Revised Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan

The Department of Education offers a variety of student loan repayment plans that assist student loan borrowers with their unique financial situation. These repayment plans originated from the passing of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.

As part of the act, the Department of Education now offers a variety of student loan repayment plans that assist student loan borrowers with their unique financial situation.

The Revised Pay As You Earn Plan (REPAYE) is an extension of the Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan. The repayment program gives loan borrowers a monthly student loan payment that is based off of income and family size.

Student loan borrowers entering the REPAYE Plan will have access to the following benefits:

A student loan payment that is based off of their income and the size of their family
A student loan payment that will never exceed 10% of the loan borrowers discretionary income
The possibility of having a student loan payment of $0.00
The borrower doesn’t have to pay any interest not covered by the borrower’s monthly payments for the first three years in the repayment plan
The possibility of having the remainder of their student loan balance forgiven after 20 to 25 years of consecutive payments

What types of loans are eligible for the Revised Pay As You Earn Plan?

Student loan borrowers that have loans made under the Direct Loan Program are eligible for the Revised Pay As You Earn Plan. Some FFEL Loans are eligible for the REPAYE Plan through a Direct Loan Consolidation.

Loans eligible for the Revised Pay As You Earn Plan include:

Direct Subsidized Loans
Direct Unsubsidized Loans
Direct PLUS Loans made to graduate or professional students
Direct Consolidation Loans that didn’t repay Plus loans made to parents
Subsidized Federal Stafford Loans made under the FFEL Program (*if they are consolidated)
Unsubsidized Federal Stafford Loans made under the FFEL program (*if they are consolidated)
FFEL PLUS Loans for graduate and professional students (*if they are consolidated)
FFEL Consolidation Loans that didn’t repay any PLUS loans made to parents (*if they are consolidated)
Federal Perkins Loans (*if they are consolidated)

Who is the Revised Pay As You Earn Plan for?

A student loan borrower can benefit from the income based repayment if they meet the criteria below:

Struggling to make their full student loan payment each month
Anyone with a low income compared to their student loan debt
Your current monthly student loan payment is more than 10% of your income
You’ve borrowed a loan under the Direct Loan Program

Who is the REPAYE not for?

The Income Based Repayment Plan may sound like a great idea. Who wouldn’t want a lower student loan payment? However, not all student loan borrowers are eligible to enter an IBR Plan.

Here are some factors that can make you ineligible for an IBR Plan:

Student loan borrowers that have a high income and low family size
Your current monthly payment does not exceed 10% of your income
Anyone that can comfortably make their current Standard monthly payment
Anyone that doesn’t want to make student loan payments for the next 20 to 25 years
Student loan borrowers that have Parent Plus loans
Student loan borrowers that are not considered to have a partial financial hardship

(Did You Know? There’s plenty of other repayment plans that you could benefit from if REPAYE isn’t the one for you. This 8-Plan Cheat Sheet breaks each of the best ones down for you, so you can easily select the one that best fits you and your lifestyle. Learn more and download it for free, here.)

Am I eligible for the REPAYE Plan?

It’s important to remember that every loan borrower’s situation is different and not everyone will qualify for the Pay As You Earn plan. However, most student loan borrowers meet eligibility requirements if the amount of student loan debt is higher than their discretionary income.

Here are the eligibility requirements for an REPAYE Plan:

If you’re eligible for the Pay As You Earn Plan, you could repay under the REPAYE Plan
Borrowers that have loans made under the Direct Loan Program
After taking your information, your REPAYE Plan monthly payment must be less than the 10 -year Standard Repayment Plan monthly payment.
You must be considered to have a partial financial hardship to be eligible for an income driven repayment plan

How long will I be in the REPAYE Plan?

If you took out your Direct Loans while pursuing an undergraduate degree, the repayment period for the REPAYE Plan is 20 years.

If you took out your Direct Loans while going to graduate or professional school, the repayment period for the REPAYE Plan is 25 years.

Remember: If you’re expecting to get the remaining loan balance forgiven at the end of the repayment plan, you must make the consecutive payments every month during the repayment plan.

That’s right. You cannot miss a payment and the payments must be on time. You will need to make 240 – 300 payments to qualify for Student Loan Forgiveness at the end of your repayment program.

If you do enter an REPAYE Plan and decide it’s not the right plan for you, you can choose to take yourself out of the plan. Once you take yourself out of the plan, you can place yourself into any repayment plan that you’re eligible for.

If you are removed from the plan because you failed to re-certify or left the plan voluntarily, it’s possible that any unpaid interest will get added to your principal loan balance.

Is the payment the same each month?

The payment you start off with in a REPAYE Plan will last 12 months or until it is time for you to apply for recertification. Income driven repayment plans require student loan borrowers to recertify their status in the program every year.

Recertification is an annual process of the income driven repayment plans that cannot be skipped. You must recertify each year to get back into the same REPAYE Plan. If you forget to do the recertification process, you get placed back into a Standard Repayment Program.

After you recertify each year, your monthly payment can change. Your payment can increase, decrease, or stay the same. It all depends on where you stand financially. If your income increases significantly over time, it’s possible to have a payment that is higher than the Standard Repayment Plan.

Here are some factors that can change your monthly payment:

You made more money on your most recent tax return
You made less money/ lost your job
You got married and filed taxes jointly
You recently had a baby or gained a dependent that receives more than half of their support from you

Which income driven repayment plan is the best for me?

While there are four income driven repayment plans, not all income driven plans are built for everyone. Depending on your unique financial situation, there might only be one repayment plan that makes sense for you.

Sometimes borrowers qualify for multiple income driven repayment plans and can’t decide which one makes the most sense.

Need help with that? Give us a call at “813.775.2028” or simply download this 8-Plan Cheat Sheet to help you decide which plan may be the best fit. It’s totally free. Just tell us where to send it 🙂

What factors come into play with the REPAYE

Your eligibility for the program is calculated based on the following factors:

Your income – if you’re married and file taxes jointly, your spouse’s income is combined with your income
Family size – this number includes you, your spouse (*if you are legally married) and the number of children or people that live with you and receive more than half of their support from you.
Current Student Loan Payment – your newly calculated REPAYE Plan monthly payment needs to be lower than your current Standard payment
Type of loans – the REPAYE Plan is available to borrowers with eligible loans made under the Direct Loan Program

What other options are there for me to repay my student loans?

The Department of Education offers a variety of student loan repayment programs to assist student loan borrowers with different financial situations.

There are four income driven repayment plans:

There are four standard payment plans:

Revised Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan

What types of loans are eligible for the Revised Pay As You Earn Plan?