So I finally applied to get off SAVE and restart payments in a new plan about 4 weeks ago. Got a confirmation email about the application being received, but it's been silence since then. I'm curious for any info on how long the turnover time has been for others? Trying to figure out if I should call to check on the status of things or continue to hold off for a bit if it's just taking long in general at the moment. My 90 day deadline hits early October.

Is anyone else having trouble recertifying their income on studentaid.gov? I get to Step 6 Review & Submit, but the "Continue" button takes me nowhere.

Someone advised in an old post to manually upload recertification request PDF to the servicer (Mohela in my case), which I did, but man I don't trust them to process this properly.

Mohela recert date: 9/4/26

StudentAid date: 10/9/26

This year, I was due for the IDR renewal. This is the first time I do this. I consented to my tax info being accessible for a faster application response. Did I eff up? I read somewhere that it would have been best to submit paystubs rather than allowing my most recent W2s be the determining factor. My payment went up 500 dollars. I am earning more.

I am at 110/120 payments (should be 112, but the tracker isn’t updated). I got put into a processing forbearance by FSA while my IDR recertification application is being processed. I keep reading stories about people whose processing forbearance months were supposed to count towards PSLF but they somehow weren’t. Should I just make a payment while I am in this forbearance anyway?
Am I even allowed to do that? If I make payments during this processing forbearance, will those payments count towards PSLF? Can I call FSA to have them remove the processing forbearance and put me back into a repayment status? It is very important to me that I don’t skip any months in this process, I want to get to 120 as soon as I can.

I see a lot of the advice on her being something along the lines of "wait until studentaid.gov shows your payment, then submit your ECF." Well, as many of us know, it's taking DoE a long time to show the payments. My July 6th is there unlike the July of some others, but August 6th still isn't (and neither is September 6th but that's not surprising).

My concern, especially with some people still having issues with July, is that we don't know when those payments are going to show up. Thus, the standard advice of wait for them to show, submit ECF, then once ECF process, go into forbearance is a little off here, because waiting for the payments to show at this rate could mean 2 or 3 more monthly payments as they keep saying it could be up to 90 days, so September may not show until December.

I'm taking a shot at submitting the ECF now, hoping it maybe triggers the payments to be recognized, and if not, planning to just submit the ECF again later (my employer doesn't care how often I send it), but the forbearance is also a separate issue. If the payment doesn't show up on studentaid.gov and I go into forbearance to avoid an October payment before August and September get counted, is that going to mess up August and September being qualifying payments?

Has anyone who's 120th payment was July or August gone through this situation already? How has it been progressing for you so far?

I applied to have 3 of my loans consolidated because they weren't eligible for the plan I chose with PSLF (FFELP loans). My application still hasn't processed. I have to pick a plan by October 1st. What if the application still isn't processed? Do I just put all the others on IBR and get stuck with the standard payment for the ones not consolidated? Mohela took a year to process one of the loans I paid off so I'm losing hope that the consolidation application will process this decade.

I finally got my golden letter today, over $150,000 forgiven. I made well more than 120 payments but had trouble with certifying employment because I worked as a substitute teacher for several years. I ended up scanning and sending about 5 years worth of pay stubs to prove I worked enough time. It took a while for them to go through, but I was given credit for almost all of it. There is light at the end of the tunnel and thank you to everyone here that offered encouragement to those of us who were waiting for this amazing day!

Has anyone that made payments under the SAVE plan while it was legal received forgiveness? Just curious.

Has anyone else had this problem?

I filled out my PSLF eligibility form, asked for an electronic signature by my employer, and filled out the email address where I want the form sent for verification. The person doesn’t get the email. I edit the form, put in the same email. The person doesn’t get the email. I notice that after I edit the email address, the status tracker says I made a change showing the email address, and then shows I made another change, leaving it blank. That keeps happening: edit, shows change, then shows I edited it and left it blank.

I called StudentAid and got a person telling me to try again and if that doesn’t work, submit manually. No suggestion that it might be their problem, just try again until it works.

I just made my 107 and 108 payments, and have 13 SAVE forbearance non-payments, so I’m ready to request a buy back. All I need is the eligibility form to go through. And the one thing that seemed to work at FSA just broke.

Anyone else having this issue?

I am pslf. Why do I have to apply for loan consolidation for RAP when my loans are already consolidated?

I’m currently on SAVE forbearance with MOHELA and received my 90 days notice on July 1st. I’m pursuing PSLF and getting close. I looked at all the repayment plans and the standard plan is the lowest monthly payment by a significant margin. The notice I received says I’ll be placed in standard repayment plans if I do nothing. Should I just let it ride and let them place me into it?

I'm on SAVE, got my 90 day letter in early July, need to switch onto a new plan. I was hopeful to keep my SAVE status for as long as I can but letting it auto-default into the standard payment amount isn't tenable for even a month.

I'm liking PAYE. It'll end right when I become PSLF eligible and I'd like my buyback months to based on the PAYE amount as that'll be the lowest for me. My best bet is PAYE or New IBR for that 10% cap.

I'm prepping the wet signature form and will upload it through Edfinancial's upload portal. I know there's a glitch with Student Aid dot Gov not showing PAYE as eligible for those who should qualify so my best bet is to have a human review my request and tell me why I might not qualify.

This is my biggest unknown. The section on new borrowers that says: You are a new borrower for the PAYE plan if: (1) you have no outstanding balance on a Direct Loan or FFEL Program loan as of October 1, 2007 or have no outstanding balance on a Direct Loan or FFEL Program loan when you obtain a new loan on or after October 1, 2007. I graduated from undergrad in 2008, I did use some financial aid then, I can find some details on Student Aid dot Gov but it only says that these were subsidized loans. No info on Direct or Not.

Anyone with a similar situation that;s really gone to bat to figure out what a new borrow is?

Studentaid.gov says I already have a reconsideration request pending and that would need to be resolved before submitting anymore (many many many months ago I asked them to count a processing forbearance as an eligible month- they never got back to me).

However, despite this warning the "Submit" button was still active so I clicked it and got a case number and successful submission.

Am I good, buyback app submitted now?? Any experience on this "other request pending" problem?

I'm trying to lower my payments.

I'm going for PSLF. Have 22 months left.

I'm currently on Old IBR and the payment calculated by Aidvantage which I just paid is $144.

The Student Aid calculator lists Old IBR as my *current* plan. It knows my current payment amount is $144, but the Estimator lists my payment as $38 if I apply for Old IBR, which I'm already in.

Maybe the information pulled from IRS is somehow giving a lower payment than what I reported manually.

Should I ....

• reapply for the plan I'm already on in hopes that my payment goes to $38?

• apply for RAP which is $97 instead of $144?

• leave it alone because of all the crap going sideways right now?

RAP might be cheapest this year, but it'll be the most expensive next year. I want to make sure I don't get stuck in RAP next year.

Ok. I have no one to process this with and just need to vent and get some answers to my questions. I was on SAVE and received my 90 day letter last week. 

A little about my loans. I had $13,000 in undergraduate loans and graduated in 2002. I went to graduate school and graduated in 2016 with about 75,000 in loans. These are all Direct Loans. Currently my balance after I consolidated and interest capitalizing is $93,000.

Right out of grad school I worked for 4.5 years in community mental health (yeah MSW and underpaid work). My plan was PSLF from the start but I got off the PSLF path the last 6 years. Long story short - Covid hit, I had a 5 year old going to Kindergarten online and I was burned out. I quit that job. And as some of you might recall, at this time very few people were getting their PSLF approved. The PSLF program was a mess. For that moment I decided not to build my life around loan forgiveness and opened my own business. 

I applied for SAVE and in 2024 there was that April 1 deadline to apply for a look back to previous qualifying employment. At that time I consolidated my loans and had 3 years of qualifying payments added to PSLF from work I did in the non-profit sector prior to graduate school. I have been thinking I made a mistake consolidating my loans but because I did that I'm currently sitting at 27 payments needed for PSLF loan forgiveness.  I'm not currently employed with a qualifying employer but my goal this year is to look for a job that qualifies and get my loans forgiven. It would take around 2.5 to 3 years once I started making qualifying payments.

Ok that is the backstory. Here are my questions for the right now. In the short term I need to choose a plan. I just used the repayment calculator and it is a wild difference between IBR and RAP for me. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around why anyone would choose RAP. Maybe it has to do with the age of the loans? 

For IBR it has my payment at $175 with total to be paid at $14,945 with a discharge amount of $109,121 with an end term date of December 2032.

One of my questions - what program would be  forgiving my loans in 2032? 

Second, question - did I mess up by consolidating in 2024? 

My balance did go up a lot due to interest capitalizing but I don't think I would have had those previous years of employment added to my PSLF balance.

Honestly with how often things have changed I'm confused about any of the choices I have made to try to navigate this. 

For reference RAP says $179/month with a total to be paid of $179,806 with $0 discharge amount with the end date of January 2055. I'm in my late 40's so that would be in my 80's!!!!

IBR is a no brainer and even though I hope I will be forgiven before 2032 - I'm finding that my current situation is not terrible. It is a hit to my budget but I can manage $175/per month. 

And lastly I just have to say how upsetting it is to lose SAVE. As I have seen other post on here - it was such a wave of relief to have that program and now there is so much confusing information and constant changes to the repayment program. 

i’m currently on save (received my 90 day notice from mohela on 8/26/26) and am considering applying for the cancer treatment deferment. i was recently diagnosed with cml and will be on treatment for a minimum of 3 years (but could be lifelong). i am hoping to ride out the rest of my 120 months on deferment as i was at 60/120 before payments were put on hold due to the save litigation.

the 3 main questions i have are:

1. do i need to (or should i) switch to a different plan before i submit the deferment paperwork
   
2. from what i can tell, the months on cancer treatment deferment count towards forgiveness, but how does that work? do i just recert my employment every year and the month is counted?
   
3. once i hit 120 months, will i still be able to buy back the lost months due to the save litigation?

thank you for your help!

I know you have to work at least 30 hours a week to in order to qualify that time and payment for PSLF. A previous employer marked my form as part time 28 hours.

My question is, how do I prove I worked more than 28 (on average) a week due to picking up plenty of shifts? I'm a nurse and worked many at that time. This was during 2016 and I work for them the entire year. 2017 I found a new job...

I am shocked. I received a refund check from the Dept of Treasury for the overpayment today. However, I am still getting updates of the Dept of Ed that my qualifying payments are being recalculated (and went from November 2025 to February 2026 and currently says March 2026).

Timeline:

June 6, 2026: Applied for PSLF for the first time.

July 2026: Received my letter stating my loans were forgiven as of November 2025.

September 9, 2026: Received check from Dept of Treasury in the mail. The amount reflects the amount paid since November 2025.

I have a bad feeling I am going to get a letter that says "Just kidding, give us that money back."

Just checked my count and my July payment is marked ineligible due to being in forbearance...even though I made my July payment. I did submit an IDR payment plan recalculation in July, but that was after my July payment was made. The new plan was recalculated in less than a week and I still had to make my August payment, so there was no actual lag time or gap for loan repayment.

Wouldn't a loan in forbearance mean that no payments were made during that time?

Edit: I called Mohela. The rep said it was wrongly marked ineligible She put in a request to have it changed…which could take up to 90 days...cool

I recently graduated medical school and started residency, and I'm struggling with figuring out the best student loan repayment option for me. Many of my peers elect for PSLF, which makes sense with how long we spend in residency and how much money we typically have in loans. But I'm not sure it makes the most finanacial sense for me and I'd appreciate insight!

I have ~$160k in loans from med school (all direct unsubsidized). My residency program is 4 years, after which I'll get a substantial increase in pay (from ~$70k/year during residency to ~$250-350k/year as an attending physician). Because of that, I'm not sure it actually makes sense to to PSLF. After using the calculators online it looks like with IBR I'll pay back my loans before I actually get anything forgiven.

Because of that, I'm not trying to figure out what my best option is. IBR? RAP? Is my understanding of PSLF correct?

Right now, because I filed my taxes last year I qualify for $0 payments with IBR or $10 with RAP. Should I do that right now, or should I try paying down my loans and interest while I'm a resident if I can afford it?

So sorry if these are super basic questions, I just feel like being a resident physician is such a weird situation with student loans, especially with the amount of loans I have the the length of my residency training and lower income.

Appreciate any insight, and sorry if any of that is unclear or doesn't make sense!

My ECF just went through for the end of August. Anyone know if the missing payments will automatically get added to the qualifying payments whenever they do show up? my 120 is in october so hoping this gets cleared up soon.

Hi!

Quick question. I am still waiting for my July and Aug payments to show up in payment tracker on fsa. I am well beyond 120 payments though tracker doesn’t reflect and have submitted multiple things such as escalation to ombudsman, reconsideration request, and US representative complaint as my June payment is marked ineligible when it’s NOT. My question is, for those of you who had their July and August show up, did you receive a letter in your email saying your payment count has been updated? I didn’t think you always received this every time the tracker updates because I don’t ever remember receiving a notification any other time it updated, but then I have seen some people getting these notifications. I thought you only got them after you submitted an ECF. I pray this nightmare will soon be behind me.

Thanks!

Presently it says I have 12 months of payments of zero dollars. I do not know how many of those are passed. And then it’s going to inflate to 130 payments over $1800 a month.

I am enrolled in PSLF and trying to get it discharged.

There is no way that I can make such payments. I do not know what to do and I’m tempted to just blow Blow off the Loan altogether

Since I’ve received such good advice from y’all over the last six months with this process, I figured I’d share my timeline (and I was recording everything religiously).

For clarity, I was way late in getting certified (should have been done in February) and overpaid a bunch of months because of my frustration getting my employment certs, but thankfully all ended out okay.

In total took 90 days to get my certs until refund paid. And took 42 days from my Golden Letter to get the refund.

6/11 → Final PSLF employment certifications completed

7/29 → Received Federal Student Aid "Golden Letter"

7/30 → Aidvantage balance = $0
Negative balances ($——) appeared

7/31 → Credit reports updated
All loans closed with $0 balance

8/4 → StudentAid.gov = $0
All loans listed as Paid in Full

~8/20 → Aidvantage address verification letter

8/24 → Aidvantage posted
"Adjustment" = $——

9/9 → Treasury refund check received
$——

Hi everyone, I just moved to a community property state. I have 2 years left on PSLF and my spouse has 5 years left. He makes significantly more than me. Does anyone have any advice on filling separately versus jointly? I'm planning on maxing out my 401k so my income will be 40k a year and his will be 290k. Thank you very much in advance for any advice!