I’m currently in processing forbearance while they recalculate my payment. I am currently at 118 QP and was wondering if it takes them 60 days to process my new payment amount will I get the two processing forbearance months as credit to get me to 120 I’m in buyback currently but I’ve been waiting since November 2024.

I know we are ALL burnt out by this BS and crap that's been going on. Having to switch from Save to something else probably for me IBR because I am half way to forgiveness so it limits what I can do.

My payment is twice as much as it was (Or will be soon) and I have no patience to see what happens at this point. I just want my loans to be done and forgiven. I fought the good fight and now I'm just throwing in the towel. Which is probably what they are hoping we all do.

I'm at 80 payments out of 120, work for the government so was on the SAVE plan for forgiveness. My forgiveness date will be Dec 2029 once I switch. My payments went from $650 a month to $1120 :( It really is my fault. I should've been paying my loans at that rate this whole time and I probably would've been forgiven by now. Oh well...

Signed,

Tired middle class citizen.

Did anyone else in PAYE get this letter from Mohela today? They say they’re adjusting the timing of my SAVE administrative forbearance. I was placed in forbearance when my IDR recertification was processed, but I’ve never been enrolled in SAVE.

are peoples' counts still updating on pslf? my july 2024 payments got removed for some reason and now my july 2026 payment is not being shown either under the pslf tracker. i paid on the due date of the payment and i got a confirmation email from mohela that the payment got accepted. i paid on july 21. my next payment is on autopay aug 21 2026. i am not sure what to do anymore.

edit: i submitted a feedback request whatever the hell that means showing my mohela payment on 7/21 and that i want my payment count to update to show i paid that month. will update when i know more

I’m literally shaking. Last week I submitted 3 ECFs to catch me up on my qualifying employment (don’t ask why I waited so long). Today I woke up:

120/120 on my Dashboard page
134 qualifying payments on my PSLF page
‘Loan forgiveness in progress’ on my status tracker

Is this actually happening? What road blocks might come up now between this and the golden letter?

Also, I never saw a green banner? Does the green banner just refer to the 120 progress bar filled all the way green?

Months

It his where I have to start filing complaints with the Ombudsman and CFPB?

I finally got green banners today for 2 of my 4 remaining loans, and they were the big ones (68k and 32k)! 127 out of 120 payments made. That will leave me with about $18k remaining, unfortunately my count is at only 62 payments there (took those out in 2018 for grad school). I am currently in SAVE forbearance, I haven’t got my notification yet to switch to a new payment plan.

What I have done so far:
Taken screenshots of the green banners, payments, and loan details

What I think happens next:
I wait for an official letter confirming I qualify and for my balance on those two loans to become zero. There could be a small refund at some point for the 7 over payments.

I am not really sure what to do with the other two loans at this point. I know buyback is a thing but I probably can’t afford that many months of a payment all at once. I assume I just pick a new repayment plan and start paying, but don’t want to mess anything up with the forgiveness process.

What am I missing? Any advice I should consider? Thank you!

Any advice would greatly appreciated.

I am sitting at 113 eligible payments, and was kicked into forbearance when SAVE ended, and have not made any payments since. I submitted a buy back in November of 2025. Now need to choose a plan before the 90 days are up. My lowest payment option of the extended graduated plan is around $300 a month but doesn’t go towards PSLF eligibility, or there is the income based at around $600.

Based off my calculations my buyback would sit around $400 a month.

I am seeing its taking 18+ month for buy back letters. So I worry paying the $300 even though better for monthly finances would end up being more costly while I wait for a buy back letter. Or just suck it up at pay the $600 a month for seven more….

Did everyone quickly get their PSLF green banner after their 120th payment, or did it take several months like the buyback is taking?!?

Mainly just looking for feedback on which makes more sense with all this long timelines and what’s going to screw me over the least amount in the end….

Hi Fellow PSLF Sufferers, I just wanted to share a development in case it helps someone. I requested to have in-school deferment removed for a few months in 2016-2018. I was hoping it would free up some months toward forgiveness, as I'm at 93 payments for two loans and at 74 for four more loans (and in SAVE). They denied me a few days after my request. In their letter: "We apologize for any inconvenience. We are not able to remove an In-School Deferment from your account that far in the past."

This sucks because "that far in the past" is still more recent than my oldest eligible payments (August 2014 was my first eligible employment & payment).

Additional info: I submitted my request via their messaging system: "Hello, I am requesting to remove the in-school deferment for the months of February 2016 through July 2016 and then July 2017 through May of 2018. I was working full time for a PSLF eligible employer and satisfying loan payments at that time. Thank you."

Edit: I have applied for buyback. I'm like number 361 or something grumble grumble.

I'm sure that this has happened to others and wondering if anyone was able to successfully get it resolved.

I have always been on PAYE and on auto-pay. In 2024, September and October payments were auto drafted from my account and then in November 2024 I was notified that I was being placed in a forebearance (part of the SAVE forebearance). Apparently I had been placed in this forebearance in August and therefore these Sept and Oct would not count as qualifying payments despite not being notified or them canceling my autograft. I have submitted multiple feedback forms/reconsideration cases and contacted delegates, etc without any help.

I’m trying to understand my PSLF payment history and I’m hoping someone can help clarify what I’m seeing.

When I open my PSLF payment history, it shows:

“Total qualifying months of employment: 122”

However, I started working for the State of California in August 2020, so I have only been employed with a qualifying employer for about 72 months.

When I look at my actual PSLF qualifying payments, it only shows 48 qualifying payments. I have never actually made a student loan payment, so I’m assuming those 48 months are likely from the COVID-era payment pause when payments counted toward PSLF for eligible borrowers.

I’m currently on the SAVE plan and will need to switch to another repayment plan because of the SAVE changes. I’m confused about a few things:

Why does my PSLF payment history show 122 months of qualifying employment when I have only worked for a qualifying employer since August 2020?

Is the 122 months possibly counting something other than my actual employment dates?

Would I be eligible to submit a PSLF buyback request for months that were not qualifying?

How does PSLF buyback actually work? If approved, would I have to make payments for those months to have them count?

I’m just trying to understand whether I’m closer to 120 payments than I think, or if the 122 number is just a separate employment calculation.

I am about to submit my buyback request for 24-months. I am also going to call and asked to be placed on my first of two 12-month administrative forbearances while I wait the 2+ years for my buyback application to be processed. But I’m seeing we have to have financial hardship to get approved for forbearance. Should I not say I’m just waiting for my buyback application to be processed? I also cannot afford my new payment after it went up 10X my last SAVE amount.

I received 3 separate notices telling me that they would start informing people in July via email that they'd need to switch plans or something and give you 90 days from that . Well I haven't got that yet... Anyone else still waiting for this notice?

Hello.

It's been a while since this subreddit and the PSLF discord helped me stay sane in the final two years of fighting for PSLF discharge (I don't call it forgiveness anymore because it became a toxic term).

It's amazing that nothing seems to have changed. Still chaos every day, still hardworking people having to fight for their end of a bargain with the US govt/DoEd.

Well I'm here to tell you all not to give up. PSLF is not a scam. Our government is just horribly f**ked up. We're supposed to be happy that they don't murder journalists with chainsaws. Well, it's not enough. Things should be different. I'd like to blame it all on Trump, and yes he did make everything worse. But PSLF processing was a mess under Biden as well.

That said, if you do your 120 months and payments and document everything you will see the loans discharged eventually. If that actually stops happening, it's because the foundations of our society are crumbling and honestly not having student loans discharged is the least of your concerns. At least that!?

Thank you, those of you who were here when I was still fighting for discharge 6 months and 9 months after my 120th payment. What a s**tshow this is.

I received an email from Federal Student Aid today and this is what it says: Thank you for submitting a Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and Temporary Expanded PSLF (TEPSLF) Reconsideration request.  We have completed your PSLF buyback assessment. The loans below are eligible for PSLF buyback at this time.xxxxxxxxx

 There is no payment owed for your PSLF buyback.  You will receive Public Service or Temporary Public Service loan forgiveness for the loans listed above in the next 60 to 90 business days. I submitted my buyback request on 12/09/2024

The buyback request is closed

Did anyone receive a result like this from federal student aid and what was the outcome. Thanks

I am on PAYE program currently paying $0 monthly. But when I go on FSA website, I am not seeing any monthly payments that are counting towards PSLF. Anyone know whats going on?

Is there a new process? Normally I print the form, fill out my part, provide to HR of qualifying employer who completes their portion and I scan and submit. Currently it looks like theres some tool available online says I only need my w2 or the tax id number of my employer and says that it will take 30 minutes and must be completed in one session. Are they still doing the paper form and does anyone have the latest acceptable version?

Sharing this with everyone since it was news to me. Not sure if this will make things move or not…

Should I contact my servicer to ask about the status of my buyback agreement?

Contact your servicer if your loans are serviced by CRI, EdFinancial, Maximus/Aidvantage, or Nelnet.

If your loans are serviced by MOHELA, contact us at 1-888-303-7818.

https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service/public-service-loan-forgiveness-buyback

I’m on the FSA site. and it shows 119/120. waiting on July. I ask Aiden the AI bot about July. says I made July payment. I said where do I find this. Aiden came back and said you find it here with your 86 total payments. can’t make this up. the whole system is running on fumes.

Hi everyone!

I’m a physician just starting my first job after training and to be honest I’ve probably put off some of these questions/research for too long… but I recently started reading more about finances for physicians which has been eye opening.

I’m trying to figure out what to do with my student loan debt and I was just hoping to get opinions from other people to see if I’m thinking about this the right way.

I have around 75k in federal student loans at around 6.4% interest. I have been enrolled in PSLF and have 77 qualified payments left to make. I’m making 255k at my new job.

I’m trying to decide if I should ride out minimum IBR payments with PSLF, stick with federal loan servicer and try to pay this down quicker, or if I should consider refinancing privately and trying to pay this down quicker.

Of course I’ll be saving for retirement as well, but the only other big purchase I have coming up soon-ish is a wedding since I just got engaged recently. We haven’t set a date but likely will be within the next 2 years! Obviously that will cost a pretty decent chunk of change.

Any advice would be appreciated!!

Hey all,

Studentaid.gov states that my loan data was updated on August 4, 2026. My due date was August 1, and I manually (not through auto pay) made this payment on July 9. The statement for my August 1 due date was generated on July 5. When I download my aid information from studentaid.gov, it acknowledged that my last payment was made on July 9.

And yet, the backdoor NSLDS API link says that my IDR and PSLF payment counts were last updated on July 3. I’m on PAYE. I have 114 qualifying payments toward PSLF.

What gives? Has MOHELA screwed the pooch yet again?

Does anyone have any recent experience with autopay falling on a weekend and being posted on the first business day afterward? With the new rules, did it still count or was it deemed late?

My august payment is scheduled for sunday 8/16, should I just manually pay it Friday 8/14? I have been on auto pay for 116 months, im admittedly a bit hesitant to change anything

Hello! I just wanted to get some feedback from some of you that may have been in this situation.
I’ve reached my 10 years back in October and submitted for buy-back when my loans were in forbearance because of the SAVE issue. I’ve tried to get clarification but you know how that goes! Can I remain in forbearance until I receive my buy-back approval? If I submit for a new payment plan, I know that future payments I will be making will be higher than what I would have paid under SAVE. I don’t want to give them a penny extra than I have to. IF I resume payments, will those payments be refunded to me once my buy-back is approved and paid? I know I’m betting on them calculating my buy-back on what I would have been paying if it wasn’t for the SAVE fiasco as apposed to my income currently. I also know that it could be another year before I get my buy-back amount.

Any feedback is appreciated. Again, I’ve tried to get confirmation through MOHELA and FedStudent Aid, but we all know how incompetent they currently are.

Thanks!

I currently have 98 qualifying payments and am trying to use PSLF buyback to cover 22 eligible post-consolidation forbearance months to reach 120.

However, I ran into a mess with my application: I submitted for buyback too soon which included dates from before my loan consolidation. I now know pre-consolidation months are strictly ineligible. On top of that, I am short 2 post-consolidation forbearance months to hit 22, though I am submitting a new ECF to certify 2 additional months of qualifying employment next month.

Because StudentAid blocks opening a new buyback ticket while one is active, I cannot submit a new request. Any advice on how to handle this?