Please help. I was set up to start paying back my loans in October under PSLF and PAYE. I recently enrolled into a master’s program and for some reason I automatically got a message stating that my loans were placed on deferment however I never applied to that. I want to pay my loans while in school as they will be cheaper and I am working at a place that counts payments for PLSF.

Why did this happen and how can I switch back? I already sent a message two weeks ago and haven’t heard anything back. What steps should I take next?

I have read every post for months and I am still confused and frustrated and overwhelmed.

I am supposed to hit my 120 in November. I plan to apply for buyback 21 months because of the save pause. I plan to continue paying because I think I will hit 120 before I get a buyback offer.

I have seen different answers so my question is if I apply in November for 21 months buyback and continue to pay.. if I ever receive an offer will they take into considering the payments I continued to pay.. or is this an overpayment and I would get a refund someday if I choose to pay the buyback?

How long can we stay in forbearance? Part of me just wants to wait it out and wait for buyback because my payment now is MUCH higher than what it was on the save plan when it was paused.

Can I submit for buyback and then go into forbearance at a later date if I can’t make my payment or it goes up later?

I have had Nov 2026 on my calendar for years.. years it’s been my target goal because that’s when I know I can apply for forgiveness and the stress anxiety and sadness I feel that I am not able to do that because of something out of my control is so freaking frustrating.

I had forbearance from 8/13/26-10/16/26 for processing forbearance for IDR recertification. My autopay still withdrew payments for August and September before I knew I was on a forbearance (wasn’t notified of forbearance until end of September). Turned off autopay and requested refund for August and September payment since I was on a forbearance. Refund processed and now Mohela says I am past due by more then 30 days for those payments. Has this happened you anyone else? Thank you!

Did anyone else have this happen? After choosing a new repayment plan in light of the SAVE mess, I got a letter that said my auto pay was confirmed and that the first payment would be withdrawn on 10/13. That payment has NOT been withdrawn yet. That said, when I log into my account there is no balance due and it just says the next payment will come out on 11/13. I confirmed that autopay is set up and linked to my bank account. So, is this a me problem or a Mohela problem?!

Hello,

It appears I can't upload photos, but back in June my employer verified my public employment with the county where I work. I then received an email that verified this, and said no further actions where. When I login to studentaid.gov, the PSLF bar that tracks months still say that I have made 0 payments, even though I've made 4. Not sure what to do at this points.

The PSLF/TEPSLF Payment Progress tab said last updated August 5, 2026.

As many have asked already about this but looking for clarification. I have scheduled autopayment on the 17th of each month. July, Aug, and Sept payments show as received. Since the 17th of Oct falls on Saturday, i checked my bank account and Mohela and see money hasn't been taken out or posted on Mohela. Should I be worried this months payment is late? and call to make the payment on Monday? I honestly don't want to wait 3 hours on the phone with mohela to get a vague answer.

Is this the fix we have been waiting for? I’m not optimistic that the fix will happen today but I am holding out hope. What are your thoughts?

Hi all!

Getting ready to apply for PAYE and transition off of the SAVE administrative forbearance. I was working through the online FSA IDR Request Application and got to a field asking "Do you want to leave your loans in deferment or forbearance?" with a caption stating "If you leave your loans in deferment or forbearance, you won't make payments under your IDR plan until the deferment or forbearance ends."

If I say "Yes, leave my loans in deferment or forbearance." would my PAYE monthly payment be calculated now and then only be enforced once FSA moves me off of the SAVE administrative forbearance? I ask because currently my most recent tax return on file is from 2024. My concern is if I voluntarily remain in forbearance then my future PAYE monthly payment will be calculated using my 2025 return/a paystub from 2026 and therefor be more expensive.

More generally, what are the upsides and downsides of leaving my loans in the SAVE administrative forbearance after I submit an IDR request application?

I recently received two documents in my Mohela inbox. The first letter said that I have to pay 228 on 11/22/28. The second letter detailed a payment schedule for the next 195 payments. It said for a year starting from 10/2026 I would pay 228. Then for 166 payments, it will be $600. And for the last 8 payments, it would be $300. This is confusing to me as I am on pslf and already have a 91 payment count. It’s very frustrating because if it wasn’t for the forbearance, I would be 5 payments away from 120. Has anyone else received a letter like this?

Hi all,

I could use some advice. I have been working in an eligible job since 2016, have always submitted my employer certification forms each year, and earlier this year I met my 10 years of work. I was on the SAVE plan for 15 months of this time (I was automatically put into SAVE after the REPAYE plan was eliminated). I submitted my buyback request for the 15 months back in June and that is obviously still pending. I was required to choose a new plan by September 1 so I am now in the new RAP plan (I’m ineligible for PAYE based on when I took out student loans), and my first payment of over $1,000 (!) is due in 10 days. I submitted a general forbearance request about two weeks ago and I received an email from the US Department of Education on Friday saying there is a delay in processing general forbearance requests, that it could take 90 business days to process, and I am expected to make all payments until there is an application decision. I can’t afford to devote $1,000/month while this is general forbearance request is pending. Does anyone have advice as to what I should do?

Rant portion: I know this goes without saying, but if they just processed by buyback request, I could pay that amount (which would likely be much less than $1,000/month over the 15 months) and I could be done with this entire ordeal.

I just cannot. Planned maintenance will end today 11am September 27th. The incompetence is expected. FSA and correct dates are seemingly impossible

Has anyone successfully had an ECF processed recently? Missing counts aside, what was the approximate timeline?

I'm so confused...

For background, I made regular PSLF monthly payments (enrolled as soon I started my nonprofit job) starting in 2017, but then didn't pay during the pandemic (like most of us!) When SAVE came around I enrolled and continued to not make payments as the system told me it was in legal limbo, but then when Trump won, I assumed it might be held against me, so I switched back to a regular IDR and started making payments.

So now I'm seeing this "ineligible" for random months, where one month is listed as "ineligible" and then the next month is fine...and this is the error message I get "Reason(s) for Ineligible Status:Forbearance on Due Date."

But it's so confusing.. for example.why would a July 2024 payment be eligible, then the Aug 2024 is not, and then Sept 2024 is?? I guess my question is...why are random-ass months ineligible due to forbearance?

I feel insane...like how are random months being counted against me, when nothing changed in how I was tracking/working?

Hey everyone! Just posting bc my loan servicer is EdFinancial, and my PSLF app has been in limbo since May of this year when I first submitted it…my pay stubs were finally certified mid-August (over 2 months ago now), and I’ve heard nothing since. Customer service said to expect a max of 4 weeks of processing time and it’s been twice that. I’ve been given the runaround by their customer service…

Just wondering if anyone has experience with this loan servicer and what I should do next to try to get my PSLF set up? I’m pretty sure this is the last step I need, and my payment is overdue now and I don’t want to pay yet since it won’t go towards PSLF…thanks!

So I'm on PAYE plan with Mohela. My annual IDR recertification date was in January 2027; but I wanted to submit IDR recertification application earlier. So, I submitted one a few days ago and got a message / documentation that it has been approved. This is the message I got, but I'm confused:

"What Happens Next?

There is nothing you need to do at this time. We will send you your new Repayment Schedule after your current 12-month period expires."

Does this mean they'll send me my new repayment schedule AFTER January 2027 (after my current 12-month period ends) and continue current monthly payment at same amount until then? So do I still have to recertify again in January 2027? Or will my annual ID recertification anniversary date reset to October now that this new IDR recertification has been approved?

I am not close to 120 yet (about halfway including save purgatory), but I did submit to buy back these save forbearance months. This got me thinking, what happens if you spend so long waiting on buyback that you reach 120 without buyback? Like if my buyback months would have been at 80 a month for two years, and instead I pay $400 a month for two years because buybacks don't get processed, am I just out that $7600 extra? Or do they acknowledge that instead of $9600 I should have only had to pay $1920?

I know there’s been some fear and talk about automatic payments not going through on weekends so I just wanted to share some good news that my (new) 120th payment was posted today, Saturday. I have Mohela. I’ve been waiting for buyback for nearly a year and decided to keep paying and hit “120” today. Wish I could celebrate but hoping someday soon I will. Hang in there everyone. It’s been one moHELLa of a ride.

Due to a mixup on the government's side (mixing up my loans with my husband's), I am so frustrated I'm ready to suck it up and go for another year and pay PSLF. Unfortunately, when I tried to find a new plan (I was on graduated extended), there is no PSLF-eligible plan available for me. How can this be? Help!

Hey all,

Like so many of you, I too am having PSLF tracker issues. My ECF that I uploaded on October 5, 2026, still has yet to be processed.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PSLF/s/hTM9HGf4u8

My tracker was last updated on September 17, 2026. The backdoor NSLDS api was last updated on October 13, 2026, at which time my eligible payment count increased. I last made a payment on September 21. My due date was October 1.

I know that this isn’t very helpful, but it’s all I know at this point. 😔

Can you apply for buy back if you reached 120 months of employment but the tracker is still messed up?

I got my green banners back on August 6 after my July payment was processed. I waited two business days before submitting my ECF requesting for discharge of my loans (2) and placing my account in forbearance to avoid making further payments, because I was done with making payments.

A week-ish later, I got the "congratulations" email and In it, it said it can take up to 5 weeks to process the discharge of my loan. No problem.

It's been closer to 10 weeks now and there is still no update on my discharge.

I am now getting email notifications from MOHELA that my IDR recertification is coming up and my account still hasn't updated nor have I received any further communication stating that my account has been zero'd out on the StudentAID website.

Can anyone give me some insight as to what's happening? Did I miss a step anywhere? Am I supposed to call in and wait on hold for many hours before getting this resolved by a human?

FWIW, I'd like to share screenshots, but this sub won't let me. The option to do so is greyed out.

I am dreadfully finally a part of the two different payment amounts from mohela. Received a message in response to my email that is $500+ and an automated notification stating the same amount that was reported in my PAYE certification letter last year. I am NOT interesting in forbearance while they figure it out because half my loans hit 120 in December and the other half in January. Those of you that didn’t stop payments, which amount did you pay? TIA.

Another week passes by with no update to the PSLF tracker. What do we do at this point? I’m close to 120 and getting frustrated because nothing is happening and we are being told empty promises. Anyone have any new info?

I got a email today saying my next payment is in 3/2027 and that it’s $2500. This is a huge increase and I’ve been consistently paying monthly. Does this have to do with me being due for income recert this year? I’m on the PAYE plan.

I am theoretically at 120/120 qualified payments, but it only shows 116/120 because of the system error. Do I keep paying, or stop payments and wait for the count to get fixed?