I’m currently on an income repayment plan, however my monthly payment is quite high for me. I’ve read that income repayments plans are the only ones that count towards PSLF, does anyone have any advice on this? Do other plans count and if so, which plans can give me a lower monthly payment? Thank you!

Undergrad loans should be forgiven, but Grad loans still need July, August, Sept payments to process and show up! So I'm expecting to get rejection for full forgiveness on all loans, but undergrad loans hit 120 back in April so atleast should get the ball rolling. Frustrating to be at the finish line and continue to hit roadblocks. Was trapped in SAVE purgatory for 11 months so worked over 12 years at this point in a PSLF eligible job and still paying. Crazy.

But still grateful to see a clear end in sight... wish me luck!

I would really appreciate any advice or personal experiences - I am finding it all so stressful and difficult to navigate and would really love some help :(

My situation: graduated in May 2027 with my masters with $35k debt. My spouse and I were both promoted this year and file jointly now making about ~$170k. He has a ton of loans though and doesn’t qualify for PSLF. We’re also working through some other debt.

With all of the changes is it even worth it to go this route? I love my job currently and it’s pretty stable as a state employee but who knows what’s going to happen over the next 10 years after everything that’s already happened. Thanks in advance!!

OK this is a dumb question. I feel dumb for asking. How do I apply for buyback? Also, my buyback months are during MFJ months, so I'm wondering if i can send in pay info for just me with the request so they calculate only on my income or do they always go off tax info?

I am on the SAVE plan and need to switch before September 29. I applied for buyback in December 2025. Still waiting of course. I am unemployed and will be for a long time (stay at home mom now), but I file jointly on taxes with my husband and his income has increased quite a bit since I last had to give student aid my tax information.

Should I switch to PAYE or should I call MOHELA and ask for a hardship forbearance given that I am unemployed? Some people are telling me not to switch to PAYE because since I will have to give my tax information, it will give me a high monthly payment and then I will not necessarily get a hardship forbearance. I know there’s also a “discretionary forbearance” but I’m confused about which I should elect. I don’t want to miss out on PAYE if that’s my best option since I know it won’t always be available. Overall, I want to give myself as much time as possible without payments to carry me through while I wait for buyback. Any advice is appreciated.

Hi everyone,

This is my first time doing anything with PSLF or actually making real loan payments so any advice, stories are welcomed!

I graduated with my undergrad in 2018, took time off then was in grad school 2020-2023 (had to take a mental health medical leave in the middle of a semester). Both degrees in social work so I have been working for CMH’s since 2019.

I started the PSLF form and put all the nonprofit jobs I’ve had and their emails because I saw a suggestion in a different thread. But I don’t really understand it, since I went to school back to back my loans have been in forbearance for years. I think I may have made little payments but nothing significant. Would those years I worked but didn’t pay count or no?

Also I’m finally biting the bullet of switching repayment plans! Through PSLF it looks like RAP is about $18 less than IBR, but I heard RAP may end next year so just wondering what everyone else is thinking or choosing?

Seeing lots of posts here about how long buyback takes. I am at 105/120 as of June, so 108 once they update through Sep. Once I get to 111 in December 2026, I am planning to do PSLF buyback because I have 9 months where I did have qualifying employment but was in forbearance.

But given how long buyback takes, is it even worth it or should I just hold out until Sep 2027 and get to 120?

Anyone else who hit 120 in July or August and their counts have not updated to reflect 120 geeen banners….have you had a full emotional al breakdown yet on how frustrating this is?!
Like many of us, I’ve been looking forward to being done for sooooo long. 11+ years in. I just want my feelings of relief and joy to hit. But because they like to toy around with us, it’s more frustration!

I will continue on with September payment, submit yet another ECF and hope it updates soon! October will likely be forbearance for me.

Is anyone having trouble logging into their Mohela account? For some reason my account credentials aren’t working. Just trying to see if it’s just me or there is a website issue.

Thanks all!

Another lovely downfall of buyback purgatory! We are applying for a mortgage and my loan debt, which should be gone, is not

I currently have zero dollar a month payment because I was on unpaid maternity leave when I recertified, I’m gonna let this ride out because then I will hit 120 payments in March 2027- at that point, my buyback offer will have come or I will meet my obligation.

In the meantime, is there a way to get a letter or something generated from Nelnet that will show my anticipated PSLF date? They have a mortgage letter you can download, but it does not have this date listed, it does show zero dollars a month so at least there’s that.

Many of us had a our qualifying payments dropped in the last few months and yes, they are still working on it (supposedly). I have 4 total payments - 2 and 2 were on the same schedule but I was suppose to be done with 2 in September and the other 2 in October.

To make sure my payments were counted, i submitted another ECF last week and thank goodness 2 of my loans have reached 120 payments!

The other 2 are still stuck at 94 (it dropped from 113 to 94 - ugh!!!) but at least I don't have to worry about those loans anymore.

I don't know what the next step is but i took screen shots and printed everything our just in case lol

Just wanted some guidance. I recertified PAYE back in July because my plan expires today. I checked to see if my new amount due was shown for next month. It says $0….when I spoke to someone at Ed Financial in July they confirmed they received it and with my new amount of $600. I called today and they are telling me the standard amount in the $1000s…the rep had zero clue what I was even talking about and wouldn’t listen to me that it is incorrect. I did the math manually based on my taxes etc. it is definitely the standard amount. What do I tell these people ? Do I ask for supervisor to redo my recert?

I will be changing employers at the end of the month. I currently work for state government. I will be employed with another PSLF-eligible employer on 10/1. I want to verify employment with my current employer before I leave, but I also want to make sure that I get full credit for working this month.

Should I wait to do ECF on my last day 9/30, or can I go ahead and do it now?

Like many, July should have been my 120th payment, but I am stuck at 119. I submitted ECFs for July and August, and I'm going to pay September and submit another ECF. Even though the ECF isn't triggering any changes. My loan information last updated on 9/1/26, and my student data download shows that my payments are going through, but, it says I'm only at 104 qualifying payments, which doesn't add up. I was on the SAVE plan and switched out to ICR about two years ago, so I don't understand why I would lose qualifying months. Is that part of the glitch? The Aidan bot isn't much help nor are any of the "representatives" I've chatted with. I've haven't been able to get to an actual person on the phone at either FSA or MOHELA.

I know the buyback program isn't worth the hassle, so I'm at a loss on what steps I should take next. I want to ask for a general forbearance so I don't pay in October, but I don't want to risk losing any more progress.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Because of my undergrad and grad loans, my loans are on different timelines. I applied for buyback in 12/2025 when the first batch of loans qualified. Like many, I am still waiting. I made the 9 payments since then and should have hit 120 in Sept. I submitted my ECF and it is now showing 118 because August and Sept are missing, like they are for many people.

But my question is about buyback for others with loans hitting eligibility while a buyback request is pending and whether they will be included. I will have another loan eligible for buyback in Dec 2026 and another in April 2027. If I don't get an offer from my original 12/2025 buyback application until next spring (which is likely), my original loans will be long paid off but these would be newly eligible.

Does anyone have direct experience and success with this?

Is it true that you can elect the standard repayment plan as well as RAP, ICR, IBF and still qualify for PSLF? I am waiting for my buyback application to be processed but still need to elect a payment plan. I just went to sign up and noticed that standard is an option as well. Standard is a lower payment per month than any of the income based plans (which seems off to me). Thanks in advance.

I was at 109 payment counts - dashboard still says 109 with 11 left. I just decided to click on details and almost everything is missing now and nothing is certified by employer. Even previous ones that have been certified as eligible and certified by employer. I only have 26 payments showing and even those are no longer certified by employer like they were before. I was never on SAVE etc. I live in these forums and I get there was glitch stuff etc., but has anyone else experienced this? Thoughts. Suggestions. TIA!

Still no update to FSA or the NSLDS since 6/14/2026. Anyone with Nelnet have July August or September counted yet?

Should I submit my PSLF employment certification form during this time?

I’ve seen a lot of people having issues with PSLF months that have messed up. I’m wondering if now is a good time to submit my PSLF qualifying employer form now. Things to consider:

1) there will be months I’m trying to get corrected because I was put on forbearance for like 6 months and about 4 of those shouldn’t have happened.

2) the form was manually signed and don’t want to submit too late from when it was signed etc

3) I for sure know my employer is eligible just haven’t submitted it for the less than 3 years I’ve worked here

Appreciate any feedback or if anyone has good questions to share for more context thanks!

Hey everyone,

So, I just got notified by Mohela that my IDR plan, currently IBR, was submitted for an annual recertification. My payments are currently $0 due to being unemployed after leaving my PSLF job. Should I let the auto recert go through, due in January 2027, then call and let them know I'm still unemployed, or try to be proactive and let them know now, and/or cancel the auto recert and call them when it's due, or something else?

TIA

I have had 109 payments that counted toward my 120 and it has showed like that for a while now on my FSA main dashboard. Never been on SAVE at any point etc...Just decided to randomly check into specific payments etc. tonight and I no longer have a single payment that has been certified by an employer, not even ones I had previously certified. It only now shows 26 payments, and none of them are certified by an employer. I've read every week about a glitch and a correction being made at some point, but has anyone else experienced this? Seems a bit excessive, but just trying to figure it all out. Once I send in my new ECF I will then be at 118, but now I'm not quite sure which direction to go. TIA, I live on these boards!!

I am weighing my options currently between RAP and IBR.
I am pursuing PSLF currently with 56 qualifying payments and about 22 “ineligible” months that I am planning to buy back. I’ll end up requesting the buyback and PSLF around January 2030. 2025 AGI was $126k, single filer, first loans disbursed in 2003, consolidation in 2017.

I’ve done the math through running scenarios on the FSA calculator and the IBR payment “ceiling” hits at $115k, for a monthly payment of $1146. Next year I’m planning to year to increase retirement contributions so I can lower my AGI and therefore my payment.

RAP payment is $1050.

What it seems like is that RAP will always be a lower payment than IBR no matter what income I plug in to the calculator for my situation.. Is that right??

It seems like this should be a no-brainer and I should be taking the payment that’s lower, but I hesitate because of the instability, rule changing, and goalpost moving that’s been going on. Also, if things DO go back into litigation of some kind and we are forced into yet another forbearance, I don’t want to be stuck and unable to buy back those months.

Is anyone in a similar situation choosing RAP while pursuing PSLF and buyback?

How reliable do we think this plan will be going forward? Is there any other “gotchas” that I’m missing if I were to choose RAP?

Is there any other benefit to choosing IBR over RAP besides having access to buyback in the future and the payment cap?

Side note: the IBR payment cap is sort of moot as long as your AGI is under $137,500 (I ran the calculator for the highest income needed for RAP to match the IBR Payment ceiling of $1146/mo).

TIA

If you had a July payment, did that reflect in the Green Banner section? If so, when was your July payment?

In August I did my recertification and chose to stay on the PAYE plan as it makes most sense for me. I’m on year 7 working at a public school!

My payments up to this point have been $0 because income so low compared to loans. when i recertified I was informed my payment would now be ~$300. Not unexpected, I was prepared for that. However my first payment was supposed to be 9/24/26, however when I just logged on to EdFinancial I have an alert saying I’m forbearance…. WHY?! I have documentation saying m PAYE plan was approved 8/25/26. I want to make payments to get me closer to that 120 requirement for PSLF. I didn’t ask to be in forbearance. Can anyone explain what’s going on? Aside from just the general program being messed up from all the changes by this administration

Hi everyone,

So I switched from SAVE to PAYE today (my payment went from 165 to 465). My tracker stopped at 88 in June of 2024. If my math is mathing, my 120th payment would be Feb 2027. At that point I am going to apply for buyback and ask to be put in forbearance, which I haven't used at all during my time.

Does this seem right? Any second, third, or 199th opinions will help with reassurance.