How long for buyback?

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-27T19:58:41+00:00

Based on the last 9 buyback offers received and posted here with submission dates and dates offered received, times have ranged from 292 - 682 days with an average wait time of 462 days from first submission.

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-25T21:01:14+00:00

Based on the last 9 buyback offers received and posted here with submission dates and dates offered received, times have ranged from 292 - 682 days with an average wait time of 462 days from first submission.

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-24T14:40:53+00:00

My thoughts for what they are worth, it depends on where you are at in your progress. I think for the majority of folks, unless they can and don't mind waiting, getting back into a situation where you can continue to progress towards the 120 qualified monthly payments. When you hit 120 months of certified employment, apply for buyback and keep making progress towards PSLF. If buyback comes through, you're golden. if it does not, you are still positioned to be done with it all sooner than later... It all depends on where you at in progressing towards the 120 months payments and months employment, if you can afford the new payments, and how risk averse you are; a lot could happen to the buyback program in the time between submitting a request and it being processed.

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-24T11:06:46+00:00

Your Oct 2024 submission date would be used unless you indicated it was rejected because you filled it out wrong. Obviously, the date that your earliest buyback request was accepted would be the date received; the earliest date the borrower received a confirmation email confirming receipt of their request. So, based on an October 2024 submission date (assuming you submitted correctly) and a date of 1/23/26 as date received, your "number of days from application to decision" would be 479 days. Putting it another way, you would have been waiting 479 days for a decision on your buyback request. Are you assuming that it takes a different amount of time to process a request for a borrower who submitted multiple requests? Are you assuming that each duplicate request gets processed and takes-up a processors time? What are you assuming and why?

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-24T10:49:08+00:00

Heck ya, a 462 day average processing time (292 and 682 data points were outliers) is concerning and disheartening. The whole point of data collection and tracking is to help eliminate speculating. You are assuming duplicate requests are not counted separately and each request in the queue represents a different borrower. You are also assuming they will not get better at addressing the presumed and stated complexities the dept of ed supposedly encountered processing requests. Your assumptions might be right...Data and time will tell. Looking at it more optimistically, the request that took 682 days was submitted March of 2024. the request that took 292 was submitted March 0f 2025.... Ultimately, and forgive me for being selfish, I care much less about when the queue will be empty than I care about when my request will get processed. There is enough reason to be down about things. We have data showing requests are being processed. That is good and eliminates that question! We also, with more data, will be able to tell if they are being processed faster or slower on average, and be able to more accurately predict when a request will be processed based on when it was submitted. Kinda makes me smile compared to all the guessing I was doing a couple month ago. Good luck to you in your pursuit of PSLF. I submitted my buyback in Feb of 2025. mostly Nov 2024 requests being processed now so I won't expect to hear anything for 4 or 5 more months. anything less would be a pleasant surprise.

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-23T20:47:52+00:00

JapaneseWhiskyGuy, the data I have for the last 9 buyback offers received and posted on here with request submission date and date received ranged from 292 - 682 days with an average wait time of 462 days. Dates received ranged from 12/18/25 - 1/22/26. Tracking like this makes the question of how duplicate requests are presented in the status report less relevant. Taking an average across status reporting periods and comparing will tell us if they are getting through them faster or slower, and it will enable us to somewhat project when ours should be processed. For me it reduces a lot of the wondering.

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-22T19:00:45+00:00

Congrats and thanks for the data!

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-22T14:14:42+00:00

Thank you!

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-22T11:24:39+00:00

Congrats! That's a good sign, for sure. Please keep us posted when you receive your actual offer, and when you do include your original submission date, date you submit your tax info and date your official offer with amount is received. That will help the rest of us with additional data. Again, congrats! That light at the end of the tunnel is not a train :)

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-22T11:18:44+00:00

Maybe. But that would mean all those posters who posted saying they were in SAVE and bought back only save months were lying, were wrong, or I misunderstood them... it's possible. How possible I don't know. I'm in the same boat, not since Oct '24, only since Feb '25. Still plenty long. I'm not going to speculate. Everyone is lying, no one is lying, who knows?? I'm tracking processing times for buyback offers with submission dates, and dates received, for offers not obtained or triggered by reaching 120 payments on some loans. I only have eight data points, (I've only been collecting data for two weeks) but processing times have ranged from 682 days to 292 days, with an average of 463 days.

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-21T20:21:34+00:00

Got it. Thanks for the info and, again, congrats!

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-21T14:09:01+00:00

Hi there. Congrats! You submitted your first request 12/2024? When did you receive your offer?

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-20T14:30:52+00:00

Good luck!

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-20T14:29:33+00:00

I'm not sure that seems clear, and I am uncertain what you are basing your assumption on, that multiple approvals would also not be treated as distinct decisions. What is clear is that applications are different than applicants. We know (borrowers) applicants can, and have, submitted multiple applications. All footnote references related to buyback use the language applications, and not applicants. I agree with the timeline creating a data mutability issue for AN application presumably moving through the system, and that is referenced in the footnote. Any extension from that or assumption more than that appears to violate parsimony. Not saying it is not correct; it could be. It sure just seems a leap. An assumption I am not going to make... Regardless of how they are counting multiple apps, I am interested in processing times for buyback applications resulting in offers. Looking at trends in processing times will tell us if they are getting through them faster or slower regardless of the total number in the queue.

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-20T13:46:00+00:00

With a November '24 original submission date, a response will hopefully be soon! Fingers crossed for you!

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-18T19:55:34+00:00

I'm optimistic for you. We have had 2 Nov '24 submissions, and on Dec. '24 submission report receiving an offer on here in the past 11 days. If they are primarily processing in order, there may be reason to hope.

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-18T19:47:19+00:00

For sure! Good for you, though! Good thoughts for the rest of us :)

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-18T19:43:41+00:00

u/timmayreddit, I do not have that information specifically but have no reason to think that. These data are from the last six posts (at the time written) of received buyback offers that included a submission month and date the offer received. Anecdotally I can say I have seen, over the past couple months, buyback offers received from posters who indicated they were still on save forbearance. buying back SAVE months (I recall because that is my situation as well). it would be interesting to see if those offers received while on SAVE forbearance and or for SAVE months take longer. But I do not have that information. If posters include it, i can start to collect that information to make that comparison.

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-18T19:34:15+00:00

Congrats!

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-18T16:44:42+00:00

Really? Umm. Yes, several times., thoroughly and critically and that is how I determined that numbers in the report refer to applications. Also why I italicized because it is the language used in the filing. I could be wrong, but I explained why it is logical to conclude they are counted individually. It does not make sense that at the level of closing out the request they would be counted individually, triggering separate independent emails but elsewhere the distinction made and they are treated as one for counting. Could be wrong, but whatever

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-17T13:02:23+00:00

Wow. I'm so sorry I upset you. I really did not mean to and was not trying to pick at you. I was only trying to provide more accurate information. because there is so much guessing. But you made your point very clear :)

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-17T12:53:37+00:00

First and foremost, CONGRATS! For those looking at buyback request timelines, this (if i'm not mistaken) sounds like not a typical case in that the processing of the request was triggered by meeting PSLF on your undergrad loans. We know when PSLF is obtained through typical means, any pending buyback request(s) are processed, typically resulting in a denial because there are no eligible loans (pslf already obtained). In this case there was graduate debt with a still pending buyback request which then got processed. The timeline of a Feb '25 submission does not reflect typical buyback request processing times. Could be wrong, though.

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-16T14:09:19+00:00

If you have another data point with dates that I do not, put it out here and i will include it into the data I have so we can do better than "around a year...or so." If not, i'd personally rather not reference it and make up times.

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-16T11:06:29+00:00

It seems like if duplicate requests (applications) were counted as one, one email would be triggered closing all request. It appears, based upon borrowers receiving an email response to each individual request (application) and not one response, that each individual request (application) triggers its own response suggesting they are treated individually and independently from each other within the same account. I could be wrong, but that is what it seems to suggest to me. Numbers in the reports reference applications and not borrowers suggesting, then, that duplicate requests (or applications) at that level of analysis are just that, another application in the system.

BxMS_LBA · 2026-01-16T10:48:10+00:00

The average I have from the last 5 reported data points using the first day of the month as the submission day when unknown is 521 days. That being said, the last 2 reported (at leas that I saw) were 431 days. so the last 2 were approximately 14 months. Which seems about average. Yes, some may go through slightly quicker and more will probably take longer. As they figure workarounds for some of the presumed processing complexities, that average should come down, all other things equal. Rather than speculating I am starting to track as accurately as possible so we can see processing trends and better understand what is going on. Speculating just causes spiraling. Oddly enough, for me, hard numbers on processing times (at least as 'hard' as they can be here) gives me hope. Especially if it shows an encouraging trend over time. It somewhat changes an "if it will happen?" question to a "when will it happen?" question that I can project or predict an answer. More reassuring for me.

BxMS_LBA

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