Should You Leave Your Loans in Deferment or Forbearance When You Apply for IDR?

Leaving your loans in deferment or forbearance on the income-driven repayment (IDR) application keeps your payments paused and starts your new plan later; taking them out starts your new payment, and your forgiveness credit, right away.

• Leaving still picks your plan. Your income-driven plan starts when the pause ends.

• Taking them out starts the clock. Payments begin and count toward forgiveness.

• The pause has a cost. Interest keeps building, and paused months usually earn no credit.

• SAVE borrowers may get less time. Servicers say SAVE forbearance ends once your new plan is processed.

The IDR application asks whether your loans are in deferment or forbearance because you can keep that pause or end it when your new plan is approved. On the paper Income-Driven Repayment Plan Request, the question is Item 4, and it has three answers: No, Yes, but I want to start making payments under my plan immediately, and Yes, and I do not want to start repaying my loans until the deferment or forbearance ends.

The online application on StudentAid.gov asks the same thing in different words: “Do you want to leave your loans in deferment or forbearance?” Under either version, leaving the loans in place means payments under your new plan wait until the deferment or forbearance ends, and taking them out means those payments begin right away.

Most people seeing the question in 2026 are former SAVE borrowers. When the SAVE plan ended in March 2026, loans enrolled in it sat in an administrative forbearance, and servicers are now sending notices telling those borrowers to pick a new plan. The question also appears if you are in an in-school deferment, another deferment, or a general forbearance when you apply.

The question is about timing, not about which plan you get. Either answer submits the same application for the same plan; choosing the plan itself is a separate decision covered in how to pick a plan after SAVE.

Leaving your loans paused delays both your new payment and your forgiveness credit, while taking them out starts both once your plan is set up. As of September 2026, the two “yes” answers compare this way:

Payments. Leaving your loans in deferment or forbearance keeps your account paused, and the servicer bills your new income-driven payment only after the pause ends. Taking them out ends the pause, and the servicer bills the new payment once your plan is in place.

Forgiveness credit. Months in SAVE forbearance don’t count toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) or toward income-driven repayment forgiveness. Most other deferments and forbearances don’t count either, with limited exceptions. A payment made under your new plan does count, so every month you stay paused is a month added to your forgiveness timeline.

Interest. Interest on loans in SAVE forbearance has accrued since August 1, 2025, and it keeps building while the loans stay paused. For most federal loans, interest that accrues during a forbearance doesn’t capitalize, or get added to your principal, when the forbearance ends; you repay it through your regular payments. The exception is Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loans the Department of Education doesn’t manage.

Interest in a deferment. In a deferment, subsidized loans generally don’t accrue interest, but unsubsidized loans do, and that unpaid interest can capitalize when the deferment ends.

Related: Forbearance vs. deferment · How many forbearances are allowed

If your loans are in SAVE forbearance, the pause may end sooner than your deadline no matter which answer you pick. MOHELA and Nelnet both say that once your request for a new plan is processed, you move into that plan and your SAVE forbearance ends, even if your 90-day period hasn’t run out. Neither servicer says the application’s “leave” answer changes that.

Servicers are sending former SAVE borrowers individual notices that give each borrower 90 days to select a new plan. As of September 2026, the notices are going out in waves through the end of 2026, so deadlines run from late September 2026 into early 2027. The 90-day deadline is the latest your SAVE forbearance can last, not a guaranteed length.

Answering “leave” is different from doing nothing. A borrower who submits an application has already chosen a plan. A borrower who never selects a plan by the deadline is placed in the Standard Plan or the Tiered Standard Plan, depending on when the loans were disbursed, and those payments are based on the balance rather than on income. The notice dates for each servicer are in when student loan payments restart.

Because this is the first time servicers have run this transition, how each servicer treats a “leave” answer from a SAVE borrower is still unfolding. The notice your servicer sends after processing your application states your plan and your first due date, and that notice is the record to rely on.

Taking your loans out buys forgiveness credit starting now, and leaving them in buys time before a new payment starts.

Taking them out to start credit now. If you are working toward forgiveness, taking your loans out of the pause starts qualifying payments immediately. Each month you stay in SAVE forbearance is a month that doesn’t move you closer to PSLF or IDR forgiveness.

Leaving them in to prepare your budget. If your new payment will be noticeably higher than your current one, or you need a few months to rearrange your budget, leaving the loans in deferment or forbearance buys that time. The trade is more accrued interest and a later forgiveness date. For SAVE forbearance, the time you gain may be short, because servicers say the forbearance ends once your new plan is processed.

If you’re pursuing PSLF. PSLF credit requires a qualifying payment in the same month as qualifying employment. If you expect to leave nonprofit or government work soon, each month you work while paused may be credit you can’t make up later. If you have many years of public service ahead, a paused month mostly pushes your forgiveness date back by about a month, because you keep working and making payments afterward. SAVE forbearance months may be eligible for PSLF buyback later, once you meet the PSLF requirements.

If you’re in an in-school or other deferment. The credit-versus-time trade applies to deferments too. A borrower in in-school deferment isn’t yet on a repayment plan, so the application sets up the plan, and leaving the deferment in place means that plan starts when the deferment ends.

If you can’t afford any payment yet. An income-driven payment is based on your income and can be as low as $0. If your income has dropped, your new payment may be smaller than you expect, which changes the math on waiting. The SAVE-to-IBR switch shows how that payment is set.

After you submit, your servicer processes the application and sends notices that confirm your new plan, your monthly payment, and your first due date. That first due date tells you whether your “leave” or “take out” answer was applied.

Your servicer may place your loans in a forbearance while it processes the application, as the IDR application itself warns. Whether that time counts toward forgiveness depends on which kind of forbearance it is, and the name and dates on your notice show which one you’re in. A processing forbearance is explained in awaiting form administrative forbearance.

Your servicer is the place to correct a notice that doesn’t match what you chose or loans that still show as paused after your deadline. Why loans land in administrative forbearance, and how to get out, is covered separately.