President Donald Trump 's " big beautiful bill " overhauled the so-called Standard Repayment Plan for federal student loan borrowers.

Next year, millions of current borrowers will have access to the changed program. For new borrowers, it will be one of just two options available to pay back their debt.

That may not be to their benefit, experts say: For some borrowers, the new Standard Plan will keep them in debt longer and add tens of thousands of dollars to the total they must repay.

"The design of the new plan, in which a borrower's payment term is scaled up in five-year increments based on arbitrary thresholds, means some borrowers will face a problematic 'cliff effect,'" said Michele Shepard Zampini, senior director of college affordability at The Institute For College Acc

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