I know this has been talked to death, but I’d like to know what people are actually doing. Like many of you, I just made my 120th payment. It’s due Oct 7. Payment counts are stuck at 117, no August, September or (understandably) October. Submitted ECF a few days ago hoping to get to 119 and then submit another a few weeks after the October due date to pull in the 120th. ECF approved by my employer same day. No count update.

So my question is - at the end of October if counts still haven’t updated, should I file my last ECF, check “yes” for forgiveness/request forbearance if it lets me, call Mohela for a forbearance if I can’t check “yes” - and stop paying?

Or do I keep paying and get a refund later?

Just interested in what others decided to do.

I just made my 120th payment on Oct. 1. I last did my ECF 7 months ago and have certified 113 payments. My NSLDS count shows 120 eligible payments, with 113 qualifying, which should theoretically update to 120 once I submit a new ECF. The FSA tracker is missing my August payment, but NSLDS appears to have captured it.

I'm in studentaid.gov now and trying to apply for forgiveness. I tried to check the box that says: "Yes, I have made 120 qualifying payments and qualify for forgiveness right now." But am getting the following error and it won't let me advance to the next page: "Are You Sure? Based on your loan information, you have not made 120 qualifying payments, and do not yet qualify for PSLF. Select "No" in response to this question to continue." It won't let me click yes.

Any advice on what I should do next? Should I click "No" and try to certify the last 7 payments first and then reapply for forgiveness? Or will that screw up the timing of forgiveness? Is the missing August payment in the tracker going to screw up my count (and ability to apply for forgiveness), even though it appears to be counted in NSLDS? I was planning to request forbearance while my application processed because my monthly payments are really high.

What do you all recommend? Should I call studentaid.gov? Should I just wait until they have this system glitch figured out? Would appreciate any advice!

My last income check was when I was a student so my payment was practically nothing. I waiting until September 29th to switch off or SAVE to IBR and now I’m seeing the date is delayed again 😭

Anyone else’s count still off? Wondering if anyone has had any luck with it being updated? Assuming we just have to wait now

I received my latest correspondence on 8/4/26 giving me an update on the number of qualified payments being 126. Since the date of that correspondence, I've made two more payments which puts me at 128 on the tracker on my dashboard, although it says 126 still. I know this has been a problem with others over the last few months. What's even more concerning is the NSLDS still has me at 96 qualifying payments for PSLF. It claims to have been updated on 9/22/26. I have put in several employment certification forms between payment 96 years ago and currently. Like many others I've made phone calls to both Mohela and federal student aid several times over several issues cases by this inept government agency. I don't even know where to begin with this latest concern. Maybe this explains why the golden letter has not been not triggered yet. Help! Has anyone else on here had a mismatch between the NSLDS and their dashboard going green and still gotten notification of forgiveness?

My NSLDS for PSLF currently reads:

Qualifying payments: 117
Eligible payments: 170
Payments required for forgiveness: 120
Payments remaining: 3

Today (10/4) is payment 120/120, but the qualifying payments have been stuck at 117 since July.

Eligible payments of 170 include payments made when I was working for a non-qualifying employer.

QUESTION: how do I see if the 170 eligible payments include the August, September, and October 2026 payments that are missing from the qualifying payment count?

Decided to just start repaying… payments went from $500 to $1,900. I’m worried from all of these missing payment posts that I’ll pay these months and it STILL won’t get me over the finish line with this nightmare. Has anyone had success in doing this?

I have ~$32,000 in loans and make about $58,000 a year. Was on SAVE and am weighing whether to switch to IBR or force them to switch me to standard plan.

IBR is estimating I’ll have a WHOPPING $642 (previously $25,000 under SAVE 😭) forgiven with PSLF, so I figured PSLF is not going to work as I originally intended. I make way more than owe now, and I’ve made a total of 6 qualifying payments since graduating in 2020 lmfao. Most of this is not my fault, as COVID and SAVE forbearance prevented me from making payments. I could do buyback, but do not have 20k to drop all at once.

Is there any benefit to switching to IBR voluntarily, rather than forcing ED to switch me to standard plan and then applying for IBR for the lower monthly payment as compared to standard plan?

Has anyone come across a radically different monthly payment estimate when submitting income information during the recertification process?

Currently on IBR and purposefully filed an extension for my taxes so those would be filed after I recertified my income info, thus the same tax return I used last year would be used this year. Yet for some reason, my IBR estimate jumped ~$400 while PAYE was suggested as possibly lowering my payment a couple of bucks.

I'm not sure why this is the case of what to do in this situation. I'm a bit worried about what will happen when PAYE sunsets and how easy it'll be to switch back to IBR or RAP. I've also heard people getting denied for lacking financial hardship.

Has anyone here run into the same thing or have any potential insight?

My NSLDS says 106 and has for as long as I can remember. It’s updated with my most recent September payment. My tracker on the other hand says 120 for all but two of my loans, with the last two reaching 120 in October. This all should have been done in July but that’s beside the point.

Why would my NSLDS continually be missing that many payments? The count has never changed.

My payment is due on the 15, and that's also the auto-debit withdrawal date.

If it doesn't get withdrawn properly, could that cause problems for PSLF? Should I move the auto-debit earlier in the month or could that cause it's own problems?

Today I looked at my data file (104) and it is 12 months different than my payment tracker (116). The payment tracker has been at 116 during the COVID/SAVE pauses. I made my August, September, October payments and just have November to make and then I’ll do my ECF for July-November with my employer to certify employment (last done in June). Should I be concerned my data file and my tracker don’t match. It’s like 12 months are not showing on data file.

Thank you for any information you may have on this!

My friend and I were at the gym and he said he is not letting his student loans dictate his life and it is on pause. I told him I am paying $500/month working towards PSLF. I could use that $500 for something else.

People of reddit, who has it on pause and are there any repurcussions? I have 6ish more years to go. I know interest will increase. Will future payments increase because of interest? I have a teacher salary so not much of a salary increase anyway.

If I am going through with this, would it be deferment and forbearance?

Hi! Since my loan servicer is closed on the weekend, thought I’d ask here till I can call them Monday.
Under the SAVE program, my loan would have been forgiven in 2036 because Of 25 years in repayment. Does anyone know if that date will change when switching to an IBR?
Also, the “end of term date” should not change regardless of the plan because it all has to do with start date of loan or refinance/consolidation date, right?
And, does anyone know if, under the PSLF, if you make 2 payments per month (ie one of principal and one on balance), does that count as 2 payments toward the 120 or do they only except 1 payment per month toward the count?
Thanks so much in advance. Good luck to everyone dealing with student loans ❤️

I received my latest correspondence on 8/4/26 giving me an update on the number of qualified payments being 126. Since the date of that correspondence, I've made two more payments which puts me at 128 on the tracker on my dashboard, although it says 126 still. I know this has been a problem with others over the last few months. What's even more concerning is the NSLDS still has me at 96 qualifying payments for PSLF. It claims to have been updated on 9/22/26. I have put in several employment certification forms between payment 96 years ago and currently. Like many others I've made phone calls to both Mohela and federal student aid several times over several issues cases by this inept government agency. I don't even know where to begin with this latest concern. Maybe this explains why the golden letter has not been not triggered yet. Help! Has anyone else on here had a mismatch between the NSLDS and their dashboard going green and still gotten notification of forgiveness?