I haven’t seen anything posted here but there was a bill introduced in April proposing changing payments from 120 to 96 and many other positive changes for PSLF. It may be known as “Strengthening Efforts for Relief and Vital Incentives for Community Service and Engagement Act” or the “SERVICE Act”(H.R. 2829).

You can read more about it here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/2829/text

My son is currently a freshman, I took out PPL for him for this year. I plan to consolidate them with my other 2 children’s PPL in the Spring and get on an ICR plan. After this, my husband will take out any PPL needed for the remaining 3 years. Will he have the 20k a year CAP, since my son will have had previous PPL?

Hi folks,

I applied for teacher loan forgiveness in July (I finished year 5 in May but it took awhile for HR to send back my CAO certification because it had to go up the chain several people).

I finally heard back from Nelnet by /mail/ this week and I was expecting to need to do several corrections. The CAO at the previous school I taught at did not include their job title on the form and they asked for verification of grade levels taught on school/district letterhead. Louisiana has K-8 schools so I understand the request.

The letter also explicitly said that the department of education does not consider 6th grade to be secondary education and I cried. I have been over the application, the TLF Application webpage, and so much more for years to know exact definitions and no where in the application does it say 6th grade doesn’t count as secondary education. It just says that the definition is up to the state/education authority and if not defined by them it is up to the department.

I promise, we consider 6th grade middle school.

I taught 1 year of 6th grade math but have otherwise taught 8th grade math. I took the 6th job thinking it would count towards my $17,500 of loan forgiveness. I know I can just wait until the end of this school year and reapply since this year will be my 5th teaching 8th grade, but has anyone been in this situation before? Is it worth appealing? Is there anyone who got the $17,500 teaching 6th grade?

I really want forgiveness sooner rather than later. There’s the very real possibility the new administration will not extend Biden era legislation that made PSLF and TLF tax free income and that sort of tax bomb would just really hurt.

I’ve asked HR for a letter verifying the grades I’ve taught and asserting both are considered secondary education. I think I want to try but feeling a bit frustrated. I know HR will take weeks and then Nelnet will take more time.

Hi everyone, I am new to reddit!

I (22 year old female) am in a tricky position. I am a student in college (going into my second year), and I am worried about student debt, but my parents won't listen to my concerns. To give you some context, my mom is very strict on the belief that I'll only be successful with a degree in my life. However, she isn't concerned on the fact that I'll be in student debt by the time I graduate (the only way we have been paying for school so far is with student loans), and considering how the job market is currently, and how many people are still struggling to land a stable job, even years after they graduate, I am wanting to drop out. I never wanted to attend a four year university in the first place, due to expenses.

I had actually expressed interest in wanting to go to beauty school since I have a good talent for nails and want to grow my skills there, but my mom had told me that I'd be going backwards if I go down that path, and won't be successful in life if I don't obtain a degree. She thinks the loans we've been taking out is a good thing since she thinks I'll have a successful career right after I graduate, and says that my stepdad was able to get loan forgiveness and has little left to pay back. But that was only because he's a teacher and was able to qualify for loan forgiveness, and I'm not going into a career that can qualify me for loan forgiveness, hence I still would need to pay everything back and I don't want to be drowning in debt because of it. Here's where things get more complicated. My mother had it set that since I am attending a four year university, I don't have to pay for rent at home, and that if I drop out because I don't want to go into debt, then I need to start paying for rent.

It gets more complicated since I am my elderly grandma's primary caregiver and we recently applied for government assistance, therefore, I'd be getting paid to care for my grandma, which is why I haven't applied for jobs in the meantime since grandma is my main priority. I really could use some advice on what to do here. No matter how hard I try to explain, my mom still won't budge, and I am at my breaking point.

I'm presently looking at schools with my oldest who will graduate in '27. I've my own federal student loans which are in SAVE and I haven't made a payment on these since 2020. I'm not seeing a path to college for my kid without me taking on more debt.

How does this work? Am I looking at Parent Plus or private loans? Do my federal loans experience a differment if I take new Parent Plus loans while the kid is in school? Is my kid 100% on their own?

Is there anyone out there who has actually consulted an attorney, or any attorneys who can weigh in on the feasibility to sue to stop the interest resuming on the SAVE plan for those of us who had to consolidate to get on the save plan and capitalize a large amount of outstanding interest in order to do so?

We were promised the interest would be subsidized on SAVE if our payment didn't cover the interest. Now that interest has resumed on forbearance, and there is no plan we can move to that will subsidize it, we are being forced to pay interest on the capitalized interest that we never should have had to capitalize in the first place.

I would think at a minimum, if they are taking the SAVE benefits away, we should be able to "unconsolidate" and our loans be put back where they were before they were put on the SAVE plan. Alternatively, they should not be charging interest until we have another subsidized interest plan to move to.

What are the chances of getting some sort of relief based on the detrimental reliance on the terms of the SAVE plan that was later removed from us? My loans are now adding $1200 per month in interest because I had to capitalize a huge amount to get on SAVE. There is no way I can keep up with this financially.

I am a 23F in med school, residing in a high-cost-of-living city with my parents (thank God). I usually pay for internet, all streaming services, and groceries once a month since we do weekly grocery runs. I am still paying off my car loan which has $5k left as well as insurance, which is about $175. Because of med school I had to stop working completely this month and my parents are paying for everything, which I absolutely hate.

I received my first refund; however, I think it might be more than what I actually need since I do not pay rent, electric, etc. I know I can return the amount after a number of days, but how do I know how much I actually need? My school advised me to take the max amount and then return whatever is extra. What do people take into account when it comes to calculating everything? Am I allowed to use the money for things like streaming services and wifi? Can I pay off my car?

Please let me know! TIA

Edit: And I mean GradPlus loans. The unsubsidized and part of GradPlus covered tuition and fees, so I cannot return it completely or else I would not be enrolled in school.

As per the title, I have $197k in loans. All federal. 25ish from undergrad at 3-4%. Law school are 6-8% with one being 9%. I have never made a payment, and I am not required to do so until December because I just graduated in May.

Using the calculator with my entry level income (110k) if I pay 2100 a month I will be done in 10 years. If I’m on IBR it says they will be a 770 a month payment for 25 years.

Now, from what I understand, I will still have a huge balance (270ish) after the 25 years, which would be forgiven and treated as taxable income.

Thus, I have two options. Live frugally for 10 years and make these large payments, and have no headache. But it also seems like it could be a good option to pay on IBR, and contribute a little extra money on top of that each month as well as saving money in a brokerage account on the side which, after 25 years, should be a sizable sum.

I’ve seen people on this sub talk of these options before, but I wanted to know if there was any advice particular to my situation. Thank you!

Long story short, I was considering enrolling in a program for the fall but then pushed it back to spring due to others' influence. But it's gotten to a point in my neighborhood where it's dangerous and even I got into an altercation last night.

I know there's good and bad everywhere and it's not about me running scared I had to deal with Philly all my life, but dealing with almost no sleep and also ghetto behavior while working two jobs and thinking of studying out here is not it. And dealing with a mother who just relapsed. I don't have anyone else really. I've always been on my own. Would it be possible to just go ahead and enroll now and see about a small loan of $5,000 for an apartment or so just to get me off my feet and for classes in the spring in January? I'm planning on moving towards the college I will be attending in a somewhat safer neighborhood. Any advice is welcome. As I mentioned I work two jobs

I just need to figure something out as soon as possible.

Hi,

So I have been trying to get into a local welding school “Missouri Welding Institute” and I have had a lot of struggles. I already went to the school and saved a date for November and in the mean time I’m able to find a way to fund my schooling as long as I’m able to pay it all in full on the first day.

The schools lender is usually Sallie Mae, I tried applying at first by myself (I have a decent credit score) but they declined me due to not having income at the time (I was between jobs) and they said I could try a co-signer to get it so I tried again with my sister and they declined me… then I tried with my uncle they declined me. So I worked hard for a couple of months, got a new credit card and brought up my credit even more and decided to reapply by myself again since I have no more family that could be a co-signer for me, and I got declined this time due to past student loans that are currently deferred through fafsa.

The schools lender cost is $23,000 and I was going to try and pay for most of my housing through my own savings.

My family said I could put up our family classic car as collateral on a private loan but I’m worried about trying to pay a private loan like that cause Sallie Mae offered a deferment period where I could have time after school to get a job before I started paying. And paying a heavy loan payment would be very hard through school on top of everything else. And that is even if I were able to get accepted for a private loan.

I feel like I don’t have resources, and no one to help me through this, and all I want to do is go to this school to build a career. It’s the closest school to me so I can still see my family and for cost to what you receive educationally ratio is best in my opinion.

I don’t know if there are any other ways for me to get the Money to go this school, if any body has any advice they could give me it would be greatly appreciated!

I need help. Does the unpaid interest I accrue under save ($500 a month) get added onto the principal balance of my loan at the end of forbearance (thus increasing my interest and payments at the end of forbearance) or is it monthly/daily (which will cause me to snowball)?

Paid off my student loans a month ago but decided to leave 13$ left for longer credit history and stuff, but saw today they paid it off and labelled it as an “adjustment”. Wonder what is the most we can leave before they think it is too much.

1-01 Direct Loan - Subsidized $3,275.58 at 4.530%

1-02 Direct Loan - Unsubsidized $1,813.10 at 4.530%

1-03 Direct Loan - Subsidized $4,520.32 at 2.750%

1-04 Direct Loan - Unsubsidized $2,020.48 at 2.750%

Total as of today: $11,629.48

The above are my current loans, I honestly have been trying to do the math myself but that's really not my strength. Based on these numbers if I pay about $200 a month and maybe some more with leftovers at the end of the month, would this be paying into a large portion of my principle every month? I really want to get these loans over with as I'm lucky to have a lower than average amount of student loans. Please help, thank you.

Edit: formatting idk why it came out weird.

I have $107,382 in federal loans with an average of 6.02% interest, currently in SAVE forbearance. I calculated that my monthly interest is about $538. However, Nelnet states that from August 1, 2025 until now, $673.74 of interest has accrued. Before August, I had paid off all of my accrued interest, then it started accruing again on August 1. Is Nelnet tacking on extra fees that I am not aware of? Is there another possible reason why our numbers don't match? How should I handle this situation? Thank you!

I fear I’m not asking this correctly bc I can’t find the answer. Right now I qualify for $0 payments on the new IBR plan if I switch. Things are in flux now due to health issues so my income is very low. If my income increases considerably in a few years, do the payments just get calculated from then on - or will I need to pay any extra penalties bc I got a few years of subsidized payments due to my low income?

I graduated 1.5 yrs ago & since then I have been living WELL below my means w/ the goal of paying off my ~$51,800 in student loans ASAP. Currently I have saved ~$30,000 to go towards my loans but my financial illiteracy & fear of making the wrong choice has left me frozen & unable to make a decision for the past few months, allowing my loans to just accrue more interest. In total I have 6 loans (4 federal w/ variable interest rates & 2 private w/ fixed rates) & I while I'm confident I'll be able to pay them all off in the next year, I'm not sure where to start.

Additional Loan Info:

(Previously the interest rates for Federal 1 & 2 were 5% & 3 & 4 were 5.5%)

So I have gotten a couple calls from Nelnet that I never answered. They left voicemails saying my full name and everything and that I need to give them a call and take “immediate action”. I never answered because I honestly didn’t even know what nelnet was! Then I get something in the mail saying I owe $6000 in student loans??? I have NEVER used them for loans. My student loans were through Sallie Mae and they’ve been paid off for years!

But when I go to call their customer service number now I literally can’t talk to someone without putting in my nelnet id (which I don’t have) or a ssn, which tbh I don’t really want to give them.

Please if anyone can help I’ve been freaking out a little and don’t know what to do

Edit: so I figured out what happened. Looks like this is a long lost loan that I’ll have to pay off. Thanks for those who helped me!

I’m just trying to get a sense of what other people are going through, and if I’m missing any steps. I have no idea what I should be doing at this point.

I have a little over 11K in student loans (under my name - my parents took out loans as well, but that’s another problem). I am about 2 years away from PSLF (I’m a teacher going into my 12th year - all my loans are from undergrad, but I wasn’t paying them during the 2 years I was in grad school). My IDR plan was set to expire at the end of June, so I reapplied at the beginning of June. Since I had just paid off one of the smaller loans, and my income hadn’t really changed, my expected payment was listed as about $30 cheaper. My loans went into forbearance as I waited for my application to officially process.

The “payment due date” listed on my loan servicer (EdFinancial) has been pushed so many times! Yesterday, there was finally an email sent saying my next due date would be in October. I was excited to start making payments, and therefore progress on my PSLF, again. Then today I got an email saying the loans are once again in forbearance! My application still hasn’t been processed. I checked, and the October due date has disappeared. My loans appear to be accruing interest, but the amounts due are all listed as “$0”.

I’m very stressed out, and not sure what to do. I could continue to make monthly payments (that don’t count towards PSLF and barely cover the interest), or I could wait it out. I’m worried about messing up my PSLF plan, as EdFinancial claims any payments paid now will be applied to future bills - I don’t know if that means my future payments won’t count towards PSLF either?

Are other people in this situation? Do I need to apply again? Should I pay or wait it out? I feel so lost.

I’m 25f and have a bachelors and masters degree. I currently have $122k in student loan debt and am not yet in the repayment phase since I just graduated in May. I’m currently in my first entry level role earning $65k/year before tax. I have 17 loan accounts open at the moment, which are a mix of subsidized and unsubsidized and PLUS loans through FAFSA, and my loan servicer is Mohela. Having 17 different accounts open is making it hard for me to figure out what the best route to repayment is, as they all have different interest rates and balances. Currently I’m enrolled in the PAYE plan. Would really appreciate any advice on how to tackle these loans. Waiting 20 years for forgiveness feels so risky because I know interest will make my balance skyrocket and I really don’t want that hanging over my head. But I’m also not earning enough right now to start chipping away at it. I’ve considered refinancing through Navy Federal but don’t know if that’s the right move either.

Wondering if anyone has successfully transferred their service to a private practice in their area. Currently in community mental health and my soul is slowly dying. From my understanding it sounds like I would probably have to pause my service time, build a private practice and get credentialed with all the necessary things, submit to be an approved site, get accepted, THEN restart my forgiveness.

I also have a friend who is starting a private practice and is open to making it a group practice that I could transfer to. This would be a lot easier, because I wouldn’t have to have a gap in my service. But assuming we’d still have to go through the approved site application.

Any info from anyone who’s done this would be greatly appreciated!!

Edit: I’ve since learned that my loans would count toward old-IBR (started taking them out pre-July 2014), so I would need to make 300 payments instead of 240 and it would be 15% of my income instead of 10%. With that in mind and my goal being forgiveness, it seems best to resume payments now to start moving toward forgiveness and switch to PAYE (10% of income payments) until it ends in 2028, and then in 2028, switch to old-IBR vs. RAP for my specific situation. —————————

Hello, I did my best to scan past posts but couldn’t find anything specific to my situation (correct me if I’m wrong). I appreciate any advice or information. My main goal is pay as little as possible over the lifetime of my loan (by means of forgiveness and tax bomb), while keeping my monthly payment as reasonable as possible (I have low expenses, single, no dependents).

I have $321k in mostly grad school loans (consolidated in 2018 w undergrad loans, $308k principle, $13k accrued interest, 6.0% interest rate) with MOHELA, currently on SAVE. Undergrad loans were 2009-2013, grad loans were 2013-2017. I am not doing PSLF (was initially, but life happened and no longer working for a PSLF qualifying job).

Context: I graduated from graduate school in 2017 and started making monthly payments on my loans in 12/2017 as a resident physician. The timing of all these changes with payment plans and forbearance made it so I had been locked into a payment of $295 based on my resident salary when SAVE forbearance began, even though I graduated in 2021 and have had an attending salary (~$220k) since 07/2021. Essentially, my higher salary had yet to affect my monthly payment amount.

I haven’t been making payments since the SAVE forbearance started. Ideally, I would have liked to continue making the $295 monthly qualifying payments toward eventual forgiveness since eventually my monthly payment will go up significantly, and I could get much cheaper qualifying payments. But it’s my understanding that even if I continued making these payments during forbearance, it wouldn’t count toward my qualifying payments toward IBR forgiveness.

My next IDR recertification date is 9/15/2026.

As I see it, my top options are:

1) sit in SAVE, do nothing for now: not make payments, not progress toward forgiveness, have interest accrue, try to set aside money in a HYSA or make payments on interest (which feels like throwing money into the ether). It says my estimated payoff date would be 9/15/2026?

2) switch to IBR sooner rather than later: resume making payments, my monthly payment would increase ($1653), but I would start making progress toward forgiveness

Are there other options or something else I haven’t considered? Perhaps I don’t understand options 1 and 2 properly? It seems like I want to avoid getting into RAP and that IBR would be better for me. Are there any kind of non-PSLF “buyback” options that would allow me to retroactively pay forbearance payments at my $295 rate to count toward my overall qualifying payments? (For instance, could I pay back 10 months’ worth of forbearance payments for $2950 and count that toward my IBR forgiveness date so I don’t have to make 10 payments adjusted for my now higher salary?)

I’m getting closer to resigning myself that I will never pay these off, or that maybe I’ll have them forgiven and be hit with a nasty tax bomb. But I want to make sure I can do what I can now to avoid worsening my situation. I already regret taking out these loans in the first place and would hate to regret a decision made during this tumultuous and uncertain time.

Thank you,

These are federal loans - not from a private company or anything. Just wondering if anyone else has come across this issue before. They've submitted some form to escalate my issue as none of the analysts around on Saturday were able to figure out what went wrong 😂. Here's what happened.

I track all of my loans on a spreadsheet and could tell you how much interest was due any month, any payments made to my loans etc. I pay by group each month, with plenty of excess to reduce the principal a good chunk. Every time I log in to pay my loans, the only unpaid interest accrued is the amount that accrues between my previous payment and the next month I pay.

Anyway, using round numbers here for ease, I have one of my big loans that accrues around $120 in interest each month. I log in to my account and that loan suddenly has $1100 in interest accrued. I call Nelnet and they can't tell me why this happened. The person I spoke with was pretty puzzled. I have never encountered this happening before and they saw no reason why this would happened. They couldn't tell my what either. This loan was operating like normal in the past, and the principal even decreased (as expected) compared to last month when I paid.

The only "new" thing to happen on my account is that I did end up paying off one of my loans in August. But I don't see how that would throw a wrench in anything.

Has this happened to anyone before? Did you get it resolved easily?

Has anyone put money into a 457 (or something else) in order to lower AGI to lower monthly student loan payments under an IDR plan? I had a pretty significant change in income (higher income) and my monthly payment went up $500. I like everyone have other bills and financial responsibilities and just because I make more now at my job doesn't mean I can afford a way higher monthly payment that will keep going up each time I re-certify because my new job is doing yearly raises so looking for people who went the route of putting money into some form of a retirement account to see if that made a difference with their monthly student loan payment. I have a mandatory 401a account that I have to put money but my job has an optional 457 plan that do not put money in right now but trying to see if that would make sense two fold: obviously for retirement but also to cut down on student loan payments that are going to keep going up because I'm going to get a raise again at the end of the year. I am about 6 years into PSLF and have roughly 4 more to go. Any advice is highly appreciated!

I pay $511 a month for my parent plus loan right now, not including what I’ll have to start paying on my regular undergrad loans when they start making me pay that. I’ve been paying for two years and owe the exact same amount (I can’t pay more than the $500 per month). Should I just take 6 college credits in whatever every semester? Or since they give you six months grace, could I take those two classes, take a six month break and start classes again in the fall? I’m assuming it would be way cheaper and not seeing them go down after paying around $12,000 is so discouraging. Can I just take random classes or do I have to get a degree? I could work toward getting my MSN but I don’t want to end up taking additional loans I just think I’d be paying less if I do this. Thoughts? Is it something that can be continuously done? I would have so much more money to afford living I think. Thanks everyone for input.

I'm trying to find information on the median debt load for a bachelors degree. I keep seeing numbers around $30,000 and that seems ridiculously low to me. Is 4 years of college really that cheap? Am I missing something?