LoanPivot

A side-by-side repayment plan comparison tool for the 7.5 million borrowers exiting the defunct SAVE plan — showing monthly payment, lifetime cost, and forgiveness timeline across every available IDR option so they can make the right switch before the 90-day clock runs out.

Problem

The SAVE plan was declared unlawful in March 2026 and officially terminated. Starting July 1, 2026, loan servicers will begin issuing 90-day notices ordering SAVE enrollees to choose a new repayment plan; borrowers who don't act within that window will be auto-enrolled in the Tiered Standard Plan — typically the highest monthly payment option. Seven and a half million borrowers need to compare the brand-new Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP), legacy IDR plans (IBR, PAYE, ICR), and Standard/Tiered Standard against their specific income, family size, and loan balance. The Department of Education's existing Loan Simulator shows estimated monthly payments but not total lifetime cost, tax liability on forgiven balances, or PSLF strategy — the exact variables that determine which plan actually saves the most money over a 10–30 year horizon.

Target user

SAVE enrollees aged 25–45 with $20,000–$150,000 in Direct Loans who chose SAVE precisely for its low monthly payments and now face a mandatory, deadline-driven decision they are unprepared for. Secondary: recent graduates choosing an IDR plan for the first time and public-service employees (teachers, nurses, government workers) who need to know whether RAP or IBR is the better PSLF vehicle. Job-to-be-done: "Tell me, given my actual income and loan balance, exactly which plan minimizes what I'll pay over my lifetime — and set a reminder so I don't accidentally end up on Standard."

MVP scope

• Income + family size + loan balance wizard (5 fields, under 90 seconds to complete) with a simple "Are you a public-service employee?" branch for PSLF routing.
• Side-by-side comparison table for RAP, IBR, PAYE, ICR, Tiered Standard, and Standard: monthly payment (year 1), monthly payment (year 5 at a projected 3% income growth), total interest paid over the life of the loan, years to forgiveness, and total amount paid including any forgiven balance at its estimated tax cost.
• PSLF fast-path: if the user flags public-service employment, a separate PSLF column shows their projected 10-year cost under IBR vs. RAP — the two plans most relevant for PSLF candidates — and surfaces the single recommendation with the reason.
• Deadline countdown banner showing the July 1, 2026 notice-trigger date plus the user's projected 90-day window, with a direct deep link to the studentaid.gov IDR Plan Request page.
• Optional email reminder at 30-days-remaining and 10-days-remaining in their 90-day window.

Monetization

Freemium. Free tier: single-loan comparison across all six plans with year-1 monthly payment and total interest — enough to make a confident decision. Pro at $7/month or $39/year: multi-loan household comparison (spouse's loans stacked alongside), tax-cost-of-forgiveness calculator (ordinary income treatment of canceled debt), downloadable PDF recommendation report, and annual plan-review nudge each March (when new tax-year income data should trigger a plan check). Conversion hook: the "tax cost of forgiveness" column is the single number that most often changes which plan is optimal — hiding it behind Pro is a natural unlock. Revenue ceiling is modest but CAC is near-zero: the 7.5 million borrowers are an identifiable, searchable audience on Reddit (r/studentloans, 400K+ members), TikTok #studentloans, and SAVE-specific Facebook groups.

Why now

The Education Department settled with Missouri in March 2026, making SAVE's termination final. Starting July 1, 2026 — 25 days from today — servicers will issue 90-day exit notices to all 7.5 million enrollees. The new Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) launches on exactly that date, meaning no existing loan-comparison tool has incorporated RAP into its math (federal Loan Simulator, NerdWallet, The College Investor, Credible — none of them compare RAP against the full legacy IDR set as of June 2026). The IDR payment-count tracker was also pulled from studentaid.gov on April 28, 2025 and has not returned, leaving borrowers unable to see their forgiveness progress while being asked to change plans — creating an acute information gap a well-timed web app can fill.

Risks & open questions

• The Department of Education's free Loan Simulator is "good enough" for simple cases; the real wedge is the lifetime-cost and PSLF calculation depth that the federal tool omits.
• Plan eligibility rules are complex and frequently updated; a RAP eligibility quirk (Direct Loans only, specific consolidation conditions) could produce incorrect recommendations for borrowers with FFELP loans.
• Congress is actively debating broader student loan reform in 2026; if a sweeping overhaul passes, the plan menu could change mid-product-lifecycle.
• PSLF employer-type verification (501c3 vs. government vs. for-profit) requires user self-report and is easy to get wrong — wrong PSLF advice is a high-trust-cost failure.
• The urgency window is tight: once the 90-day enrollment surge passes (roughly October 2026), organic traffic drops sharply and the product needs a retention hook beyond the crisis moment.

Next step

Build a static single-page calculator in a weekend: hard-code the six-plan payment formulas, add a "PSLF branch" toggle, verify math against the federal Loan Simulator for five canonical borrower profiles, then soft-launch in r/studentloans before July 1 to capture the peak-urgency traffic wave.

Sources

• https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/save-plan-ending-what-borrrowers-should-know/ — SAVE plan termination timeline, July 1, 2026 servicer notice date, new RAP plan details (payments at 1–10% of gross income, $50/dependent reduction, 30-year forgiveness)
• https://www.nerdwallet.com/student-loans/news/save-plan-switch-ultimatum — NerdWallet: 7.5 million borrowers affected, auto-enrollment in Tiered Standard consequence for non-responders
• https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-announces-next-steps-borrowers-enrolled-unlawful-save-plan — Department of Education official announcement: settlement with Missouri, March 2026 termination, FSA support commitment for 7.5 million borrowers
• https://www.tateesq.com/learn/idr-tracker — IDR payment-count tracker pulled from studentaid.gov on April 28, 2025; status as of June 2026