Frequently Asked Questions

Federal loans are issued by the government and come with protections: income-driven repayment plans, deferment, forbearance, and forgiveness programs. Private loans are from banks and have none of these protections. StudentLoanCompass only handles federal loans.

Discretionary income is what the government considers "extra" money above a basic living threshold. For most IDR plans, it's your income minus 150% of the federal poverty line for your family size. Your IDR payment is a percentage of this number — so the lower your income, the lower your payment.

Use a before-tax income estimate, not take-home pay. For IDR planning, the best input is usually an AGI-style estimate because federal repayment calculations are generally based on adjusted gross income from your tax return or current income documentation.

If you know your annual pay already includes expected bonus income, keep the bonus fields at $0. Use the bonus fields only for extra bonus amounts that are not already included in the main annual income entry. For extra payments, do the opposite: enter the actual cash amount you expect to send to your loans.

Yes — this is called negative amortization. If your monthly payment is less than the monthly interest charge, the difference can grow your balance over time. Different IDR plans handle unpaid interest differently, which is one of the most important things to understand before choosing a plan.

At the end of an IDR plan's forgiveness period (20 or 25 years), any remaining balance may be forgiven. Under current IRS guidance, IDR forgiveness processed in 2026 or later is generally treated as taxable income unless an exclusion applies, which could mean a large tax bill. Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) is different and is generally treated as tax-free under current federal rules. Timing, exclusions, and state treatment can still matter, so verify before relying on this outcome.

If you work full-time for a qualifying government or nonprofit employer and make 120 qualifying monthly payments while meeting PSLF requirements, the remaining balance can be forgiven tax-free under current federal rules. It is one of the most valuable federal student loan benefits, but you should verify employer eligibility and payment-count rules with official PSLF tools.

It depends on your plan and situation. Extra payments always reduce interest if you're on Standard, Graduated, or Extended plans. On IDR plans, extra payments reduce your balance — which is great if you plan to pay off fully, but less valuable if you're on track for forgiveness (since you'd be paying extra toward a balance that would be forgiven anyway). This is exactly why StudentLoanCompass lets you model irregular extra payments — so you can see the actual impact.

As of April 2026, SAVE is not treated here as a live modeled option because court action has blocked implementation and the program's future has been in flux. For the current federal status, use the U.S. Department of Education's official update page: StudentAid.gov IDR court actions.

The calculator uses federal amortization math, current federal poverty guidelines, and the Department of Education's repayment-plan formulas for the plans it currently models. Advanced mode is more precise because it lets you enter each loan separately instead of relying on a single blended rate. Long-range IDR projections are still estimates because your real payment can change with annual recertification, family-size changes, loan history, servicing treatment, prior forgiveness credit, and future federal rule changes. Always verify with your servicer or StudentAid.gov before making a final decision.

Partly. By default, the calculator still assumes a fresh modeled path from today. But in Advanced mode, you can now import the optional experimental StudentAid payment-counter JSON so matching loans and matching plans can use prior payment-credit data as a planning input.

This is still limited. The site does not fully model every carry-in credit scenario, servicer-certified PSLF counts, or consolidation weighted-average credit rules yet. Mixed loan histories are normal, so some loans may show more progress than others. If you already have forgiveness credit, verify the official count with your servicer or StudentAid.gov before relying on any estimate.

From official U.S. government sources, not random blogs. We use the Department of Education's repayment-plan pages for borrower-facing guidance, the federal regulations for the actual formulas, and the annual HHS poverty-guideline update for IDR thresholds.

Official repayment-plan pages:
Standard Repayment Plan
Graduated Repayment Plan
Extended Repayment Plan
Income-Driven Repayment Plans
Income-Based Repayment (IBR) details

Federal rules behind the math:
34 CFR 685.208 for Standard, Graduated, and Extended repayment
34 CFR 685.209 for IDR formulas including IBR and PAYE
2026 HHS poverty guidelines

If you're using Basic mode, enter your weighted average interest rate. To calculate: multiply each loan's balance by its rate, add them all up, then divide by your total balance. For example: $20k at 5% and $15k at 7% = ($20k×5% + $15k×7%) / $35k = ($1000 + $1050) / $35k = 5.86%.

If you want better precision, switch to Advanced mode and enter each loan separately.

Both temporarily pause your payments. Deferment is typically for specific situations (like returning to school) and may not accrue interest on subsidized loans. Forbearance is more general but interest always accrues. Neither counts toward IDR forgiveness or PSLF. Use them only when necessary.

Rarely, and think carefully before doing so. Refinancing federal loans into a private loan permanently loses you all federal protections: IDR plans, deferment, forbearance, forgiveness. The interest rate reduction needs to be significant AND you need to be confident you'll never need those protections.

Subsidized loans don't accrue interest while you're in school at least half-time or during deferment periods. Unsubsidized loans accrue interest immediately. For repayment calculations, treat them the same — just use your combined balance and weighted average rate.