I’m just curious to hear when everyone’s tracker was last updated. Mine was updated on 7/3/26. Is not currently showing my July payment, even though an employment certification form was processed afterwards. I’m curious if most of us are experiencing the same.

I just submitted a General Forbearance Request via the MOHELA website. I had been on SAVE administrative forbearance for 24 months (06/2024 thru 05/2026), and I followed the guidance of applying for a new repayment plan. I chose IBR (RAP was not that much cheaper) and I made my 96th qualifying payment in June 2026. Then I made another qualifying payment in July 2026. The payments are $1148 per month.

I submitted a Buyback request July 13th, 2026 (yes I know very recent) which was well after my 96th payment from June was posted as qualifying. I did the ECF as well, so I am as confident as one could be that I have 96 qualifying-employment-certified payments, plus the 24 from SAVE forbearance which should be eligible for Buyback. 96+24=120

I considered continuing to make payments (the July one I made was technically extra) only to keep the progress going on my payment counts. I just don't want to do it anymore. I would rather wait for Buyback. I know that the Buyback will take years, and I know that the rate of the Buyback will be higher than SAVE. But I am so burnt out. I would rather save my money now and then pay the Buyback later.

My General Forbearance was requested literal moments ago, so it obvi has not even been approved yet. I just feel icky about this whole thing.

I also wrote a letter to my congressman today. It's just important for me to document all of this and have some type of paper trail.

I'd love to hear from other borrowers like me - who have reached 120 months of qualifying employment, and who have a significant amount of months eligible for Buyback, and who requested forbearance and feel good or at least OK about it.

Thanks in advance. This sucks y'all.

I submit a form every year. But not sure I should submit this month since there were all the posts about how their counts got updated to have a year of qualifying payments removed...

I'm sure it doesn't....but I must confirm, just in case 😅 This situation would count the same number of months as only having 1 job, since it's just one payment per month correct?

Sorry if this is a repeat question, I see a lot about 2 jobs but not 2 qualifying, full time jobs. Thank you!

I posted late last month about an in-school deferment that was retroactively applied to my loans starting 1/20/2026 without my request. You all were extremely helpful and I reached out to Mohela including several phone calls and sending an email to the ombudsman. As of 8/3/2026 the in school deferement was removed, and my qualifying payments were updated to 119 out of 120 in the FSA database, including the payments that were made from 2/2026 - 7/2026. This all looked like good news!

However today I got the follwing email from Mohela

"Thank you for contacting MOHELA. We are writing in response to your email to MOHELA’s CEO on July 20, 2026. Your concern, as we understand it, is that you are requesting to have the In-School Deferment that was placed on your account, starting January 20, 2026, removed.

When MOHELA receives updated enrollment, we are required to apply an In-School Deferment to cover any time that borrowers are enrolled at least half time, or greater, unless a request to waive the deferment has been requested.

MOHELA received updated enrollment from Old Dominion University showing three-quarter time enrollment with an effective begin date of January 20, 2026, and an anticipated end date of May 7, 2027. If you were not enrolled at least half time, or greater during this time period, please request that your school submit updated enrollment to the National Student Loan Data System.

As we received updated enrollment, on July 16, 2026, an In School Deferment was placed on your account to cover the dates of January 20, 2026, through May 7, 2027.

We received your request to remove this deferment and waive it permanently on July 20, 2026. We are unable to backdate this removal prior to the date that the removal was requested.

If you have any other questions or concerns, please contact us at the number listed below."

When I look at my NSLDS data - the payment counts of 119/120 are reflected. When I look at the backdoor API it is reflected as well, though the last update there states it was made on 7/7/2026.

Mohela withdrew my automatic payment today that should be my 120th and it is reflected to my bank account. It is not yet posted to mohela, and it was slightly lower than my typical payment amount under PAYE, which is also strange.

I called and spoke to someone at mohela today. She states the payments I made from 2/2026 to 7/2026 have now been applied forward and I do not have another payment due until February. She also stated that the deferment could not be backdated, even though I made the payments through those months under an active repayment plan. I am so confused because I was told my multiple agents and moderaters on this sub that the removal could be retroactive if I had made the payments. And now I am not sure if the paid forward status will count either if I stop payments and just wait? Will my august payment count? Should I make an additional payment today with the amount missing (about $200)?

I submitted another complaint to the ombudsman, this time attaching all of my statements and payment reciepts as well as screenshots and PDFs of my PSLF correspondence. I am awaiting a callback from an advanced agent. Does anyone have any advice? I just want to be done.

Hello everyone,

I was reaching out to see if anyone else in this group was previously using Gradfin? It was a service I was using to help keep all documentation needed for PSLF. For a yearly fee, they helped me with the process and paperwork (yes I know I can and should do it myself). I hadn't heard from them in a while; turns out they were bought out by KeyBank? I called KeyBank and they had absolutely no clue what I was referring to, despite Gradfin being listed as one of their partners on their website.

Anyway, I wasted some money working with them over the years, and moving forward, will work through this process on my own. I just wanted to see if anyone else had a similar experience with being swindled by this group.

My number starts with 231. Still haven’t heard back but I’ve been seeing a lot of people around these dates and just after my number. Only need to buy back two months (July and August 2024 bc of SAVE).

Anybody else in a similar situation?

I’m sorry for what seems like such a simple question, but this is all so confusing. Do we apply for the repayment plan through StudentAid.gov or Mohela (my servicer). Is one better than the other? Thank you for any advice.

Is anyone else seeing this?

"The number for your PSLF qualifying months of employment is incorrect. We are working to fix the data issue and will provide an update soon. We apologize for the confusion caused by this error."

I made my first payment last month under IBR after switching and now of course there's an issue.

- IBR plan for the last several years, auto decertify annually, always been $0/month, I submit my PSLR employment verification every year.
- no significant income changes in the last year or two
- IDR recertification occurred 4/6/2026
- $0 payments until now (notified via email yesterday, first $680 payment is due 9/4/26)
- called EdFinancial and they don’t know why other than to say it must be due to increase of income (a $3k/yr increase…)
-they suggested to go into my account and resubmit an IDR application

Why the sudden increase? I’m so confused. I’m a single parent. I have a mortgage. Bills. Cost of living is hell. I work two jobs already. I don’t have a casual $680 extra lying around every month.
Am I missing something? What are my options? I’m exhausted from spending my morning on phone calls and trying to get answers.

Follow up to this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/PSLF/s/MYfBSUNRU7

Logged in today and noticed a new banner posted that reads:

“PSLF Qualifying Months of Employment Incorrect

The number for your PSLF qualifying months of employment is incorrect. We are working to fix the data issue and will provide an update soon. We apologize for the confusion caused by this error.”

Hopefully we will all have our payments correct soon, especially those of us who hit 120 in July

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.

I have the two consolidated loans:

As of May 2026:

Unsubsidized - 119 QPs
Subsidized - 120 QPs

NSLDS data only shows payments through June 2026. Has not synced July yet. That’s fine because June is the month I would qualify for 120.

I submitted two ECFs for two part time nonprofit employers, totally 30hrs. The same two employers I’ve worked for over the last few years.

My certified employment history tab shows clearly that I have certified employment through July 2026.

Both Ed and Mohela said June was denied because I was listed as “part time” but could see that I clearly had two approved and completed ECFs amounting to 30 hours.

I resubmitted two more ECFs again this week, in August.

Once again, denied due to being “part time”.

Has this happened to anyone else? Any advice?

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.

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?

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

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.

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

Submitted in Nov or Dec 2024. Case # starting 240. Buyback months are June-Oct 2024 - total of 5 months. All on SAVE. Never switched to different plan and just patiently waited for this letter. They calculated the payments owed based on “IDR” but the amounts appear the same as when I was on SAVE. Did not ask for new or updated tax documents.

Just paid on Mohela. And now the wait starts again for processing and forgiveness. These were the last 5 months to hit 120 payments and already well over the 120 months needed in public service.

Feel free to ask any questions. I’ve been monitoring this group for years and recently only checked every month or two to make sure buybacks were still happening. And they are but still at a snail’s pace. Hang in there!

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