About 7.5 million SAVE-plan borrowers must now actively choose a new federal repayment plan. Servicers began sending 90-day switch notices on July 1, 2026, and the earliest windows close September 29, 2026 — with more closing on a rolling basis for months after. Miss yours, whenever it falls, and the Department of Education auto-enrolls you into a plan it picks, not one you chose.

This playbook walks you through The PLAN SWITCH Method. Part 1, Know Your Number, has you pull your real loan inventory from StudentAid.gov, compare every plan you qualify for side by side (the new RAP plan and the older IBR, PAYE, and ICR options), find your forgiveness clock, and rule out the plans being phased out by 2028.

Part 2, Switch Without Losing Ground, covers submitting your change correctly, timing it around income changes, what to do if you can’t afford any payment right now, and building a paper trail in case your servicer makes an error — a real risk after two years of SAVE-related account chaos.

This isn’t individualized financial or legal advice, and it won’t tell you which plan is mathematically best for your exact income forever. It’s a system for running the government’s own process correctly: what to pull, what to compare, what to submit, and what to keep.

16 pages, built around the U.S. federal system, with a note that the underlying method transfers conceptually to other countries’ loan systems even though the specific plans and portals don’t.