Editorial and corrections policy

Borrowers use these tools to choose a repayment plan they may keep for decades, to decide whether to stay in a public service job until forgiveness, or to estimate a Pell Grant before an admission decision. A wrong bracket or an outdated rate can push someone into the wrong plan. Here is where each number comes from and what happens when one is wrong.

Who is responsible

Content and calculations: Radif Partners, contact@studentloanledger.com.

Documents that supply figures

• the statute: Public Law 119-21 of July 4, 2025 and the Higher Education Act as it amends it (sections 455, 493C, 401);
• the regulations in 34 CFR part 685, as rewritten by the final rule of May 1, 2026, and the PSLF rule of October 31, 2025;
• Federal Register notices of the Department of Education: yearly interest rates, need analysis tables;
• Department of Education press releases and fact sheets for dates and transitions (SAVE, auto pay reduction, collections);
• Federal Student Aid's 2026-27 SAI and Pell Grant Eligibility Guide;
• the appropriations law that sets the Pell Grant, the HHS poverty guidelines and IRS revenue procedures for tax figures.

Sources that never supply a number

Personal finance sites, lender blogs, news articles and social media can tell us something changed. They never provide a figure here. When a rule is announced but not yet in a regulation or an official notice, we write it with its status and its date, and the calculators do not apply it.

Review cycle

Every figure is re-read at least every 12 months and at each known date: July 1 for new loan rates and plan changes, January for poverty guidelines, October for the FAFSA cycle.

Corrections

1. We compare the report with the official document.
2. We fix the parameter or the engine and add a test that reproduces the case.
3. The page carries its new reading date.

Independence

No refinancing lender, loan servicer, debt relief company or lead buyer pays to appear here, and no calculator asks for contact details. If a paid link ever appeared, it would be labeled next to it.

See also the method page. Policy version: 2026-10-11.