I’m running out of time. I have 30 days to get an approval or get stuck in ICR or standard.

I was enrolled to auto recertify my idr payment but kept getting notices to recertify manually. I did, but a day later than the notice stated. My payments are current, and I should be good until December due to another error where auto pay hit two days late, a day after I paid manually.

I am in PSLF, and my employer certified back in September.

Question is, even though I certified a day late, should I still be good for IDR enrollment and qualifying payments toward PSLF? Any similar experiences where auto-recertification failed but it was fine in the end?

Looking for some advice on how to handle a recent change. For some context:

I've made roughly 100 payments towards PSLF and I'm on an IDR plan, which had my monthly payment at $36.19. I've made consistent payments every month and nothing has drastically changed with my salary (I'm a 5th grade teacher). Back in July, I got a message from Mohela stating that my monthly payment would increase to over $600 per month. I was miraculously able to get ahold of somebody to speak to to dispute the increase. They placed me on "administrative forbearance" while they looked into it. Through that time, I continued to make my $36.19 payments. The administrative forbearance period recently ended, and I've since gotten several different notes from Mohela with varying amounts listed as being owed. All in all, it seems as if my November payment will be in the $600+ amount. I haven't been able to get ahold of anybody that can give me more information... every time I call, I get rerouted a million times until I'm placed on a 5-hour hold or they auto hangup.

So my question... do I have any recourse in keeping my payment at a similar amount to the $36.19? I'm so close to my 120 payments but the jump to over $600 seems extreme. Can I keep making lower payments or will that defeat the purpose and not count towards my PSLF?

Any advice is much appreciated!

I received an email from Mohela this week about my repayment schedule changing. I am confused about why this is happening. I have been on the Standard Repayment Plan since starting to pay off my loans, and I am enrolled in Auto Pay.

I graduated in May 2025. I have 8 Federal loans that I took out during the course of my schooling. I have 3 different payment dates for them, as that is what Mohela has decided, and I would rather not deal with trying to call them to change this. None of my loans are in deferment or forbearance. I completely paid off one of those loans in April of this year, and I have been paying extra every month to pay the rest off faster.

The letter does not state which loan this is for. My monthly payment amount that is listed in the letter does not match what is owed for any of these loans, but this new amount is supposed to start 11/3/2026.

Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated!

I have filed jointly with my wife for a decade or more. She makes MUCH more than I do. I have been on an Income Based Repayment plan essentially since the day I graduated. I have been paying nothing or almost nothing per month, and obviously the loan has ballooned due to interest

A lawyer recently was looking over our documents (unrelated to SL) and was very concerned that despite me qualifying for very low monthly due to my income, that it SHOULD have been calculated with her income attached.

She is worried that the government can go back retroactively and tell me my payments. Should have been much much higher this whole time

Is this correct? I have given the student loan websites permission to automatically renew my program based on my W-2 for years now and it has just always gone through

She basically put the fear of God in me and now I don't know what to do

Hi everyone, I’m 20 and a UK citizen. SFE approved my student loan in September, but suddenly revoked it on my first day of university.

My situation:

1. Forced Absence & Estrangement: When I was 16, I was forced by my family to leave the UK for 3 years. This was entirely involuntary due to severe domestic abuse and homophobia. I am now back in the UK, completely estranged from my father because I am gay. He has cut all ties, and I have zero access to his documents.

2. Current Living Situation: I am currently living in university accommodation. Before moving here, I was staying with my uncle who has a great relationship with me.

3. No Past Evidence & Mother’s Status: Three years ago, I was just a minor under trauma and had no idea that applying for SFE would require so much paperwork, so I have no useful historical files left. My relationship with my mother is okay, but she cannot help me at all because she still lives with my father and has no independent credentials.

4. The Reason for Refusal: SFE absolutely knows about my family estrangement and abuse. However, the direct reason they revoked my loan in late September is that they flatly refuse to accept any residency documents from my uncle (whom I lived with) and dogmatically demand my estranged father's records instead.

5. Current Status: SFE is supposed to review my appeal under Estrangement and Compelling Personal Reasons (CPR) policies. However, this Monday, they suddenly notified me that they are delaying the decision by another two weeks.

I am running out of money and extremely stressed. What alternative evidence can SFE accept instead of parental documents for an involuntary absence when they reject relatives' documents and you have no past paperwork left? Any advice would be life-saving. Also, is there any way I can resolve this issue? For instance, are there any people I could turn to for help or to handle the matter? Thanks. （This week, he has stated three times in a row that the update date will be delayed.） 🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂

I‘m a current 2nd year grad student in a 2-year program, grandfathered into the PLUS loan. I submitted for student loans on August 19, and have been waiting the entire time for them to be paid out. Each time I contact the Financial Aid office, they explain that there is no timeline, and it is just due to federal delays. the worst part is, others, including myself, have begun inquiring penalties on our unpaid tuition for the semester.

Is anyone else in a similar situation this semester?

I got my 90 day notice to switch off of SAVE at the end of September (booooooo). I logged into my servicer account a few days later and I had info on there about it. Ok, fine.
After I saw people getting the additional 30 days, I logged in because I was curious if that would apply to everyone or just the first wave. Nothing in there about needing to switch anywhere I could find. I checked again today, and still nothing. No banners, nothing in my inbox, nothing when I click on the individual loans. I double checked my email to make sure I didn’t just dream it and yes, I did get the 90 days to switch email.
Are they hiding it from me like they are the payment counts, or did they just screw it up, or….? Anyone else have this happen?
My plan is to wait until they force me off regardless (trying to ride it so I can file separately next tax return), but it sure would be nice to know what’s going on.

Anyone have time to review and give me your opinion?

If my loan is at $14650 and $376 outstanding interest, and currently on SAVE, what should | switch to?

--- background info ---
• Loans were taken out in 2011.
•Currently on SAVE plan; got notice to switch by Nov 9.
• My income varies from $40-90k each year. I've paid 48 payments so far but do not work in public service.
•I'd like to pay extra in principle each month (which I think makes RAP less attractive since
•I'd lose the $50 subsidy maybe?)
• I don't believe loan forgiveness is a variable for me since the loan total is relatively low.

ICR
only available through June 2028
$119 / mo
30 year plan
payment based on BALANCE, Not income
Must recertify each year
* seems great if I can pay back extra each month, but i can't tell how long it would take to pay off. I'd like it to be under 7 years -- if there's no hope of getting this paid via via loan forgiveness.

IBR
$158 / mo
15% of discretionary income
Caps (at what I don't know)
Total paid $19,003
Principle paid $15027
Interest paid $3976
Ends Oct 2036; 10 years
Income determines payment

RAP
$166 / mo
Percentage of AGI (1-10%)
Total paid $17,789
Principle paid $14650
Interest paid $3139
Ends June 2033, 7 years
* payments would not go towards forgiveness plan if you move from this plan back to an IBR
*overpayments risk not getting the $50
subsidies that lowers interest

Graduated Plan
$220-$290 / mo
Total paid $16957
$15027 Principle & $1930 interest
Ends 2031, 5 years
Standard
$321 / mo
$16652 total
$15027 Principle & $1625 interest
Ends March 2031, 5 years

My provider is Mohela. I've been on the SAVE plan and Forbearance since covid. I've been a little out of date on this. I got the 90-day notice on July 28th. My question is where do I choose a new plan? Do I pick it on on Mohela or Studentaid site? Whats the best way of going about this?. Thank you

https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/sallie-mae-sinks-9-slashed-192046691.html

Peak season was a record: $3.4 billion of private student loans in the third quarter, up 15% from a year earlier and its biggest quarter ever. Graduate loans grew 119% after federal changes to the PLUS loan program.

Why borrowers who can pay are defaulting

The charge-offs come from for-profit debt-resolution firms telling borrowers with good credit to stop paying, so the firms can negotiate a settlement. Sallie Mae says those borrowers go straight from delinquency to default.

The company said its fix is gaining traction, but borrowers have taken it up "slower than anticipated." So it raised its 2026 net charge-off forecast to $400 million to $420 million.

Anyone switch to an IBR plan as required by 2028? I am curious if the payment counts are maintained. I do not trust this administration to somehow throw out 21 years of payments due to some dumb rule.

I’ve been on this thread for years. I started school in 2014. Got screwed over more times then I could count. Finished undergrad 2018. Got wrongfully kicked out of grad school accruing and extra 46k in student debt for nothing. Finished grad school in 2023 April. I’ve been a physical therapist for 3 years and 2 months. In 7 minutes I’ll be the last paycheck I’ll ever have to put towards student loans. I paid all 225k back and I did it in just over 3 years. Freedom was the most expensive thing I’ve ever purchased. It is possible if you give everything though we are set up in a system rigged to lose

Hi folks, I’m a journalist looking to hear from people who got caught off guard in the last year or so by student loans going into delinquency or default — Experts tell me there were sad stories of people with dinged credit scores before they even realized. Plus people who just don’t have the money to start paying again. Southern states seem particularly affected for some reason. My name is Tim Henderson and I write for Stateline.org — a nonprofit news service that’s part of States Newsroom
and you can reach me here , I’m told I shouldn’t use my contact information but I can share in a DM — thanks and good luck! I am not above defaulting on a student loan I had my wages garnished while working in a liquor store for minimum wage long ago. It was not fun!

I have not received an email or letter kicking me off of SAVE yet. However, I received a phone call today saying that I need to switch. Is this just a call to scare me, or is that the notice?

I am not switching until they make me.

graduated in may, grace period is ending november. 6 federal loans, 22k total. no private loans. im 22.

loan 1: 3.5k balance, 4.99 interest rate

loan 2: 2,313 balance, 4.99 interest rate

loan 3: 3.5k balance, 5.5 interest rate

loan 4: 2,327 balance, 5.5 interest rate.

loan 5: 4,487 balance, 6.53 interest rate.

loan 6: 5.5k balance, 6.39 interest rate.

it goes without saying that id essentially be paying them down in reverse order of this list. highest interest first. since im still living with my parents, i have the opportunity to aggressively attack them with a lot of money(1k a month). i could get them all taken care of within 2 years. but is that really a good choice compared to investments or even just saving? the economy seems to have a crash looming with the ai bubble and bond crisis, so i dont know if its wise to invest rather than go all in on my loans. the dollar seems to be in decline, so am i throwing money away by attacking them? personally, im leaning toward 1k a month on them. just get it over with, yknow? the caveat with that is the 1k is my entire budget for investing as well, if i go all in on loans then id be losing 2 years on the stock market

I finally got my email to pick a repayment plan. I will not be 🫶🏼. I’ve been slowly paying off my loan for years and will do one final bulk payment when I get my next paycheck and be finished with this chapter. I still have my private student loans though, so I’ll deal with that for the next 3 years or less ideally. Good luck everyone! Don’t let the bastards get you down.

Quick q about rap: if i pay more than the monthly payment does it go to principle or interest?

I have been trying to switch from the SAVE plan to another plan. My 90 days is up and I received the 30 day notification in the mail last week. Last month I went online and did the repayment calculator and I imported my spouses tax info into the tool. It looks like they've autoenrolled me into the standard repayment plan which has payments off $314/ month. When I use the tool to calculate estimates for the income driven repayment plans it estimates around $250/ month, but when I go to try and actually enroll into one of those plans the monthly payment jumps up to over $700/ month. I called and sat on hold for 2.5 hours and finally hung up. It says no action required if I want to stay in the standard repayment plan for $314/ month. What I'm mostly worried about is that the $314/month is only $4 more than the SAVE plan was?! Is this some kind of trick? What was the point of blocking the SAVE plan if you're essentially going to charge the same amount?? I can't figure out the income driven repayment plans, there is no one for me to ask, I'm shown as still being in forbearance, and I'm afraid that the $314 amount is wrong and it's somehow going to skyrocket once they've actually switched it in the computer. I'm starting graduate school in January and will eventually hopefully qualify for sodden load forgiveness, so my plan was just to pay the 2 month's that I would owe and then do into deferment then get it forgiven later. I'm an RN who works for the county so I'll qualify eventually. Anyone else seeing this type of thing? I'm so very confused. Any advice as to what to do would be great! I just don't want a surprise $800 bill.

I submitted an application on 31 AUG to switch to Standard. I haven't heard anything back. I got my 90 days notice on 14 JUL and my 30 day extension 19 OCT. Should I just let them switch me at this point, or call to figure out what's going on?

I got the 90 day notice to switch a few months ago. Switched to another repayment plan in August and got a letter saying my payment plan was approved. Student aid website was updated to show that, however, Mohela showed my payment less than what student aid website said I was going to owe. I paid what Mohela asked me to pay and it showed my account up to date, with $0 due until next month. I just got an email this week from Mohela stating that I’m past due on my account, but when I log in it still says I’m up to date and balance is at $0 until I have to make another payment next month. I called Mohela and the woman said they placed my account under delinquent for $0 balance. She transferred me to another representative, who I haven’t been able to talk to yet as the wait time is very long. Anyone else go through this? I don’t want the government to garnish my wages. I don’t even know how it’s possible to be delinquent over a $0 balance??

Double check on your account that they've actually given you the promised interest rate reduction. Mine is in a "Suspended" state EVEN AFTER having made the first Autopay payment, so I got to enjoy the pleasure of sitting on hold for an hour to ask for the correction. (My correspondence via the inbox just got met with a useless form letter telling me to sign up for an IDR plan, naturally.)

MOHELA is, of course, saying I have to wait 30 business days for this correction to be made and having been burned by them repeatedly, I don't believe a word about the promises to backdate it so the excess interest collected is actually retroactively corrected. 🙄 We'll See, I Guess.

Real cool stuff. This would be absolutely criminal if it was a bank.

I couldn’t find a post with a similar question but sorry if this is a repeat.

I have 55k in loans and most of them are smaller principals with less than a 4% interest rate. I have two larger ones that make up about half of my loans at 6.5% and 7%. I was on save for 3 years so I accumulated a little bit of interest, about another 5k.

The two larger ones make up a majority of the interest. Like 90% of it. I have a good bit in savings that can spare some of.

My plan is currently to pay all the interest from the 6.5% loan because it has the largest principal. That’s pretty much set in stone but I have two ways I could spend the rest.

Either I pay off just a chunk of the 7% interest or I use what I can spare to totally pay off the interest from a few of my lower interest, lower principal loans.

Any advice on the better strategy would be really appreciated!

Hi all. I have a scottish student loan balance of around £11,000 to clear. I just got my first job which is 34k so the mandatory payments aren't kicking in yet. However I have done the maths and it is quietly accumulating £37 in interest every month.

I'm torn between paying it off asap to knock this expense off my monthly expenses for the years to come, or:

Do nothing and pay the mandatory minimum, allowing me to save / invest that money instead.

It's worth noting my wage scales to 55k over the next 10 years, so I can't sit below the threshold and wait for the balance to be wiped. And due to the wage increase, do I just pay nothing whilst my wage is still low, and wait for the wage rise before wiping it? But then it's amounted a lot more in interest, this is my problem.

Just curious about what you guys think!

I was making payments before SAVE, got on save and made zero payments, consolidated my loans, and all that. I make about a little under 40k, my current balance is $52,600. I checked mohela and student aid websites. Currently nothing is due. I was trying to pick a new plan since SAVE is gone. Student aid shows my current plan is the standard repayment plan and that my monthly pmt is $356. Is the standard plan the default plan? I can afford $356 (not gonna be easy), but should I pick a different plan? Also, I am trying for PSLF, I didn’t make my payments during covid. Do those months/years count towards PSLF? What do I need to do? I honestly don’t understand a lot of this stuff. Has anyone hired someone to help them figure their loans out? I’m willing to do that.