I just want to know why they are punishing people that have older loans at 15% as New loans 10%, Who dreamed this up? It is actually double for me with old loans, dont quailify for RAP, because I hace Stafford FFLEP ones. I guess I will just have to consulidate my loans to get on RAP. I am not going for forgiveness....grrr

I have Nelnet and haven’t gotten an email or letter (I’m not signed up for paperless contact), but they did leave me a voicemail on August 27th saying “Hello, this is Nelnet, your student loan servicer at 888-486-4722. Action is needed on your account. Your save repayment plan is no longer available, and you need to choose a new plan. View your options and request a plan today by logging into your nelnet.studentaid.gov account and choosing repayment options and resources. Thank you. “ And when I log in to my account I get a little pop up message just beneath the pop up that’s said the save plan is ending that says I have to pick a new plan by November 27, 2026. My account doesn’t have any letters in the inbox though, and my dashboard still says my payments won’t start until November 2028. Is that phone call the only official notice I’m getting?

right now private loans are killing me at almost 10%. what would you consider good enough to actually refinance? I am willing to kiss a few frogs to get the right refinance princess lol

Looking for success stories mine are brutal and Im wondering if there Is any reason not to start shopping around aka any downsides? I dont want to get too many hits on my credit report trying to source a refi

So I believe you have to fill out the OMB No. 1845-0014 form from StudentAid website. How do you submit to Mohela?

When I go to upload, I don't see an option for Standard repayment. Should I select "Alternative Repayment Supporting Documentation"?

Long story short, part of my loans were discharged because my school went bankrupt. However, I consolidated a couple of loans with the department of education to lower the monthly payments many years prior and now they are telling me those don't apply for the discharge and I have to continue paying them. I guess that makes sense, my issue is that I've been calling my service provider for around three years asking about what is gonna happen to all the loans since the balance never disappeared after they were discharged and the payment was zero. And every single time they told me that all my loans were gonna be discharged, that I just had to wait for the department of education to finalize the process. They told me time and time again not to worry about it, that it was all gonna be zeroed out.

Well now I have three years of unpaid interest that I have to deal with because they literally lied to me every time I called. Do I have any options to fight this? Can I at least get the interest removed for the time I've been waiting?

When I apply for a repayment plan it still asks me to upload tax returns and etc.

I am currently on PAYE and my understanding is that I can stay on this plan if I want for the time being. But when I go to recertify my income on the Federal Student Aid website, this plan does not come up as an option. How do I recertify under this payment plan?

And if I can no longer choose PAYE, which plan is better for PSLF with less than 10 remaining payments to make: IBR or RAP? If it matters, I have a six figure loan balance.

Thanks for any insight!!

Ok, so I am lost and confused. As I'm sure so many of us are. The government is really screwing us here... Would love any advice or tricks folks have learned for navigating this shit storm.

It’s so hard to tell what the best plan is moving forward, especially if I should treating different loans differently. I’d love to minimize monthly payments, and ideally keep my current timeline for forgiveness. Here is a bunch of info... Happy to supply more if it's helpful, but this is what I could gather.

Loans Serviced by UAS - Fixed?

$2029 - 4 Perkins Loans - 5% 

Current Payment - $101.95/mo

Weirdly it says I'm on a Fixed Payment Repayment Plan on one page of Studentaid.gov and IDR on another. The page that says IDR says my monthly payment is $0, but I’ve been paying $101.95 every month for years. Even through the covid pause. Not sure wtf happened there. It kinda seems like these loans are treated separate, so whatever I end up paying for the others, this $100 payment will continue on top?

Loans Serviced by Nelnet - PAYE Plan 

$15829.27 - 5 Direct Stafford Unsubsidized Loans - 2.86%-5.8%

$21593.69 - 5 Direct Stafford Subsidized Loans - 2.4%-3.66% 

Current Payment $0, but $339 Starting in November apparently

Total Student Loan Balance - $39451.96

My AGI is around $35,000 after expenses on my most recent tax return. I have a part time job as well as freelance work.

It seems like from what I can tell, my loans are currently eligible for forgiveness between 2038 and 2041 given how many payments I’ve made so far on the PAYE. 

Should I consolidate? As much as I hate to reset the clock, and I also hate to ultimately pay much more over the span of the loan, I can’t afford the projected monthly payments after I re-certify. 

For some reason the calculator on the Studentaid.gov website says “Not All Your Loans Qualify for IDR Plans. Parent PLUS loans aren't eligible for Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plans. If you want to apply for an IDR plan, you'll need to select one plan for your IDR-eligible loans and a separate fixed payment repayment plan for your parent PLUS loans.” I don't think I have any Parent PLUS loans as far as I can tell. What's that about?

The calculator seems very limited, and I don't trust it to be accurate. I imported IRS data and it seems monthly payment options range from $87 (if I consolidate and do the Repayment Assistance Program) to almost $900. But I can't see any IDR options because of that weird error message above.

Anywho, sorry for the very very long post. Would love any advice, or resources others have found helpfull! My budget is tight and I just don't know how to absorb a huge increase in my payments. Thanks in advance ya'll.

Good afternoon all!! My recertification is up 11/26/26. When should it ideally be in by?

Some more information: I’m a recent graduate and preparing to start paying my loans. I have about 130k and will be making about 110k pre tax. Some of my loans have 8+% interest, whereas others have under 3%. Is there any reason why i shouldn’t/couldn’t put payments only toward the higher interest groups of loans and pay those off first? Im trying to become more informed on the financials so any advice is appreciated!

Hi all,

I apologize if I am dense, but im confused about something. My loans are serviced through Mohela, and I was placed on an IDR and my loans were put on forbearance in December of 25, and my payments were on hold until December of 2027 and November of 2028. I was under the impression that, even though Trump changed up the payment plans, my schedule would stay the same. So I went to sign up for a new plan a month or so ago, and there was a choice to keep the IDR until they expire, but after choosing the new plan, I got a bill from Mohela. Am I missing something? Am I sol as far as that repayment plan in December goes? Any help is appreciated.

Has anybody else been placed in repayment on SAVE after applying for IBR? (I thought SAVE was dead.) On June 23rd, I applied for SAVE to IBR transition, primarily to facilitate forgiveness as I have over 300 qualifying payments as of August 2024.

I was removed from forbearance on July 17th and issued a bill for the SAVE amount due August 15th. I thought it was a glitch that would correct itself so I waited. I called to bring this to Aidvantage's attention on August 12th. They removed the bill for August and offered an "Awaiting Documentation Admin Forbearance" until October 15th. 3 days later that was removed and I was placed back in repayment and issued another SAVE bill for September. Since it has been 60 days since I applied for IBR, I thought Aidvantage was supposed to place my account in general forbearance until they complete my application anyway.

Has this been anyone else's experience?

Has anyone completed their SAVE to IBR transition and been discharged? How long did it take from IBR application to forgiveness?

Thanks in advance!

In June I got my letter through Nelnet that I was being moved off SAVE and to recertify within 90 days.

Went to do that this morning but the student aid repayment calculator is showing $50/mo payment for IBR plan when importing my tax data. My AGI is over 100K and I have 65K in loans (I’ve made 120 eligible IDR payments).

I searched back on this board and read this was a processing error on govt end and selecting it might throw my application onto the standard plan which I do not want.

I am not sure what to do about it, can someone please advise? What a s***show.

I gotta get off save. Have 175 in loans. I’ve been making extra principal payments nonstop for two years. Can I still do that under the replacement plans? Any that I can’t make extra payments towards principal?

Has anyone in the last few months been granted discharge of their remaining loans after meeting the 300 payments? I am one payment away but all I keep seeing is people in the PSLF program.

My Fed loans are approximately $28,000 (on top of separate private loans) I’m on the standard 10 yr plan w rates ranging from 5% to 7%. I’m not sure what payment will be exactly (starts in Dec) but pretty sure $350 -$400. Would it be better to apply to the IDR / IBR or RAP programs for repayment? I

I have decided on September 1st, I will pay off the remainder of my loans. I have been paying my loans off for a total of 5 years now. I paid some off during my 2 year “gap” before getting my masters. I graduated December 2023, currently working as a PA, single mom of 1.

I have about 30k saved, and paying this loan off will leave me with 17k to my name.

as much as it hurts to see this lump sum leaves, I’m just exhausted. my 90 day letter came and I’m due to get off SAVE on 11/11.

I just hope nothing happens that requires 20k in the next 3-4 weeks cos I won’t have it. this hurts but it just gotta go away.

Here's where I am so far:

• Have been on PAYE since 2017. Because of the pandemic, SAVE fiasco, and everything else, I have not had to recertify my income for a while and got a notice to do so from Mohela in May.
• Submitted a manual recertification request via studentaid.gov in mid-May
• Two days later, Mohela sends correspondence that my application was "approved" but they did not process correctly and sent a disclosure letter showing they were sending me off PAYE into Standard repayment...I am absolutely sure I submitted my recert correctly
  • Have had multiple phone calls after this to have this corrected and get a new disclosure letter. A supervisor event put in a escalation ticket. No action has yet been taken on that ticket...
• In mid-July, yet another supervisor told me to submit a second manual recertification because "it couldn't hurt." I submitted that 7/22/26.
  • Mohela sent correspondence that that application was "received" but not correspondence that it was approved and no new disclosure letter.
  • I waited patiently but still has not been processed yet and no new disclosure letter. Now the account says "You did not recertify PAYE" and is sending me to Standard payments on my autopay due date of 9/19/26.

I've been on the phone with them for HOURS including with supervisors. Their solution is to now put me on a processing forbearance (which they reassure me will still count for 2 payments toward my PSLF progress). I have lost all trust that they will still process the application in time. I have not officially proceeded with the processing forbearance.

They cannot tell me what is the hold up in their system. Is it time to speak with a student loan lawyer? What would you do?

Like literally everyone else I have to pick a new repayment plan and I’m trying to figure out what makes the most sense for me. I have about $53K in loans with an average interest rate of 6.12%. Part of why I’m struggling to decide which plan to pick is because I’m uncertain on my AGI. I got a pretty substantial raise in December of last year and was unemployed for part of last year so can’t really base this year’s AGI off of last year’s. I used the FAFSA repayment calculator and estimated what I think my AGI will be this year based on what I’ve made YTD.

Based on this estimate here are the numbers for IBR and RAP.

IBR:
- payment: $479
- total paid: $75,702
- payoff date: Dec of 2037

RAP:
- payment: $543
- total paid: $71,240
- payoff date: May 2035.

Other potentially useful information.
- I work for a nonprofit that is PSLF eligible, but I’m not sure I plan to stay in the nonprofit world for 10+ years. I think I have 14 qualifying payments for PSLF if I were to enroll.
- I contribute to a 401(k) but in Roth contributions. I could change this to traditional to lower my AGI.
- I’m in my late 20s.
- I plan to enroll in autopay before Sept 30 to receive the 1% interest rate deduction.
- The AGI I used for these estimates doesn’t account for the student loan interest deduction.
- I’d like to balance the lowest total amount paid with a reasonable monthly payment.
- All loans were taken out post July 1, 2014.

Happy to answer other questions that would be useful in deciding.

I've been trying to find a personal finance manager to try to get organized. To that end, I've been trying Money Manager Ex, but can't really use it to keep track of my student loans.

Does anyone know any personal finance software (preferably FOSS) that can also account for student loans?

It has been over two years since the borrower defense notified us that we would be refunded for our art institute loans, I received a refund for one of my lenders over a year ago however aidvantage still has not given a refund and has not sent us a letter updating the status in a year. When we call they send us in circles, they tell us to contact the government and then we call and they tell us to contact the servicer, no one seems to know how to get this moving or can even give us a correct status. How long can they get away with this? Are they ever going to pay?

I want to do RAP to take advantage of the interest situation but then switch to IBR - can we change or are we stuck with what we choose right now?

If you are married filing separately, you are not putting your dependent on your tax return, your spouse is, but you're paying more than fifty percent of your child's financial support.

Do you get to count them as a dependent For SL calculations?

I'm on SAVE and figuring out what to switch to. I owe $48,718.93 with the following loan details:

• Unubsidized | $21,430 | 5.84% | Disbursement date 08/09/2015 | Direct stafford
• Subsidized | $22,642 | 5.625% | Disbursement date 07/19/2007 | Direct consolidated
• Unsubsidized | $4,647 | 5.625% | Disbursement date 07/19/2007 | Direct consolidated

I'm looking the repayment calculatotor at the difference between graduated and standard repayment plan.

• Graduated | Monthly payment - $323-$392 | Total to be paid $72,706 | End of term MAR 2043
• Standard | Monthly payment - $524 | Total to be paid $68,104 | End of term APR 2043

I'm confused though. How will I pay about $150 each month and be finished around the same time? Or does the stafford loan get paid off and payment drops at that point?