r/StudentLoans

I'm still on SAVE, I was on old IBR before that. From what I've read here if I don't actively switch to IDR/RAP then I will automatically be put on Standard. Some of my loans are 10 years old so I understand they will just ask me for the entire balance in one payment?

Is that accurate? Is that not the stupidest, least realistic thing ever or am I missing something?

I started aggressive repayment last August so I'm basically indifferent to what plan I'm on, I'm going to be paying more than the standard 10-year plan payment every month, but I'm just staggered by the idiocy of suddenly asking everyone who didn't actively choose a new plan and have 10+ year old loans to pay off the entire balance in the first payment. Clearly that isn't going to work.

So tired of the interest and complications. The dangling of the loan forgiveness promise a few years ago only for it to be torn down and they just move on like 🤷🏻‍♀️.

I’ve worked my ass off doing side gigs to save and save and finally decided I’m not giving them another dime in interest. So using a chunk of my savings so they can eff all the way off. 22K payment Friday and today I see paid in full $0.00 current balance !!!

FINALLY THE PAYMENT COUNTERS MOVE…

I moved out of SAVE to IBR - I have (had) 2 loans with 7 payments remaining, and 2 with 13 payments….I told myself I can suck it up for 13 payments…it’s not pretty for sure seeing my payment(s) increased by almost $700…but today I went to studentaid.gov to look at payment counter (back door pretty print way) and if I weren’t at the office I’d have hooted & hollared….3/4 of the loans now show 6, 6 & 12 payments left!!! Remaining one just needs remainder of 4/3 payment made! I’m ecstatic!!!!!! Now if I can sustain this for another 6 months…..I know I can!!!

Just a little glimmer….. we can do this!!

Over 100k$ in debt from undergrad loans after interest paid off. It took a few sacrifices in the 4+ years after finishing my PhD, (skipped trips, small courthouse wedding). I've got no money or assets other than the retirement accounts I've been maxing and a paid off car but I'm finally free.

Anyone else absolutely screwed when it comes to student loans?!

I of course made the horrible financial decision to go to graduate school, with a job that pays $80,000 annually. I have $175k in debt, with $20k just in interest alone. I don’t need a lecture on how dumb the decision was—I need actual tangible advice from others in similar shoes.

With SAVE gone, IDR is saying my payments are going to be almost $2,000 a month (I’m hoping it is recalculated by the end of the month, but WTF). Even with programs like PSLF, I can’t afford the $2k a month. Has anyone had any success with forgiveness in any capacity or a lowered monthly payment rate?

I’m not sure what to do or where to start.

I currently repay my PNC student loans through AES. I have seven separate loans from different semesters, all with different interest rates and repayment timelines.

Although I’m on track to pay off the largest loan by 2029, I’ll still be paying about $1,400 per month on the remaining loans until 2034. After that, my payments would drop to around $400 per month until the loans are fully repaid. Even with that plan, I still feel financially overwhelmed.

I earn $70,000 per year before taxes and pay $1,200 per month in rent. My biggest concern is how I’m supposed to save for my future when most of my remaining income goes toward gas, food, utilities, and other basic living expenses.

I feel stuck. I can’t move back in with family, and while I do have a roommate, I’m still handling everything financially on my own.

Any ideas? My credit score can let me refinance but I realize I’ll be paying a little more in the long run when I could be paying $400 a month by 2034 which is more than ideal (I could be actually saving by then)

If someone had explained to me what I was exactly signing up for 15 years ago. I was first gen college and had no idea what I was doing. Why doesn’t interest become more the focus of student loans?

Seriously.

I was previously on SAVE which is no longer an option. I am planning to switch to PAYE and have $0 payment for 12 months. That isn't my main concern though. It's the $7/day interest accruing - over $210/month. Does anyone know if I'm able to get unemployment defferment, so interest doesn't accrue on my subsidized loans at least? From my understanding, one of the requirements is having a payment due within 60 days, but my payment would be $0.

I feel like I'm missing something. RAP seems to have higher payments AND a longer forgiveness period.

I'm a very low earner with a 15k balance. My monthly IBR payment would be around $20 and $40 for RAP. 30 year forgiveness for RAP vs 20 year for IBR. Am I missing something, or is RAP just a terrible option in general? They've jerked us around so much I'm not confident that it can really be that easy.

I am 31 years old and I have about $13k total left to pay off. $4.5k of it is a private loan with 6% interest. The remaining are federal loans with interest rates between 3.5% and 4%.

I have $37k in my savings account. Should I pay them off now using money from my savings and be done with it, or continue making the monthly payments like I have been? I am employed and have a secure job. I don’t make a ton of money (salary is $67k) but enough to comfortably make the monthly payments and still have money to move into my savings each month.

I received the email regarding SAVE officially ending. So, what are the next steps? My emotions are all over the place. My service is EDfinancial, and have yet to receive any notification from them...

Also, to those who have the same service provider as I do, what's going on your end? Thanks.

Has anyone did the loan simulator and got a payment similar to the outcome of the loan simulator?

Hello all,

I am seeking advice on how to go about rectifying an auto-allocation issue.

I have paid off my loans in full yet I still see a balance on my account. (I worked so hard and sacrificed so much to save up the money to do this and this company is just absolutely denying me from this)

On June 24th, 2025, I made a lump sum payment in the amount of $30,109.22. I selected “auto allocate” so some loans got overpaid while two were not paid at all. It should be noted that this was a system error on Mohela’s part, which they later admitted to me. The total amount owed for my loans was sent to Mohela, and the money was mismanaged.

On July 16th, 2025, I sent a message via Mohela’s messaging portal asking why the funds sent were mismanaged. I was sent an automated response explaining how to pay off outstanding balance. This automated response did not address my question as to why my payment was not allocated to my loans.

On August 8th, 2025, I sent a message via Mohela’s messaging portal asking why the funds sent were mismanaged. I was once again sent a vague automated response explaining how to pay off outstanding balance. This automated response did not address my question as to why my payment was not allocated to my loans and how the issue would be rectified.

On December 12th, 2025, after allowing ample processing time, I contacted Mohela via telephone. I was finally informed by someone that because I chose auto-allocation when paying my loans in full, some loans were overpaid while two of them were not paid at all. They admitted that this was a system error and that they would rectify it. They did not provide me a timeline of when it would get done but they assured me that there would be no more additional interest on the loans.

In early February of 2026 I contacted Mohela again as the loans still show a total balance of $928.71. I requested to speak with a supervisor at this point. The supervisor told me that they had record of my call in December and were unsure why the issue hasn’t been resolved, but that processing could take UP TO 90 days. I explained to her that I made Mohela aware of this in July of 2025, and that this has been going on unresolved for 8 months. The supervisor told me that she would escalate the process so that the issue can be rectified.

All I’m seeking is for them to reflect that my loans are paid off. I want my credit score to go back up and I want to be able to be debt free. I don’t want to have to sue them, or file a complaint. I just want to be rid of having to deal with this hellhole of a company.

Does anyone know how to best go about this or if they’ve had success getting this issue resolved?

I’m an incoming medical student. My med school classes begin July 17, 2026, after the July 1 cutoff. However, I’m taking an elective that starts June 8 which will appear on my official transcript. My school’s financial aid office is saying I won’t be grandfathered into Grad PLUS, even though they said I would qualify in late February. I’m trying to understand what new changes have been made that now disqualifies me

As with many of you, I got the notice that SAVE is ending and with it, my current forbearance and deferments. I have been lucky enough to have some disposable income and have been making $500 payments (just a bit over the interest accrual) during this time. I’ve been looking at some of the repayment options and most of the 10yr plans are out of my budget for monthly payments. Is it a wise idea to go on the extended graduated payment plan but pay more than the monthly payment in order to pay this off faster?

For info, my loan balance is $86k with avg interest of 6.3%. All federal loans and all my private loans have been paid off. I dont work a public sector job and dont intend to as well.

I do have my own excel sheet that I made to keep track of loan schedule where I try to make aggressive payments that I can afford. However, that current schedule is putting all of the payment amount into a single loan whereas the repayment options will most likely distribute the payments across all my loans.

Any advice would be highly appreciated!

I have been paying now for close to 22 years. Far and above the amount of the original loan. I do not want another penny going to the government/Mohela if this is a possibility. Can you imagine? There’s an argument here to be made considering a private loan. I just don’t trust these people.

I got a 90 day notice to re-certify PAYE. I followed the steps, saw the various estimated monthly payments for me among the different plans, and and re-selected PAYE. Two days later I got three messages to my inbox all at once:

-1. "loans do not qualify for any IDR plan since your Income is too high" (my income has not changed much at all)

-2. "We are unable to approve your request for PAYE because you do not meet the Partial Financial Hardship (PFH) criteria for this repayment plan."

-3. "We have received your request for PAYE . After reviewing your request, we have determined that the monthly student loan payment under your current repayment plan is lower than the calculated payment under PAYE ; therefore, we have not changed the repayment plan on your account."

I'm confused. My current plan *is* PAYE--how can I be denied because my current payment under PAYE be lower than the calculated amount under the same plan? If the new payment would be higher, wouldn't that be a good thing in their eyes because I'm paying more (as per the other letters that allege I make too much money?)

I have no idea how to know what repayment plan I'm on or how much my payments will be. Can anyone help me make sense of this?

SOS. I have no experience with student loans but found myself in a situation needing to navigate them asap before filing taxes.

Quick summary and context:

- We are located in Minnesota

-I married my husband in July 2025.

-I make $65k a year, he makes $58k.

-I have a daughter in preschool from a previous marriage that I claim on taxes for the Childcare/dependent tax credit.

-Current husband has $21.5k student loans in default from years before we were together (so far no wages have been garnished):

Questions:

- Is there anything that can be done to stop them from taking our federal tax return if we file joint before April 15th? (Is it possible to get out of default by the 15th?)

- What would be the best approach, loan consolidation, income driven repayment plan, or both? And if both are needed, which do we do first?

-Because we were not married for all of 2025, can I file individually and still claim the child care tax credit for my daughter? We can have his federal return taken without much of an impact, but the child care credit is a significant amount that we don't want to lose.

Thank you in advance!

I read that the deadline to apply for PAYE is the day before RAP begins (June 30/July 1), this might be incorrect.

My new goal is to pay off my loans. I've been avalanche method towards highest interest since the save plan interest started accruing again.

when I finally switch from save, I want the lowest payment I can get to have more control over when my extra payments go. I think that would be paye for the next couple years. I also want to delay switching as long a possible, to keep going with my avalanche and no payment.

Any suggestions. reading the government site is difficult, its dumbed down and then missing details.

I consolidated all my parent plus loans together back during 2024.

Under SAVE, I was paying $0.

Then once the big beautiful bill was being talked about, I switched to ICR.

From August 2025 to January 2026 I was paying $291 under ICR.

Then I lost my job and after I exhausted my unemployment benefits, I submitted a request to my servicer to update my current income (I make $12k a year from a rental unit.) this brought my ICR payment from February 2026 onwards to $0 a month.

I know PPL’s need to be consolidated by July 2026 in order to be eligible to be switched to IBR sometime in 2028.

However, there’s also a payment obligation based on what I read around here. So I’m unsure if I met the requirements or not?

When does your “at least one payment under ICR” begin? And does my $0 monthly payment count? I’m sure it does but sometimes these student loan regulations are obtuse in their interpretation and implementation and I can see some yeehaw judge say “well actually a payment of $0 isn’t actually a payment.” (Like that one judge 1-2 years ago who was saying that ICR, PAYE and REPAYE need to be “repaid” in full, since the word repayment implies paying back in full.)

I know I’m being paranoid but appreciate any expert’s responses.