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What’s the difference between Income-Based Repayment (IBR) and Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR)?

April 26, 2017difference IBR ICR income-based income-contingent repayment

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What’s the difference between Income-Based Repayment (IBR) and Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR)?

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ICR has been around since 1994. IBR started in 2009. ICR is only for Direct Loans. IBR is available for both Direct and FFEL loans. ICR and IBR use different formulas to determine the amount of your monthly payment. For more information on the specifics of these formulas, see FinAid.org. You do not need a partial financial hardship to be eligible for ICR. Therefore, some people who are ineligible for IBR may be able to benefit from ICR. Generally speaking, IBR will yield lower monthly payments than ICR, although there are a few scenarios where ICR is a better choice. To find out which one works best for you, we recommend using both the IBR calculator and the ICR calculator. For more information on the two programs, see the Department of Education’s IBR Q&A.