I just need to rant somewhere how stuck I feel. I applied for buyback a year ago and it’s very frustrating because if they were to process my buyback, I would no longer have to work for a nonprofit. I work in education and the money is abysmal. To make ends meet, I’m working two extra jobs. I’m so so tired. I have no time for myself between the three jobs and being a mom. I’m stretched so thin that I feel like I’m on a treadmill and I’m just trying to get through every day without a break. We cook every meal at home, we don’t do anything that costs money, we save every penny we have and we are still scraping by. We can’t afford to see family, my husband and I can’t afford childcare to go on a date, and I just had a yard sale to make sure that I could give my child some gifts during the holiday.

To think that my life could be so much less stressful if they just processed, my application is very very frustrating, to put it mildly.

Just adding my experience in case it's helpful for anyone. I spent over 2.5 hours on hold with Mohela today. I've been sitting on the SAVE plan all this time, applied for buyback of 9 payments back in 5/2025.

On October 5th I received final notification that I'll be put on a repayment plan in 30 days. Today I called to ask about forbearance while I wait for my buyback offer. The "advanced agent" I spoke with was in training so it took a while for her to look over everything. She said I have to wait until I get a notice that I have officially been taken off forbearance and then call back to be put on forbearance while awaiting my buyback. She said I do not have to make the first payment, just call back as soon as I get the notice letter.

She then was able to transfer me to the "buyback department". All that agent was able to say was that they have not received my request from Fed Student Aid. Once they receive it they will process the request. I will not be notified of any of this until they have processed it. I can call back to check the status whether they have received my request or not. She had no additional information. It was very clear she was just reading a standard script. I asked if there was anything else she could tell me and she essentially said no one knows anything, aside from being told they are doing this. Who knows when they will get the requests forwarded from FSA.

I am at 118 employed months, I will hit 120 after my November 2026 payment. I have $483,000 in student loans, am in old IBR. I had to re-certify for the first time in Aug 2026. My payment has jumped up to $4600/mo on old IBR. I only have to pay October and November then I am at 120 eligible. I make a lot of money now, this is the 10 year standard amount so yes, it is correct.

When I get to the 120 eligible employment in November I will plan to do buy back. I only have 3 or 4 months that show as ineligible for administrative forbearance (the same months everyone has, ie the summer 2026 ones for example).

When I submit for buyback at 120 employed, can I also go straight in to forbearance? I would prefer not to pay $4600/mo for 12-24 months waiting on a buyback. I know eventually this money would come back and I would get to the natural paid 120 months quickly, but would prefer not to donate $4600/mo when I have other purposes for the money.

Hi -

I emailed my Congress rep about the PSLF processing issues and got back a very generic response (not worth posting here). I just responded with this:

Thank you for your response. However, I am disappointed by the generic tone of your email. In my original email, I raised a new student loan issue that is not being visibly discussed in the political arena. Currently, people enrolled in PSLF are having trouble getting their student loan forgiveness applications processed in a timely manner, and others can't see the correct payment count on studentaid.gov. There seems to be a backlog with buybacks, PSLF applications, Employment Certification Forms (ECF), and a broken payment tracker. These issues (aside from a backlog in buyback requests) began in July after Trump's new bill passed (though these issues aren't directly tied to his bill). Many payers worry these problems will go unnoticed and therefore go unfixed for a long time, requiring us to pay even more in student loans than our payment plans require. We need Congress to urge the Department of Education to fix the tracker and  speed up processing forgiveness applications, buyback requests, and ECF processing. For those of us enrolled in PSLF, we have already dedicated and sacrificed many years in public service jobs, expecting our loans to be forgiven in a timely manner upon completion of our tenure, and the U.S. government is not holding up its end of the bargain.

Hi everyone. This is my first time asking for help here. I searched older posts but couldn’t find a situation quite like mine.

I’ve worked continuously for the govt since November 2014. Around December 2024, as I approached PSLF forgiveness, some of my loans showed 119 qualifying payments while others showed only 115. By my records, I had made 119 payments over 119 months.

MOHELA and StudentAid.gov attributed the discrepancy to payment timing (sometimes I made two payments in one month and none in another). They said the system could fail to recognize a second payment and mark another month as missed, even though the payments covered the same overall period. I found out with my own research that I accidentally allocated payments incorrectly to only a few loans and not all of them in my monthly payments, but they told me MOHELA would still be able to make those count for my totals for all of them (which now I think isn’t true but is what I was told).

Both MOHELA and StudentAid.gov told me not to submit my final employment certification until the discrepancy was resolved, warning that I could risk losing credit for the disputed payments.

I repeatedly submitted requests to correct the counts but received no updates. Each time I called, I was told the review could take “up to 90 days” and to not contact them again while it was pending or it could cause them to take even longer with duplicate requests. I waited and followed up after each 90-day period. Sometimes I was simply told to keep waiting, and other times a supervisor promised to resolve it and contact me. Neither happened.

After I made all my 120th payments across my loans I was specifically instructed to keep paying while the counts were reviewed to avoid interest or late fees that might not be reimbursed. I was also assured that payments beyond the required 120 would be refunded once the counts were corrected and my employment certified.

I followed those instructions, but the review remained unresolved for almost a year. Eventually, my continued payments paid off the remaining loan balances. No one had warned me that this could affect my ability to obtain forgiveness or a refund.
Once the loans were closed, I could no longer submit my employment certification online, so I followed instructions to fax it. My first two faxes received no acknowledgment. When I called, I was told to allow up to 30 days for review.

After months of this, I finally received an email saying my application was closed and they would not review my payments. I’m now being told I cannot recover the payments I made beyond 120, despite having fulfilled all requirements for payments made and year of uninterrupted work for the VA. This was all done based on their explicit direction, again never telling me that I should not close out my loans. I thought I was just being responsible.

Has anyone successfully resolved a similar situation? What is the best way to challenge this and receive a refund for my payments beyond 120? I am frustrated and at my wits end and wish I had just submitted my final employment certification back in January 2025 accepting their counts as I would have gotten around $8,000 forgiven versus nothing paid back.

Thank you to anyone who can help, and good luck to everyone navigating this frustrating process.

Does anyone know a way to identify which months are counted for PSLF due to processing forbearance vs. an actual payment?

Details/Timeline:

- I made payment 117 in June, on ICR

- I switched from ICR to IBR, and the process lasted from July 15-28

- This placed me on a forbearance from July 23 - September 21

- I received 2 documents from Mohela upon approval of the switch to IBR: one said the IBR plan started August 25, and the other said first scheduled due date September 25.

- Out of an abundance of caution and confusion, I paid on August 25, thinking this was payment 118

- On September 3, I noticed that the NSLDS qualifying payment count jumped form 117 to 119

- I went to make the final payment on September 25, but now the Mohela site was saying next payment due October 25 (so I didn't make that payment).

- At this point, I know I received at least 1 month of processing forbearance, but I can't tell if I received 2--or if the August payment (118) hasn't been included yet. Mohela told me there's a chance that was counted forward for September, in which case I'm waiting on that ECF to be processed--I went on general forbearance for the October payment due date to kick that can down the road.

- Both Mohela and StudentAid told me they have no way of telling which eligible/qualifying months were from processing forbearance vs. actual payments. So I guess it's up the the Wizard of Oz who actually processes these things behind the curtain.

I have tried to reach out to Mohela and Dept. of Ed regarding this and cannot get any clear answers. I'm hoping someone here can help.

In January 2025, I applied for Buyback because I reached the 10 year mark of public service employment/ 120 payments assuming SAVE months could be bought back as I was told they could be. That buyback application is still under review after 22 months.

I continued making my nearly $700/month payments knowing the buyback app would take forever and i'd likely reach 120 without buyback sooner. I reached 120 this past summer, right before the tracker froze. I am stuck at 118, but, the following months are missing: February 2026 (it disappeared at random), July 2026, August 2026, September 2026, and October 2026.

Then, I received a letter from Mohela saying I am paid ahead, by a lot, and do not owe anything until May 2027. My account is in "paid ahead status." I have been told by Dept. of Ed that paid ahead status won't count toward PSLF count once the tracker is fixed. Mohela says the months spent in paid ahead status WILL count. I have no idea who to believe.

I can afford the $700 payments, but, it's not easy breezy. I definitely feel that money gone every month and have put off so many other important things because I feel like I need to keep making payments while all of this gets sorted out.

My fear is this: The tracker eventually gets fixed and I learn i'm one of the many whose payment counts got reduced.....that paid ahead status does NOT count toward PSLF.....and after all of this gets cleared up i'm stuck making more payments/ required to stay in public service. So many big decisions are being based on this and i'm so tired of it being the primary factor in huge life decisions for myself and my family. I fulfilled my end of the deal.....and am just so ready to be done.

I'm currently on hold with Mohela once again, trying to find out what to do. The wait is 1 hour and 15 minutes...so maybe i'll get some advice when they answer.

Also- I have already done the following: Submitted a reconsideration request, submitted multiple feeedback/complaints to both mohela and dept of ed., escalated to ombudsman, contacted my state representatives, submitted formal complaint to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, & submitted a new ECF. I have done literally everything I can possibly think of to go about this through all proper channels and I am getting nowhere.

With all of this in mind....what would you all do? Continue making payments? Ask for a forebearance? Ask to move off of auto-draft while in paid ahead status? Thank you so much. This thread has been sanity saving for me.

Currently awaiting my final ECF to be approved so that I can then request buyback (if my Sept/Oct payments ever show up). Some people here have suggested that they aren’t even processing them right now- wanted to check if I should bother keeping and eye on it and following up closely or just not even bother right now?

My understanding is that even if the ECF gets approved, without the payments updating I can’t request buyback anyway, right?

Hi PSLF community,

I'm trying to figure out what my path is here and I don't want to end up paying more than I need to right now.

I consolidated my direct loans back under the covid rules where I kept my full payment count. I have been in SAVE forbearance & in-school deferment for the last 28 months.

Next month is my 120th month of eligible employment. I plan to remove my in-school deferment status, make one payment on a PSLF eligible payment plan, submit my final employment certification once the payment has processed with a buyback request, and then ask for processing forbearance.

My question is, what payment plans are PSLF eligible with Direct Consolidated loans? My lowest payment amount is either RAP or Standard Payment plan, but I see some info saying Standard Payment plan is not an eligible payment plan for consolidated loans. Is that correct?

Thanks!

First and foremost thank you everyone for your help. Fellow ex SAVEr here 👋I called FSA back in July 2026 to request that the processing time from 12/2025 to 2/2026 be counted as a payment count. Little did I know the rep was submitting this as a buyback request. Fast forward to 10/2026 I’m now at 120 months of qualifying employment needing to buyback 18 months of being on SAVE (6/2024 to 12/2025). I’m currently at 96 payments but switched to IBR in 3/2026. With March to October I have what should be 104 payments. I submitted an ECF last month - still not processed and will submit another in November.

I may be leaving my current employer and would like to put in my official buyback request for the 18 months under SAVE. But now I’m receiving an error saying I already have a request and that I’m ineligible stating that I’m under the RAP plan. It’s just ridiculous sigh…is there any way to update the previous reconsideration with the correct months? Tell them I’m not on the RAP plan?

My wife has:

120k in loans, 242k AGI (we filed jointly), and 2 dependent’s.

The site is telling me that basically unless I file separately and lower my payment to the $500s, I wouldn’t get PSLF since my payments would be around 1.6k if I continue to file together.

My payment restart is in November. Is there anyway for me to somehow push it off till I can switch to filing separately in 2027? Any advice?

Has anyone dealt with this before?

I signed up for auto-pay in July.
Received an approval letter August 4th, it said that if the statement said “next auto pay” then a manual payment wasn’t required. The auto pay was schedule for 9/01 so now I missed the month of August for PSLF count.

Is that month eligible for buyback? Is there a way to make a retroactive payment?

Tracker showed 120/120 and states “You’ve reached 120 payments, but you may need to meet other program requirements" as of 8/6.

I know everything is super behind.

However, I keep seeing people mention they have "loan forgiveness and discharge: pslf" in my activity and I do not.

Has anyone gotten a golden letter that never had "loan forgiveness and discharge: pslf" in my activity?

Thank you!

Hi all,
First time poster here and feeling very lost with my particular situation. Below are some details.

History

1. Moved to below half time status for graduate school in summer 2015, then on leave until spring 2016
2. Re-enrolled summer 2016 below half time status, received degree 12/2016
3. Applied for IDR plan January 2017 and qualified for $0 payment
4. Employed at a 501c(3) full-time 2 weeks later
5. Have been employed at the same organization since then so should be reaching 120 qualifying payments in January 2027. My employer has verified my employment since January 2017.

Issues

1. Years of payment history are shown as ineligible for PSLF. The status on my loans are incorrect for various periods since 2017 when I was working full time and read either:
   1. In-School Status, Pre-Conversion
   2. In-Grace Status
   3. In Deferment on Due Date
2. My $0 payment history from January 2017-March 2018 is not showing on my payment history with Aidvantage (originally Navient)

Action Taken

1. Filed a PSLF reconsideration in January 2025
2. Called Aidvantage several months ago and requested a copy of my payment records from Navient. They said they would send but haven’t.
3. Accessed my clearinghouse data and the last certification from my school shows “Withdrawn” when I started leave 06/12/2015

Questions

1. Who do I contact to get my various status errors corrected?
2. What documentation do I need to show my $0 payments and have those count toward my payment counts?
3. What else can I do? Who should I be calling/writing?

Thank you all so much!

I am a physician under SAVE. I have 10 years employment under my belt in a qualifying non-profit. In what order should I 1) Provide employment certification; 2) Enter forbearance while awaiting buyback; 3) Transfer to a qualifying payment plan? I'll keep searching for a previous thread answering my question, but there is a lot to sort through. Thanks for any help you can give.

Should i go into forbearance if im at 117/120 but actually at 121 with correct payment count.

I just requested my final signature from my employer in September. It was suppose to cross all my loans over 120, but due to July- NOW not showing up as paid.. I'm still stuck at 117. I didn't request forbearance at the time of my last ECF, now i just wish I had. I've over paid 1 payment so far.. half my loans are stuck at 120 green ribbons the other half are stuck at 117 but should be 121. Is there a way to request processing forbearance while this works out with another signed ECF? Not wanting to wait on hold all day.. so should i just email Mohela and request processing forbearance? My last ECF should have pushed me to 120 payments, so i shouldn't need anymore ECFs.

I uploaded my forbearance request on Mohela’s website last week. How long does that usually take for those that have gone that route? I am at 121 but my tracker says 119.

Hi all -

I got noticed to submit another IDR request to certify my income. My previous IDR plan is up in January 2027. However, that is also supposed to be my 120th month of paying...currently I am 115/120 (I should be 117/120 with August and October not showing up).

SO, may question is if I recertify my income now, the (assumed) higher payment wouldn't take affect until after January 2027 right? I wouldn't be screwing myself early for my last 3 months of 2026?

I am on the fence if I just go into forbearance after my January 2027 payment in hopes that either my buybacks are approved or they approve the August and October payment, or just suck it up with a higher payment and then enter the forgiveness process.

Thanks for any guidance and help.

I attempted to apply for the PSLF/TEMPSLF buyback program. I resigned from Social Security Administration on 03/13/2026. A couple of days before my last day, I input the email address from my manager at the time and requested that she certify my employment at Social Security Administration, wherein I worked for seven years. However, when I inquired on my last day to her if she received the email, she told me "No, I did not see it." I was working and serving the public up until the very last day. My previous office was very low-staffed (we lost about 50% of office staff), and I really did not have time to chase my manager down (who I am sure was busy as well) for her to check again.

I read that if employer refused to certify the employment status, then I may submit alternative documentation, which I have done so. Unfortunately, I still see that after I submit the alternative documentation, then my employer must still certify my employment. I also just got off the phone with a representative from PSLF (888) 303-7818) wherein I was informed that the only way to certify employment is to obtain the manual signatures.

Please assist, I am not sure what to do.

Not all managers are created equal. I was the 4th one to leave this office within the span of a year.

I'm just looking for some general guidance on the next step to take.

I made my 120/120 payment this month. Do I need to go ahead and fill out the reconsideration form now or wait until closer to my next payment due date.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Any guesses on if we get golden letters this month? I’m 3 months after 120 payments without a golden letter now.

Good morning! I applied through Dept. of Ed. For a new repayment plan last week. MOHELA says they received the application. How long until it’s processed, you think?

Also just a message of solidarity. This is such a cluster. Hope everyone’s surviving and voting.

Signed,
Over It