Office of the
Illinois Attorney General
Kwame Raoul

StudentAid.gov is the U.S. Dept. of Education’s main website for federal student aid and a vital tool for managing your federal student loans.

You can use your StudentAid.gov account to:

• identify your servicer
• see what loan types you have
• calculate and compare your payments under various repayment plans
• apply for an income-driven plan
• certify your qualifying employment for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)
• find out how many eligible or qualifying payments you have toward PSLF
• consolidate your loans

If you haven’t already done so, you should also set up your online account with your federal loan servicer.

When you go to StudentAid.gov, you’ll be prompted to sign in with your Federal Student Aid (FSA) ID and password. If you don’t have an FSA ID, please make one. For help setting up your FSA ID or accessing your account, please call the U.S. Dept. of Education at 1-800-433-3243.

There are several types of federal loans, including Direct Loans, Federal Family Education Loans (FFELs), and Perkins Loans. Some borrowers have a mix of federal loan types. Additionally, while most federal loans are owned by the U.S. Dept. of Education, some are owned by private lenders.

Borrowers need Direct Loans to access certain income-driven repayment plans (including ICR, PAYE, and RAP). Additionally, only Direct Loans are eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). If you don’t already have Direct Loans, you can consolidate your federal loans into the Direct Loan Program for free. However, under the settlement that ended the SAVE plan, consolidating will restart the clock on forgiveness for income-driven repayment plans. This means that payments made before consolidation will not count towards the number of qualifying payments needed for forgiveness. For PSLF-purposes, consolidation will give borrowers a weighted payment count average. Additionally, consolidating on or after July 1, 2026 will affect the repayment plans available to you.

To find out whether your federal loans are Direct Loans, you can start an income-driven repayment application on the U.S. Dept. of Education's website at StudentAid.gov/idr. The second step of the application provides a loan overview. Click "View Individual Loans," to see a full list of your federal loans. In the Loan Type column, you can see whether your loan is a Direct Loan along with other details (like whether the loan is a Parent PLUS Loan, subsidized/unsubsidized, etc.).

• Consider filing taxes separately. If you are married and file joint tax returns, you may want to consider filing separate tax returns. If you file taxes separately, only your income will be used to calculate your IDR payment.


• If you and your spouse both have federal loans, your overall payment may be more affordable if you both pay in an IDR plan.


• You can read more about special considerations for married borrowers on the U.S. Dept. of Education’s website.

Many federal loans come with a Standard repayment plan that has a 10-year term. Depending on when you took out your loans there may be several ways to extend this time. Extending your loan’s repayment term will lower your payments (sometimes dramatically) but will result in higher total loan costs.

• If you have more than $30,000 in federal student loans, you may be eligible for an extended repayment plan, which may allow you to make payments over up to 25 years. You can request an extended plan by contacting your servicer. Alternatively, you can find the Repayment Plan Request form in the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Forms Library, located under “Loan Repayment,” and submit it to your servicer.


• If you are not eligible for an Extended repayment plan, consolidating to access the new Tiered Standard plan might extend your repayment term. This depends on your balance and how much time you have left in your current Standard plan. Keep in mind, however, that consolidating restarts the clock on IDR forgiveness, including wiping out any IDR credit you received through the payment count adjustment. Consolidating also adds any outstanding interest to your loan's principal balance. Additionally, consolidating on or after July 1, 2026 will limit the repayment plan available to you. Payments made on the Tiered Standard Plan will count towards forgiveness on the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP).


• Please note: payments made on a standard consolidation plan (an option for some before July 1, 2026) or an extended plan will not count toward PSLF or IDR forgiveness. However, you may have received credit for past payments in these plans through the payment count adjustment (a temporary debt relief initiative).

Don’t set it and forget with graduated plans. While graduated plan payments start out low, they increase every two years. Pay close attention to your monthly payment and when that payment will increase. Graduated plans have higher total loan costs and may become unaffordable in the long run. They also typically don’t count toward PSLF or IDR forgiveness.

As a last resort or if you’re facing a short-term financial hardship, you can request to temporarily pause your payments through deferment or forbearance. Keep in mind that interest accrues on unsubsidized loans during deferment and on both subsidized and unsubsidized loans during forbearance. Prolonged use of forbearance or deferment can substantially add to your loan costs.

Consolidation allows you to combine one or more federal student loans into a new federal loan. To consolidate your loans, you can apply online at StudentAid.gov. You cannot consolidate private loans. Once you consolidate, you cannot unconsolidate your loans.

Who May Benefit from Consolidation?

• You have Federal Perkins or Family Federal Education Loan (FFEL) Program Loans and want to pursue PSLF.
• You are pursuing PSLF and want your loans to have the same forgiveness timeline.
  • For PSLF payment count purposes, a new Direct Consolidation Loan will receive an average of the PSLF qualifying payment counts on the loans consolidated, weighted based on their balances and time in repayment with an eligible employer. Try EDCAPNY's PSLF Weighted Average Calculator for an estimate.
• You are in default and have exhausted your loan rehabilitation options.
• You are not pursuing PSLF, find available IDR plans are unaffordable, want to lower your monthly payment and:
  • owe between $25,000 and $30,000; or,
  • have significantly less than 10 years left in your repayment term.
• Recent college graduates who want to end their 6-month grace period and restart payment.
• Restarting repayment sooner may be desirable if you are already employed full-time for a PSLF-eligible employer and are pursuing PSLF.

Consolidation will mean that:

• Your principal balance will increase because any unpaid interest will be added to your loan’s principal balance.
• You may spend longer in repayment and pay more interest over time.
• If you consolidate all your loans into a single consolidation, you will not be able to consolidate to get out of default in the future.
• You will resume repayment within 60 days of your consolidation loan disbursing.
• Your payment count for income-driven repayment (IDR) forgiveness restarts at zero.

Depending on when you took out your loans, consolidation can limit your repayment options. If you only have loans disbursed before July 1, 2026, and you consolidate, you will only have access to the new Tiered Standard Plan and RAP, even for any other loans that you did not include in the consolidation (*exception: FFEL program loans will still be eligible for the Income-Based Repayment Plan).

If your consolidation includes a Parent PLUS loan, or an earlier consolidation that included a Parent PLUS loan, you will only have access to the Tiered Standard Plan.

Consolidating loans is not the same as refinancing.

Refinancing federal student loans into the private market turns a federal loan into a new loan with a private lender. Some borrowers refinance to get different interest rate or repayment terms. Refinancing federal loans into a private loan is irreversible and takes away federal protections.

If you are refinancing for a lower interest rate, lower monthly payment, to shorten or extend your repayment term, or combine multiple loans into one loan, make sure you are aware of the protections you are losing.

If you refinance your federal student loans into a private loan you will lose access to:

• Federal Income-Driven Repayment plans
• Federal deferment/forbearance protections
• Loan forgiveness opportunities
• Federal hardship protections
• Potential future federal relief programs
• Fixed interest rate