ days), yes, the government can garnish up to 15% of your disposable income even if you're now trying to fix the problem. This is why acting before default is critical. Once you're in default, you must complete rehabilitation or consolidation to stop garnishment. Simply calling your servicer and saying you want to make payments isn't enough if you're already in default. You must go through the formal rehabilitation or consolidation process.

What if I just can't afford any payment, even $0 is too much because of the time to manage it?

If even staying enrolled in a $0 payment plan feels impossible because of the administrative burden of annual recertification, you might need to consider whether strategic default is your reality. This isn't advice to default deliberately, but some borrowers find themselves in situations where they genuinely cannot keep up with paperwork and recertification while dealing with mental health issues, housing instability, or other crises. If this is you, default will have serious consequences, but it's not the end of your life. Focus on basic survival first, then address the loans when you're stable enough to handle the administrative requirements.

Are there any legitimate reasons to stop paying my student loans intentionally?

Very rarely, but they exist. If you're pursuing total and permanent disability discharge and expect to qualify, sometimes it makes sense to stop paying while the application is processed. If you're in active bankruptcy proceedings involving your student loans (which is extremely difficult but possible), your lawyer might advise you to stop paying. If you're in such severe financial distress that you're choosing between student loan payments and keeping a roof over your head or feeding your children, the loans take lower priority. These are unusual circumstances. For most borrowers, there's no strategic reason to stop paying that doesn't cause more damage than it solves.

Can Ava pay off my student loans?

No. Ava is a credit-building tool, not a lender for student loan consolidation or refinancing.⁶ Ava helps you build credit while you're managing student loans, which can reduce your other costs and improve your financial options. Building credit doesn't solve student loan debt, but it prevents student loan problems from destroying your entire financial life. If you need to consolidate or refinance student loans, you'll need to go through the Department of Education (for federal consolidation) or a private student loan refinancing company (which you should approach very carefully).

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Sources and References

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2. Brookings Institution. "Minimum payments in income driven repayment plans." July 2025.
   
   
3. CNBC Personal Finance. "Student loan borrowers can't access repayment plans under Trump." October 2025.
   
   
4. Student Loan Borrowers Assistance. "Big Bill Means Big Changes For Student Loan Borrowers: What You Need to Know." July 2025.
   
   
5. CNBC Personal Finance. "Student loan borrowers may qualify for lower bills under IBR change." December 2025.
   
   
6. VIN Foundation. "All IDR applications for student loans are paused - Now what?" May 2025.
   
   
7. CNBC Personal Finance. "Student loan forgiveness under Income-Based Repayment plan in trouble." September 2025.
   
   
8. Education Loan Finance (ELFI). "Further IDR Plan Changes in 2025 and What They Mean for You." April 2025.
   
   
9. California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. "Student Loan Borrowers: How will new federal laws affect my Income-Driven Repayment Plan?" 2025.
   
   
10. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. "Tips for student loan borrowers." 2025.
    
    
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14. Experian. "Student loan deferment vs. forbearance." July 2025.
    
    

Congressional Research Service. "Direct Loan Program Student Loans: Deferment and Forbearance." 2025.