Is your account showing zero qualifying payments for PSLF after consolidating? Don’t panic! - Student Loan Borrowers Assistance (2024)

FAQs

Is your account showing zero qualifying payments for PSLF after consolidating? Don’t panic! - Student Loan Borrowers Assistance? ›

The PSLF credit counts are only temporarily reset to zero after borrowers consolidate and will be corrected in the coming months. Under the current payment count adjustment, borrowers will get PSLF credit for past time working in public service while in repayment before consolidating.

MOHLEA will report your loan as "Paid in Full" to the consumer reporting agencies at the end of the month that your loan reflects a zero balance. The consumer reporting agencies may take additional time to update their reporting.

Payments made under the Standard Repayment Plan for Direct Consolidation Loans would qualify for PSLF purposes only if the maximum repayment period was set at 10 years, and that would be the case only if the total amount of the consolidation loan and your other education loan debt was less than $7,500.

After you submit your PSLF form, we will process it and you will receive a count of the number of qualifying payments you have made toward both PSLF and TEPSLF. You can see updates by logging into StudentAid.gov and visiting My Activity.

If you consolidate loans other than Direct Loans, consolidation may give you access to forgiveness options, such as income-driven repayment or Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). If you consolidate, you'll be able to switch any variable-rate loans you have to a fixed interest rate.

If you work in certain public service jobs and have made 120 payments on your Direct Loans, you may be eligible to have your loans forgiven. If some or all of your payments were not made on a qualifying repayment plan for PSLF, you may be able to receive loan forgiveness under a temporary opportunity.

Beginning on May 1, 2024, you will no longer be able to access your PSLF progress, certified employment, or payment counts on MOHELA's borrower portal. If you want to save screenshots and correspondence for your personal records, we recommend accessing the portal by April 30, 2024.

The PSLF credit counts are only temporarily reset to zero after borrowers consolidate and will be corrected in the coming months. Under the current payment count adjustment, borrowers will get PSLF credit for past time working in public service while in repayment before consolidating.

For example, say you're on an IDR plan. You have already made 100 qualifying payments. You decide to consolidate. In this case, your payment count for forgiveness is reset to zero with your new Direct Consolidation Loan.

What loans qualify for forgiveness? Only loans you received under the Direct Loan Program are eligible for PSLF. Loans you received under the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program, the Federal Perkins Loan (Perkins Loan) Program, or any other student loan program are not eligible for PSLF.

How do I tell if my student loans were forgiven? ›

Your student loan servicer(s) will notify you directly after your forgiveness is processed. Make sure to keep your contact information up to date on StudentAid.gov and with your servicer(s). If you haven't yet qualified for forgiveness, you'll be able to see your exact payment counts in the future.

If you made payments after your 120^th qualifying payment, those payments will be treated as overpayments and refunded to you if you have no additional outstanding loans. If your qualifying payment total is at 120 or more, your account is eligible to be placed into forbearance and no payment is due.

Who at my employer needs to certify my employment under Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)? Your employment can be certified by an official who has access to your employment or service records and is authorized by your employer to certify your employment or your service as an AmeriCorps or Peace Corps volunteer.

May pay more over the life of the loan: Though consolidation can lower your monthly payment by, for example, extending your repayment term, that means you'll end up paying on your loans longer and ultimately paying more over time in interest.

The double consolidation loophole is a way of making your Parent PLUS Loans eligible for the generous repayment terms of the SAVE program. You can do this by changing the source of your loan through multiple consolidations, changing it from an ineligible Parent PLUS Loan to an eligible Direct Consolidation Loan.

The limited PSLF waiver provided PSLF credit if you submitted a consolidation application on or before Oct. 31, 2022, and a PSLF form with a qualifying employer. Under the waiver, you'll receive PSLF credit for time in repayment prior to the consolidation that is matched to certified employment.

Payment Pause and 0% Interest. If your loans were eligible, we automatically paused your loan payments and set your interest rate to 0% from March 13, 2020, until Sept. 1, 2023. This payment pause is also known as an administrative forbearance.

The letter behaves as a formal receipt, stating to the borrower that they have a zero balance on their loans. Deed owners value this letter, as it may behave as a formal document for the owner to present to potential buyers of the property that want to know there are no liens on the property.

There are specific situations when a student loan can be removed from a credit report and nearly all of them are related to inaccuracies. Some examples of inaccurate information include: Missed or late payments (either during regular repayment periods or forbearance and deferment) Student loan default.

You can view your recent loan payment history by logging in to your servicer's website. Each loan servicer has a website separate from StudentAid.gov: EdFinancial.