I wrote a letter asked my house representative to reach out to the department of education regarding the ridiculous delay tactics and generalized non-informational feedback from their customer service agents. Unfortunately they continue to keep it vague but provided the following feedback on how buyback requests will be addressed in some unknown future .

This is the response the Dept of Education gave:

Good Afternoon,
** **
The Department announced that it is implementing enhanced Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Buyback and PSLF reconsideration procedures. These revised procedures will move the review of eligible PSLF payments and reconsiderations from Federal Student Aid (FSA) staff to the Unified Servicing and Data Solution (USDS) federal loan servicers, including CRS, EdFinancial, Maximus/Aidvantage, and Nelnet. MOHELA is not yet managing this process.

Because of this enhancement, most of the federal student loan servicers will now be responsible for determining the eligible months and the buyback payment amount, processing the PSLF Buyback payments once received by FSA, and ensuring accurate reporting to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) for the payments to be counted toward a borrower’s PSLF progress. Loan servicers will also analyze and determine the outcome for PSLF reconsideration cases submitted by borrowers. This change will provide for a long-term sustainable solution that addresses the current backlog and management of incoming applications. 
** **
Unfortunately, at this time OLCA/FSA are unable to provide information regarding where a constituent is at in the buyback queue or provide a timeframe for when their case will be reviewed. The borrower will receive notification via email as soon as possible. There is no process to expedite the review of a buyback request. We understand the importance of your request and appreciate your patience."

What sucks is this means nothing for people like myself who have MOHELA.

I don’t know why I’m writing this, but there are so many of us who are so close to forgiveness and we’re all just waiting and it’s excruciating but I’m really proud of all of us. So many of you who have posted and commented have worked so hard. For over 10 yrs, we’ve worked towards this goal, and while we’re waiting for those letters - I want to say thank you.

Thank you to the nurses, teachers, social workers, gov employees, healthcare workers, and every one of us who have worked 10yrs in public service.

Our world is a better place because of you. Most of you worked through COVID and a lot of people seem to have forgotten what public service employees sacrificed during that time.

But I didn’t forget. I see you.

Many of you saved lives - environmental services kept our hospitals clean and food service kept our patients fed. Doctors and nurses running into those COVID rooms before we even really knew what it was - not knowing if it could kill them. Many of you are stilling running into those rooms.

Teachers kept our children calm during a pandemic, helping them maintain a shred of normalcy through tiny screens. You learned on the fly while helping their developing brains cope with the trauma of a pandemic.

Government employees doing the daily and thankless work to keep our cities running, and giving us the structure of what a civilization is - institutions meant to serve the best interest of the public and to uphold human dignity.

And so many more.

I know a lot of us could make way more money in the private sector, but I hope some of you stay in public service because our communities need kind and hard working people like you.

I got my green ribbon on 9/9 but I checked “no” to forbearance during processing so payments are restarting tomorrow but I’m going to keep hoping, every morning, that today is the day that we all get our golden letters. us. I can’t wait to see all the golden letter posts.

We’ve earned it. I’m proud of us.

I think his name was Jared. I received a piece of clarification about the 90 day timeline we have all been given. It is 90 business days from the ECF submission, not 90 days. So, mine was approved on August 6, so that makes December 16 or thereabouts be the date. The reps are all just as much in the dark as us and their workforce has been gutted by all the government employee nonsense since January 2025. Another key takeaway I was given is to keep replying to the original feedback case. That’s what keeps escalating things. Did I get things resolved? Nope BUT I have a better date estimate of when forgiveness may occur. Also, that timeline of 90 business days tracks with a lack of September and October Golden Letters. Probably also a lack of November Golden letters, too.

Yikes! What a time to reach 120 payments. I submitted my ECF last week before my last payment posts at the end of this month, hoping my count would update to 120 before submitting another ECF for forgiveness. Then I came to Reddit and realized that what took 2 days to certify last year is now taking an undetermined amount of time.

I’m guessing I’ll just submit another ECF for forgiveness before my next payment and request forbearance, after triple checking all my previous payments.

Thankfully, I’ve been on PAYE and haven’t had any other issues, aside from two of my loans randomly being placed in forbearance when I was transferred from MOHELA to EdFinancial. Technically, last month would have been 120 payments if it weren’t for that issue.

Best of luck to everyone working through SAVE issues and buybacks. I don’t think having a Secretary of Education who knows more about pro wrestling than education helps any of us.

Wife reached 120 in August and sitting at 119 on the tracker. July currently counted after ECF in September. Payments taken out in September and October. Manually submitted a general forbearance on MOHELA website 2 weeks ago. 2 emails today, 1st one said placed in administrative forbearance and that next 2 months will count for PSLF. 2nd email 2 minutes later stated manual forbearance submission was denied.

MOHELA website shows no payment due and that loans are in administrative forbearance.

Not sure what to take from this but I’d say we are at least trending in the right direction.

Just wanted to share my personal timeline for the manual pdf application to recertify PAYE. I had to upload the pdf application on Mohela because studentaid recert would not load to the next step (stopped at step 5) even on different browsers, clearing cookies, etc.

8/23 - submitted manual pdf application on Mohela
9/02 - received processing delay document from Mohela
9/26 - Mohela placed me on standard repayment plan for failing to recertify my income
9/28 - called Mohela at 8am to request processing forbearance
9/29 - Mohela approved processing forbearance
10/27 - manual pdf application APPROVED for PAYE income recertification; new PAYE repayment starts 11/24

Of course this timeline will not be the same for everyone, but just wanted to share what happened with me.

I'm just happy this was approved before my forbearance ended otherwise I would start paying the higher standard payment to keep counting towards PSLF.

I am currently caught between putting for a forbearance to wait for my buyback to process, or pick Old IBR and pay until 25 year discharge.i have three more years for that. I am so negative that buyback will happen for me it is tempting to continue to pay for three more years. But what if they are messing up the IDR counts? The counter has been down FOREVER! I honestly feel like one of the hanging bodies in the old movie COMA. Except the IV has been inserted into my bank account.

I have received a scholarship called a "Student Loan Repayment Program." My current job qualifies for PSLF, which I plan to remain in, so the goal is for that money to cover my student loan payments rather than just reduce the total amount of my loans. However, the money is going to Mohela directly -- will this money be counted towards my monthly payments? Or is this whole thing useless for me?

I am currently caught between putting for a forbearance to wait for my buyback to process, or pick Old IBR and pay until 25 year discharge.i have three more years for that. I am so negative that buyback will happen for me it is tempting to continue to pay for three more years. But what if they are messing up the IDR counts? The counter has been down FOREVER! I honestly feel like one of the hanging bodies in the old movie COMA. Except the IV has been inserted into my bank account.

My 90 day window to switch off of SAVE is up next week. I’m at 91/120 and eligible to apply for buyback next month but with the timelines I’m not confident I’ll have a buyback answer before I make the remaining payments 29 payments.

Repayment calculations on FSA Calculator show my monthly payment options as:

RAP: $282
PAYE: $283

What would be the benefit of selecting one over the other? The $1 difference feels like a trick to try and get me to choose RAP over PAYE ! Any advice on which plan is “better”?

I reached out to my congresswoman and received some enlightenment on my progress since applying to buyback 1.5 yr ago. Unfortunately not great news,

“The Department announced that it is implementing enhanced Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Buyback and PSLF reconsideration procedures. These revised procedures will move the review of eligible PSLF payments and reconsiderations from Federal Student Aid (FSA) staff to the Unified Servicing and Data Solution (USDS) federal loan servicers, including CRS, EdFinancial, Maximus/Aidvantage, and Nelnet. MOHELA is not yet managing this process. Because of this enhancement, most of the federal student loan servicers will now be responsible for determining the eligible months and the buyback payment amount, processing the PSLF Buyback payments once received by FSA, and ensuring accurate reporting to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) for the payments to be counted toward a borrower’s PSLF progress. Loan servicers will also analyze and determine the outcome for PSLF reconsideration cases submitted by borrowers. This change will provide for a long-term sustainable solution that addresses the current backlog and management of incoming applications. 
 
Unfortunately, at this time OLCA/FSA are unable to provide information regarding where a constituent is at in the buyback queue or provide a timeframe for when their case will be reviewed. The borrower will receive notification via email as soon as possible. There is no process to expedite the review of a buyback request. We understand the importance of your request and appreciate your patience.”

Hi all,

I scanned some of the posts but am only moderately adept at reddit and wildly inept at PSLF.

I just submitted what I believe to be my last PSLF form to my current employer and past employer. They have both signed it and passed it on, which would put me at 127 qualifying payments all up. "My activity" on student aid now says it will be another 3-5 weeks.

I chose to not go into forbearance when putting these in because the recommended move of "anything after won't count, so what if you are short?" in combination with "we will pay you back."

However, it seems like a lot of good public workers out here are not getting paid back--and maybe even being dragged once past 120.

I am considering just applying the hardship forbearance on Nelnet while I wait for their decision. Is that a bad move for any reason? Is there a better move?

Thanks good people of reddit.

Will someone clarify which forbearance months may be applied to the required 120 payments needed to request a buyback? I think I must make 120 payments in total that are not classified as forbearance months but my husband think some forbearance months count toward the 120 payment requirement.

Has anybody’s employment certification form been processed in the past month? I submitted mine on October 3 and still waiting. This is incredibly frustrating. Thank you all for your help and support.

Hi everyone,

I am now 3 payments in of my journey of 120 since graduating and exiting SAVE forbearance. I’m trying to keep track of my payment record in case it’s ever needed down the road (just making the casual assumption there might still be some dysfunction in the system). I feel like Aidvantage doesn’t create a great PDF record of payments, just monthly statements which don’t explicitly state the last payment and date. I also don’t get an email confirmation of payment received.

How are other folks tracking payments, specifically through Aidvantage?

Hello! I have posted a couple times in here but I keep coming across things I do not understand. I made the switch on September 28th, 2026 to RAP as that seemed the best option since I have five payments left (hopefully). I got a letter that said my payment would be $1020 per month and would begin November 3rd I believe. I logged in today to get everything set up to pay and it is showing that my forbearance will end November 3rd and I have a zero dollar payment that day. I don’t understand this. On November 4th will it update to a new payment date?

I just need 7 months of qualifying employment in order to be able to buy back.

I currently work at a for-profit company that I very much love and don't want to give up.
Any luck on finding a second job that qualifies for PSLF, that's remote?

Thank you in advance! And good luck to everyone out there!

I’m pretty sure I applied for buyback but I can’t be certain. Is there a way I can verify this? I checked my emails and don’t see anything. Thanks in advance!

Are there any cons to PAYE besides it being sunsetted in 2028 and possibly needing to change again?

I got lucky because I graduated with my MA in 2019 and I certified my income with my 2018 tax return and my payments were $0/month. Then bam, COVID happened and I've had $0 payments for the last 7 years!!! I was on the regular IBR plan. Throughout all these years I've always wondered "is something gonna happen? Or go wrong? Will these payments *actually* count towards PSLF? And every time I certify my employment, that count goes up!

Then in July/August, I got the "90-day notice" to switch plans. PAYE was the cheapest option for me at $669/month. I recertified my income + chose that plan on September 17.

Normally, my "payments" of $0 are due on the 26th of each month. I knew September & October would be $0 as they needed to approve my application...but wasn't sure if I'd get lucky for November too.

But, it's October 27 and while switching to the PAYE plan is technically still waiting to be approved, I just checked my loan servicer (EdFinancial) and bam, $668.90 payment pending, due on November 27th.... nooooooooo :(

I know I'm lucky that I had $0 payments for so long and that I only have 3 years of PSLF left. But it's just still such a punch in the stomach. To go up to basically $700 payments on 3 months notice feels so, so cruel...

Other context:

I have 9 loans, and currently some of them are missing payment counts from June 2024-January 2025. And then August, September, & October aren't showing up for all of them.

6 of them are at 80 payments.

2 of them are at 74 payments.

1 of them is at 73 payments.

anyways, just figured I'd share my story. I feel so close, yet so far away. I know so many other people are feeling the same, especially those who hit their 120 during this wild processing time... sending love and light.

I have 70k loans. I just figured out that it's cheaper for me to not be on the PSLF. I have made any payment yet because I was on deferment. Please, advice. Did anyone got there loan forgiven completely ?