Any "gotchas" to watch out for in expanded PSLF payment eligibility?

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Mudpuppy
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Any "gotchas" to watch out for in expanded PSLF payment eligibility?

Post by Mudpuppy »

I've never bothered applying for the Public Student Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program before, even though I've been employed by a California state agency for well over a decade, because my loans have been on a Graduated (edit: or Extended) repayment plan for all of that time. As a single person with a decent salary (for a state employee), I don't qualify for a reduced payment on any of the income-based plans, so I didn't pursue PSLF.

I see that a new "limited waiver" has expanded PSLF-eligible payments to any payment made on any repayment plan: https://studentaid.gov/announcements-ev ... ted-waiver

I have made more than 120 Graduated (edit: or Extended) plan payments during my time being employed by my California state agency and I've been employed full-time that entire time, so it seems like everything should be relatively straight-forward under this waiver program. I've applied for an account on the "new" (to me) federal student aid website, and I'm waiting for account verification.

I just can't help shake the feeling that there's got to be something I'm missing. Are there any "gotchas" I should be aware of during the PSLF waiver application process?
Last edited by Mudpuppy on Mon Oct 25, 2021 2:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
Uncle Morris
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Re: Any "gotchas" to watch out for in expanded PSLF payment eligibility?

Post by Uncle Morris »

You can find helpful information at sites like https://www.studentloanplanner.com/ and https://studentloansherpa.com/. I've used the paid consultation offered at the former and found it worthwhile, but your situation may be less complex.
Topic Author
Mudpuppy
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Re: Any "gotchas" to watch out for in expanded PSLF payment eligibility?

Post by Mudpuppy »

Uncle Morris wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 11:13 pm You can find helpful information at sites like https://www.studentloanplanner.com/ and https://studentloansherpa.com/. I've used the paid consultation offered at the former and found it worthwhile, but your situation may be less complex.
Thanks for the links. I do feel lucky that I went to graduate school back when those loans were variable rate. I moved all of my Direct loans to a Direct consolidation loan to lock in my rate at 2.375% in 2009 (during the fiscal downturn), so that seems like it was a wise move for this new PSLF waiver.

I've been on auto-pay since then for either the Graduated or Extended repayment plans (forgot about Extended on my original post, I'll edit to fix that), so even with auto-payments suspended for the pandemic, I *should* have over 120 payments.
Topic Author
Mudpuppy
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Re: Any "gotchas" to watch out for in expanded PSLF payment eligibility?

Post by Mudpuppy »

Well, I'm trying to patiently make my way through this process, but the federal decision to switch to Mohela as the PSLF servicer midway through the temporary waiver program is making things quite.... vexing... even though Mohela has been my student loan servicer for a bit over half a decade.

My current issue is the following: Right now, Mohela's PSLF tracker is only showing my payment record from when they took over as my servicer. They are showing no payments made to my previous servicer. Obviously, since Mohela has only been my servicer for a bit over half a decade, that means the tracker says I am nowhere close to the right number of payments, even though I have more than enough payments at the previous servicer to push me over the 120 payment limit.

My question is this: Has anyone else experienced this and what was your resolution? Do I just need to let things take their time and HOPE they get it done by October, or should I start calling them about this?

Edit: And just for others experiencing similar situations, here is my timeline.

Early February 2022: Finally get the signed employment certification form back from my employer and mail it in
March 31, 2022: Date of the 'we received your PSLF form' letter from FedLoan (the previous PSLF servicer)
June 6, 2022: Date of the 'your loans are being transferred' letter from FedLoan/Mohela (transition period)
Early July 2022: Mohela website still doesn't show anything regarding my PSLF status

Today (early August 2022): Mohela website now shows the PSLF tracker, but it doesn't have any payments from my old servicer and it also hasn't certified the employment for 2020 and 2021, even though my employment certification form covered those years
BogleCPA
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Re: Any "gotchas" to watch out for in expanded PSLF payment eligibility?

Post by BogleCPA »

My wife is 8 years and 10 months into her PSLF and she's having a similar issue where not all of her months are showing on the PSLF website. Her account has been "under review" for quite some time. I'm not worried yet, but if we get to the 9.5 year mark and it's not been fixed, I'm going to start making some angry phone calls :D
Topic Author
Mudpuppy
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Re: Any "gotchas" to watch out for in expanded PSLF payment eligibility?

Post by Mudpuppy »

In my case, I only qualify for forgiveness under the temporary waiver program that turns back into a proverbial pumpkin in October. My sister successfully got her loans forgiven before the PSLF transition to Mohela. However, due to the excessive delay by my employer's HR office in returning the certification form, I didn't get my paperwork in before the transition.

I haven't tried calling yet, simply because work has consumed my time this week during the hours their call center is open. However, when I logged in tonight, there is now a banner at the top of the PSLF Payment Tracker page that states:
Your PSLF eligible and qualified periods are expected to be updated through the PSLF Limited Waiver process by the end of August based on your certified employment/employer. We appreciate your patience during the PSLF transition to MOHELA.
So perhaps many other people have been calling them about this lately.
Topic Author
Mudpuppy
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Re: Any "gotchas" to watch out for in expanded PSLF payment eligibility?

Post by Mudpuppy »

So to update this thread, I finally received my forgiveness letter in this past week. For about a month prior to that, my balance on Mohela was showing as negative, even though the PSLF payment tracker still did not show the payments for my servicers prior to Mohela. Nothing in the forgiveness letter, which also shows a credit ("CR") instead of a zero balance, says what the negative balance/credit means. So I don't know if I'm being refunded for payments made beyond the 120 payments or not. I guess I'll just wait another month or two and find out.

Updated timeline:

Early February 2022: Finally get the signed employment certification form back from my employer and mail it in
March 31, 2022: Date of the 'we received your PSLF form' letter from FedLoan (the previous PSLF servicer)
June 6, 2022: Date of the 'your loans are being transferred' letter from FedLoan/Mohela (transition period)
Early September 2022: Mohela website updated to show a negative current balance instead of previous loan balance remaining
Early October 2022: Forgiveness letter received (dated late September)
Topic Author
Mudpuppy
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Re: Any "gotchas" to watch out for in expanded PSLF payment eligibility?

Post by Mudpuppy »

One final update to the negative balance/credit issue. I'm a bit sleep deprived at the moment, so when I saw over a dozen pending deposits to my checking account over the weekend for the same amount, I thought it was a mistake. It wasn't until this evening that I noticed the amount is the same as my student loan payment amounts were before the pandemic freeze. So rather than refunding the negative balance/credit in one lump sum, they reversed each individual payment that was over the required 120 payments.

Now to figure out what to do with the money. I've already bought my $10k in I-Bonds for the year and made my Roth IRA contribution.
SheReadsHere719
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Re: Any "gotchas" to watch out for in expanded PSLF payment eligibility?

Post by SheReadsHere719 »

Mudpuppy wrote: Sun Oct 09, 2022 10:44 pm So to update this thread, I finally received my forgiveness letter in this past week.
Congratulations Mudpuppy!!
Topic Author
Mudpuppy
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Re: Any "gotchas" to watch out for in expanded PSLF payment eligibility?

Post by Mudpuppy »

SheReadsHere719 wrote: Tue Nov 01, 2022 12:32 pm
Mudpuppy wrote: Sun Oct 09, 2022 10:44 pm So to update this thread, I finally received my forgiveness letter in this past week.
Congratulations Mudpuppy!!
Thanks! I'm somewhat surprised at it, but perhaps because I missed out on two other forgivable loan programs by starting my Ph.D. program one year too late for one, and graduating one year too early for the other. For now, I've put the refunded overpayments into my CO 360 Performance Savings so they're not losing too much value while I figure out what to do with it.
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