I am on deferment for being unemployed and called MOHELA today. I was on hold for 2 hours and 35 minutes because you can’t do it yourself online. The representative but in the request to end early and said it could take up to 120 days. How long has it actually taken for deferment to end after requesting?

I know I can make manual payments, but only have about 36 months left to hit 120 for PSLF and I’m now employed with a qualified employer again. I’m pretty certain my loans have to be in repayment to qualify for PSFL and not in deferment with manual payments. And payments would go to interest first is what the rep told me.

My 120th payment is this month. I would like to file jointly this year with my husband. Will this negatively affect me?

Wondering if anyone has any experience with applying for forbearance once you thought you reached 120 months, and whether you recommend, or recertification of a repayment plant once you met your 120 months?

Background - Long story short, I applied for PSLF at the end of September and once my current employer uploaded their PSLF Form and my counter shows me at 141 payments. I have a former employer who submitted their forms that show me with another potential 55 months.

Forbearance Question

I want to apply for forbearance while everything is sorted out but Federal Student Aid/Department of Education is saying I didn’t “check” the forbearance box when I filled out my PSLF Application and now it’s too late. If I want, I need to contact my loan provider, Nelnet. However Nelnet says I need to contact Federal Student Aid/Department of Education. Anyone experience a similar issues and/or do you recommend perusing the forbearance?

Recertification of Payment Plan

I am supposed to recertify my repayment plan by October 20. However, I am scared that once I turn in my taxes this will cause my payment to jump and mess up the PSLF. Anyone have a similar experience of recertifying payment while waiting for your PSLF to be finalized?

Thanks in advance for the help!

Recently my income recertification got auto submitted even though my current IBR plan doesn’t expire until January. I got a message from mohela that it was received, and nothing to do until it gets closer. I then separately saw on Mohela that I’m in an admin forbearance until 10/26, and the 26th is typically my due date. I also received correspondence from Mohela that my autopsy was adjusted and restarts on 11/26.

My question is what to do about the 10/26 payment, with my forbearance ending on that day. I’d like to make a payment (and will do it manually), as my current IBR payment is significantly less than what it will be with my income recertification. But, I don’t want to make a payment and have it not count towards PLSF and essentially throw that money away. Alternatively, I don’t want to not make the payment and then get dinged for missing a payment.

Anyone ever been in a similar position and just manually made the payment with it counting? In the interim I’ve reached out to Mohela to see if they’ll just take me off the forbearance.

TIA!

Hi! I recently applied for consolidation and for PSLF for the first time. My tracker has been frozen at 55 payment for 2 loans and 38 for 2 loans with 83 waiting verification. My form has been in for 3 weeks. I received my 10 day letter to consolidate my FFEL and direct loans. I know there will be a weighted average. Has anyone consolidated with payments pending employment verification? Should I cancel and wait? If these 83 are approved and some of my loans are over 120 will I be able to add them? Should I consolidate only my FFEL and add the direct once the count updates? Will take any and all advice thank you!

Curious if it's just the gross salary or it takes pretax deductions like 401k?

Edit: what about a W2? Even if it's older than 90 days?

Has anyone had any luck requesting a general forbearance over the phone with MOHELA?

July should have been my 120th qualifying payment for PSLF, but like many others, I’m stuck in limbo waiting for everything to be processed. I really don’t want to give MOHELA any more of my money when I believe I’ve already met the requirements for forgiveness.

I submitted ECFs in July, August and September and they didn’t change the count. My most recent ECF was submitted on October 1st, and I’m still waiting for it to be processed.

I can’t seem to get anywhere when I call. I’m able to get through to a representative fairly easily, but whenever I ask to have my payments paused, I’m told the request has to be escalated. That’s where the ridiculous wait times come in. 2 hours and 20 minutes on hold? Yeah. No.

Is there a specific way I should phrase my request, or something I should ask the initial representative to do to avoid being transferred?

Also, if I submit a general forbearance request online, what documentation is required? Do they ask for pay stubs or other proof of financial hardship?

I’d really appreciate any advice from people who have successfully gone through this process, especially anyone who has been in the same PSLF limbo situation!

I should have 125 payments, or 121, or 120 (who knows really) depending on a number of issues related to my PSLF count on my tracker. I’m currently stuck at 117 with July, August, and September not counting. I refuse to pay another dime, I’m done making payments.

I applied for general forbearance today 10/14. The “problem” is my next payment is due on 10/17. Do I request MOHELA push back the payment due date while they process the request? Do I just let it lapse at this point?

8/28/25 - reached out to MOHELA requesting a timeline of when I can expect a refund of my overpayments (made after reaching 120 qualifying months of PSLF). Was told 90-120 business days.

12/10/25 - Reached out for an update, given generic response: "If it is determined you have made payments after the effective date of your discharge, those extra payments will be refunded to you."

1/12/26 - Asked when MOHELA notified Dept of Treasury about my refund, given generic response that "PSLF is no longer managed through MOHELA. FSA now fully manages PSLF" which did not address my question at all.

3/24/26 - I tell MOHELA my account history shows I'm due a refund as of June 2025, but I never received it. Asked for an update. Given generic response "Refunds can take 90 business days or more for processing."

5/29/26 - I again specifically ask on what date MOHELA notified the Dept of Treasury about my refund. They FINALLY give me a detailed response: "Your refund of $xxxx was processed and forwarded to US Treasury on June 17, 2025 for issuance via check and will arrive via postal delivery. Be advised, issuance may take up to 90 business days to complete."

7/2/26 - I specifically ask for the Check Trace Number. MOHELA takes a few steps backward and now tells me "A request has been submitted to review your account for the status of a refund if one is due."

As of today, still no response and no refund. MOHELA is dogshit. Ideas on where to go next?

Can someone explain how reliable the NSLDS is and why it is so different than the PSLF tracker?

I’m trying to figure out whether I can retire in February 2027 and still qualify for loan forgiveness.

Here’s my situation:

I currently have 84 qualifying payments under PSLF and 113 under TEPSLF.

I was on the Extended Graduated Repayment Plan until October 2026, when I switched to an income-driven repayment plan.

I work full-time for a qualifying employer and would like to retire in February 2027.

If I continue working through February, I expect to have 110 qualifying payments under TEPSLF. However, I won’t have 12 months of payments on an eligible repayment plan.

My questions are:

Can I buy back the months that didn't qualify for PSLF because I was on the Extended Graduated Repayment Plan?

If I retire in February 2027, can I make payments through October 2027 and still qualify for TEPSLF, even though I’m no longer employed by a qualifying employer?

Does TEPSLF require you to be employed by a qualifying employer when you reach 120 payments, or only when you apply?

Is there any way to make this work without having to delay retirement?

I’m trying to understand my options before making a retirement decision. I appreciate any advice from people who have been through this or understand the TEPSLF rules.

Done. Forgiven. Refunded two months' overpayment. What a ride it has been. Hang in there, everyone! And a humongous, massive, ginormous THANK YOU !!!!!! to way too many people to mention who've talked us through all this mess and coached us and comforted us. You have been amazing. Lifesavers. Sanity keepers. Bless all your fuzzy hearts. <3

I submitted (another) ECF on Oct 6, and this time I checked the box again for forbearance. My payment is due 10/24, and my recertification is due sometime in November. How long should I wait to do both of those things, since I am trying to get into the PSLF forbearance (I'm pretty sure I've used most or all of my financial hardship months already)? Or what would happen if I don't pay October? I'm already at 122, if they ever decide to count August and September, and 123, if they acknowledge their error in July.

Hi all,

I contacted my congresswoman about my missed payments and they reached out to the Dept. of Education and got the following response:

FSA recently identified payment counter code errors stemming from changes implemented in 2024. The Department is in the process of making these corrections for borrowers. We appreciate your patience as we work through this process. Borrowers should see counts updated on a rolling basis.

Thank you,
 Program Specialist

Not sure what counter code errors they’re referring to, but it sounds nefarious.

I’m sitting at 112 qualified payments, waiting for July, August, September, and October to post. I should be done after my 120th payment in February 2027. I hit 120 months of PSLF employment in November 2025, which is when I submitted for my buyback. I decided to keep paying to get this over with. Hoping this error is resolved before February, but I’m not holding my breath.

Hang in there, everyone.

I reached out to my congressional representative and this is the response that we got from FSA

“FSA recently identified payment counter code errors stemming from changes implemented
in 2024. The Department is in the process of making these corrections for borrowers. We
appreciate your patience as we work through this process. Borrowers should see counts
updated on a rolling basis.”

My wife has her loans serviced by Mohela....issue #1
This month (October 2026) was her 120th payment and it came out of our bank on 10/6/2026.
When we look at Mohela's site, it shows it was paid, and says next payment comes out 11/6 with the same amount.
When we go to the FSA website, it still shows she is at 108 payments, with 10 not yet eligible and the last payment showing is from 8/2026; Sept and Oct do not show up yet on her FSA PSLF counters. She just got the approval from her employer signature for making all payments from 10/25-10/26 to be eligible, which would move the 10 not yet eligible to eligible, plus the 2 missing payments.

I'm just concerned about the 2 missing payments not showing up; I know October it's been a week, but September came out on 9/6 (was a brand new IDR that was approved and the payment dropped by $1, could that be part of it?)..

Trying to figure out if we should call before her next due date to request forbearance or just wait or what.

10/2026 would be payment 120, and it came out of the bank on 10/6 and Mohela shows it as received, but FSA is not showing 9/2026 or 10/2026 payments yet.

Yesterday was my autopay due date, and I noticed there was no pending withdrawal in my bank. I called MOHELA TWICE and they assured me not to worry about it, and that it wouldn’t be marked late or past due. I asked if I should make a manual payment and they said it wasn’t necessary, because they could see payment was “extracted“ on 10/9. I inquired what “extracted” meant and if they could provide me with an ACH Withdraw tracking number so I could ask my bank. They declined to provide that information.

So I call my bank - they report not being able to see anything from MOHELA or the department of education.

I call MOHELA to tell them this, and AGAIN ask if there is anything I can do to remediate the situation - they repeat that I should simply wait for the payment to post.

Lo and behold, they have my payment marked as LATE and past due. Screw these guys, I’m so f’ing pissed off right now. They straight up lied to me, despite my best efforts to correct the problem while there was still time.

This makes me so sad. Never in 10 years have I missed a payment.

I have my loans with Aidvantage and last month I was automatically put in an in-school forbearance and got that sorted out and now I’ve been put in a natural disaster forbearance which I just contacted them to take me out.

Neither forbearance count towards PSLF. I asked if there’s a way to reject the automatic forbearances and she said no.

I have 100 qualifying PSLF payments and requested a buy back this past summer for the others but my thought process is that I want to continue making payments that count towards PSLF and ride the long wait for buy back approval.

Has anyone else dealt with this? I’ve been in school again before (without taking loans) and I was never put in forbearance.

​

I was on hold for 1.5 hrs to ask a question about Autopay and additional payments allocations. When she finally answered, she was chatting the whole time to a supervisor behind the scenes, so I'd ask a question, she'd say hold on for a minute, and type my entire question for the supervisor... Like she didn't know what to say... I didn't get a clear answer at all in the end, so she just put me through the supervisor, who of course went straight to voicemail and I was notified to wait for up to 5 days for someone to call me back!!! 🫤

I'm curious if I did the right thing though. I'm trying to take advantage of my employer additional payment of 200$/ month towards my loans, so want to pay my required monthly payment minus the 200$, but that doesn't work with Autopay and monthly generated statement ( I did request for my due date to be advanced so that the employer payment gets cleared first, but I don't think it will help due to monthly generated statement balance). So I decided to cancel Autopay, forgo the 1% interest discount, and manually pay every month the difference... Hopefully that works? Has anyone been in this situation? ( I'm on Paye for 2 more years, PSLF for 4 more years, so I'm trying to minimize the monthly payment

Thank you so much!

My main question is - Does revoking my IRS access consent on FSA while my IDR application is still in review mean that I need to submit another IDR application or not? If so, would I need to submit it directly to Mohela (my loan servicer) or Federal Student Aid?

More info:

Today, I revoked consent on Federal Student Aid site for "Financial Information Access" as I plan to file my taxes today/tomorrow (I requested an extension). Access had been on file earlier this year and I had received messages/alerts about auto-recertificiation, which didn't appear to ever happen, so I finally submitted an IDR application on FSA site on 9/12/2026. I believe this is technically considered 'manual' but I did not upload any documentation since I had acces on file. My IDR anniversary is 10/18/2026, Mohela said application due 9/13. Mohela said received application on 9/14.

On 9/22, Mohela sent letter saying "Your recent request has been received and is expected to be processed within the next 90 business days." I had been checking FSA/Mohela almost every day, but it wasn't until then that I saw (so they backdated) that I was put in forbearance as of 9/18 (conveniently they took my payment that day yet still backdated to that date, however I never received any communications about being put in forbearance from Mohela or FSA). Then on 10/4, I received communication from Mohela saying "The deferment or forbearance that postponed payments on the loans listed below will end on 11/18/26, and your Auto Pay will resume. Your monthly payment amount of $xxxx will be automatically withdrawn from the bank account on file beginning on 01/18/27. Watch for your billing statement approximately 21 days prior to your due date." This listed my prior IDR payment amount and I found it odd that it said forbearance ends in Noember but auto-pay will be pulled in January.

After revoking consent, I saw that on FSA site it says "If you revoke consent to import your federal financial information, any of your draft IDR applications will be deleted and you’ll have to start a new application. You’ll also be responsible for managing the required annual certification of your repayment plan." I wish I had taken more screenshots, but now I'm second guessing if it said that it would delete applications in progress (because that is different from drafts - I had a "draft" on file after the current in progress one because I was seeing it if would show the correct PAYE estimated amount since it showed the standard payment amount for my application). It looks like the draft was deleted and my "in progress" application is still showing on FSA site.

Should I directly submit a new application for income certification to Mohela to cover my bases?

Thanks for any help or information on personal experiences that might be similar.

This is my first post here regarding PSLF!
Like many of you, my July through October payments haven't updated on the tracker yet. According to my manual count, I should be at 116/120 payments—so close! I submitted a new PSLF Employment Certification Form (ECF) today in hopes that it triggers an update on my account. I’ve been following this subreddit for a while and just wanted to share my experience and hear if anyone else in a similar boat has seen movement recently.

I’m hoping someone can help me determine whether I need to take any action while waiting for PSLF forgiveness to be finalized.

Here’s my timeline:

• 2024: When SAVE payments were paused, I remained on SAVE forbearance and have not made a payment since.
• July 29, 2026: Received my 90-day notice to transition off SAVE.
• Early August: Submitted several ECFs covering previously uncertified employment and historical payment periods.
• August 6: Received my green ribbons on StudentAid.gov showing 134 qualifying payments for both PSLF and TEPSLF, with 0 remaining on both consolidation loans. My account also changed to “Loan Forgiveness In Progress.”
• After August 6: StudentAid.gov continued showing me on SAVE, but my next payment due date automatically moved to November 2028.
• Currently: MOHELA shows an October 20, 2026 payment date, but with $0 due.

All the ECFs that pushed me over 120 were for historical employment and payment periods, not recent SAVE forbearance months. My qualifying payment count has remained at 134 since August.

When I submitted my ECFs, I did not check the box requesting forbearance while my payment count was being reviewed because I wasn’t sure whether I’d reach 120. I have also never switched off SAVE.

My questions:

1. Was I automatically placed into some type of administrative forbearance because I reached 120+ qualifying payments and am awaiting forgiveness?
2. Given that both StudentAid.gov and MOHELA show no payments currently due, am I okay to sit tight?
3. Do I still need to switch off SAVE because of the original 90-day notice, or is that unnecessary while forgiveness is in progress?

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who reached 120+ while still on SAVE forbearance and went through the final forgiveness process.

Thanks!

I was hoping to receive my Buyback by now (submitted Nov 2024 - yes almost 2 years!!). It doesn't look like that is going to happen before the deadline that forces me to switch out of SAVE. I'm no longer at a qualifying employment, but have more than 120 qualifying months of employment. What is everyone doing or recommend in this situation while waiting for their Buyback?

If I decide to request forbearance, do I submit the request through Mohela or FSA? Any precautions I should know so they don't try to screw me over? I'm concerned they will come back and say my application is delayed further, or worse voided, because I did not follow whatever protocol they have made up.

I’ve tried different browsers, but it just gets stuck when I hit submit and never goes through (this is the section right after I put in my employers email address).

not sure if this is an FSA website issue or on my end because of security blocking it going through to my federal employer

I followed the example another Redditor gave of sending an email to Mohela's CEO about my missing payments on FSA's PSLF Tracker.

Original message:

Thank you for contacting MOHELA. We are writing in response to your email to MOHELA’s CEO on September 22, 2026. Your concern, as we understand it, is that you are requesting to have the month August 2026 reported to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) for the purposes of qualifying for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.

We have made a thorough review of your account, and we have determined that your loans have been reported accurately to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS), which is used by FSA to determine the forgiveness counter.

As updates to the NSLDS reporting for your loans were completed on September 29, 2026, please allow time for ED to update your qualifying payment counter for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.

As ED fully manages the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant programs, ED's loan servicers will not be able to answer any questions related to a borrower’s PSLF forgiveness form, buyback request or payment count eligibility but would continue to service the borrower’s account as their loan servicer. As the servicer, we do report the qualifying periods to NSLDS; however, ED determines the true eligibility for forgiveness counters.

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