Join 2 million student loan borrowers in auto-pay and get a 1% discount on your loans until Dec. 31

Nearly 2 million borrowers have opted into the Department of Education’s four-fold increase in savings you get for signing up for autopay on your student loans, a benefit that was announced in June this year.The program was only supposed to run through September 30, but due to its success, the Department has extended the enrollment period for this program by an additional three months, through December 31, 2026.Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a press release from September 29, “we are excited to see millions of borrowers take advantage of this temporary benefit, which is already driving up repayment rates and improving the overall health of the federal student loan portfolio.”In addition to the cash savings, enrolling in autopay means you won’t lose eligibility for repayment assistance or forgiveness programs like the new Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) that requires on-time payments.The RAP program, which was passed into law in 2025 and went into effect on July 1, 2026, has provisions for lower-income borrowers that reduces the amount of interest you pay and guarantees that your principal is reduced with every payment.For example, If a borrower’s calculated monthly payment is less than the interest that accrued that month, the federal government waives the remaining unpaid interest.

This prevents negative amortization so the loan balance cannot grow.The plan also provides for a government-matched principal reduction of up to $50 per month to make sure balances actively decline.But one missed payment can derail your progress.

As Amanda Elliott, Associate Director of Financial Aid & Student Finance Advising at Colorado State University Global told the Post, “If a payment due date is missed, it can trigger a domino effect of issues: interest capitalization and negative amortization can cause debt to grow substantially, and defaulting can also severely damage a borrower’s credit score —...