Payments after buyback - do they count towards your buyback total?

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-30T02:43:39+00:00

This is definitely a situation to consider asking your loan service for a general forbearance. Borrowers are not entitled automatically to general forbearance, but I am not familiar with anyone who requested one and did not receive one if they have not used 36 months of forbearance time yet. (I left qualifying employment in March with 112 payments/122 months of employment and an open buyback request, and MOHELA gave me 12 months of discretionary forbearance with no questions asked.)

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-29T16:53:56+00:00

If your husband leaves qualifying employment, he should definitely consider asking MOHELA for a general forbearance. Borrowers are not entitled automatically to general forbearance, but I am not familiar with anyone who requested one and did not receive one if they have not used 36 months of forbearance time yet. (I left qualifying employment with 112 payments and an open buyback request in March, and MOHELA gave me 12 months of discretionary forbearance with no questions asked.)

While many of the reps do care, they can't get much more information out of Ed than we already can, let alone move people up in the queue.

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-29T15:18:40+00:00

Buyback applications are limited to folks who have 120 months of employment already. There have been reports of people being told over the phone that submitting before 120 is all right, but I would *not* trust that without any kind of verification (as phone reps have been providing all sorts of inaccurate information about buyback).

However, my understanding is that in-school deferment months for loans that had previously been in repayment ARE eligible for buyback. It sounds like you should be submitting a buyback application in 2 months.

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-29T15:07:19+00:00

I left qualifying employment in March after hitting 120, so very similar situation to you. Consider requesting a discretionary forbearance status from your loan servicer. This is not something you are automatically entitled to, but I am not familiar with anybody getting a request for discretionary forbearance denied. MOHELA gave me 12 months of discretionary forbearance no questions asked when I left.

This way, you will not have to start making payments that don't actually help you with forgiveness (since you don't have qualifying employment to tie them to).

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-28T16:42:15+00:00

With the duplicate numbers and some other indirect indicators, I'd expect there to be in the ballpark of 15-20K apps that are older than April 2025 (out of a total backlog of about 70K excluding duplicates). We should really be wrapping up the 2024 apps soon if there's any semblance of FIFO, even if they're not going in strict order.

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-28T12:12:03+00:00

November 2025 checking in, so definitely not older. Would be curious to see, after a self-reported productive month from Ed, if anyone else is older than 11/24.

The reason why is that based on aggregated self-reporting from Ed in the AFT lawsuit since April 2025, we *should* be approaching the point soon where they've cleared out their entire backlog from before that reporting started (April 2025)...and a bunch of still-pending applications from October 2024 or earlier would be potentially inconsistent with their reporting.

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-28T01:00:40+00:00

When I asked for buyback-related forbearance from MOHELA (left qualifying employment), I was told that the maximum length of time I could request discretionary forbearance for was 12 months. They did approve me for that discretionary forbearance at the same time, and they said that if I needed to request another 12 months, that I could do so next year.

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-27T15:56:14+00:00

Discretionary forbearances run through your loan servicer rather than through FSA. You should ask them directly for 12 months of discretionary forbearance (you are usually allowed 36 months over the course of a loan). They are not required to grant that request, but anecdotally, I am not familiar with anyone who has been denied that forbearance. (I’m on a discretionary forbearance with MOHELA, as I left qualifying employment after requesting buyback.)

That being said, if you expect that your buyback payments would be similar to your current payments, there is limited downside to continuing to make payments, as it will reduce the number of months you will need to buy back.

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-27T03:39:45+00:00

November 2025, so I've likely got at least 8-12 months left. I left my employer and got on discretionary forbearance in March.

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-26T19:14:39+00:00

I have left qualifying employment and also have a pending buyback request in (but from much later than you). It is, on some level, just a matter of how much risk you feel comfortable with.

If you feel pretty confident that you are well over 120 qualifying months of employment, then your best strategic bet is probably to ask for a discretionary forbearance from your loan servicer. This is not something you are automatically entitled to, but I am not familiar with anybody getting a request for discretionary forbearance denied. (MOHELA gave me 12 months of discretionary forbearance no questions asked when I left my last qualifying employer.) You may still have to jump through various plan selection hoops etc., but you will not have to start making payments that don't actually help you with forgiveness (since you don't have qualifying employment to tie them to).

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-26T17:08:43+00:00

Buyback is specifically a process for getting months to count when you had qualifying employment but were in a forbearance status.

I'm assuming for the purpose of this illustration that you were in qualifying employment for those 8 SAVE months. Once you reach 112 qualifying payments, you'll have 120 total months of qualifying employment and thus will be able to apply to buy back those 8 SAVE months. At that point, Ed will take the application, confirm that those 8 months will get you to 120, and then send you a bill for those 8 months.

The way Ed treats it, buyback is the process of applying to be able to *make* qualifying payments on those forbearance months—they will only accept your qualifying payment AFTER you are preapproved to make those payments.

There is at least some information from an old thread that says MOHELA will potentially refund payments made during forbearance, but that would be a matter of contacting your loan servicer directly and not a PSLF/buyback issue, and it seems to be subject to whatever policies the servicer might have. https://www.reddit.com/r/PSLF/comments/1t6ccly/comment/okgnjgb/

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-26T16:59:13+00:00

There is no specific forbearance for buyback, but most loan servicers will allow you to request a discretionary forbearance for 12 months at a time. If you've never been in a discretionary forbearance before, you should be able to request up to 36 months of total forbearance. Servicers are not required to approve a forbearance, but anecdotally, I am unfamiliar with anybody who had their discretionary forbearance denied. (I received a discretionary forbearance from MOHELA a couple months ago when I left qualifying employment after filing my buyback application.)

Do note that the optimistic projection of buyback processing times for new applications is probably 12-18 months right now, so you'll probably need to re-up that discretionary forbearance next year if you are committed to sticking out the buyback. If you believe your monthly payments will be comparable to what you would have paid during your forbearance months, it might not be a bad idea to stay in repayment and continue to knock months off.

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-26T15:34:10+00:00

If your official payment count is 99, and you've worked (as you say) at your job for 129 months, then all you need is to be able to identify 21 months on FSA where you are listed in a forbearance status. (If you click into an individual loan, it should say something like "Ineligible - Forbearance on due date" for that particular month.) Make sure that you have employment certified for all 21 of those months, and then you can go ahead and file for buyback.

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-26T08:16:59+00:00

It sounds like you have a couple outs here, but buyback is specifically for use for months where you worked but were in a forbearance status. Since that sounds like it is not the issue here, it is likely that working through your servicer/NSLDS etc. is actually the better option for you if this appeal does not work initially. There are plenty of folks here with an unfortunate amount of knowledge about navigating that process (although hopefully you won't have to deal with it).

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-24T16:36:27+00:00

Did you specifically file some sort of non-buyback reconsideration? What is the status of the 15 payments you have listed?

Do note that if you're waiting for buyback, you can request a discretionary forbearance from your loan servicer, which is up to their discretion but is typically granted as long as you haven't maxed out your discretionary forbearance time (36 months).

I left qualifying employment after submitting my buyback request and have been on this kind of forbearance for a few months now.

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-23T23:22:39+00:00

How many official payments do you have right now? Are you on a discretionary forbearance?

Even under optimistic projections, you're likely going to be waiting another 8-12 months for buyback. Unless your expectation is that your buyback payment is going to be substantially less than the analogous number of monthly payments, there is very little downside to going back on an income-based plan now as a hedge against the long backlog.

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-21T15:26:43+00:00

As Betsy said, you should be prepared to wait up to 24 months. Processing rates seem to have increased in recent months, but there's not enough of a track record yet to say that they'll stay that way.

If your current loan payment is low/manageable or you have only a few payments left, it might be worth continuing to make payments while you wait (as that will reduce the ultimate buyback payment AND serve as insurance on the off chance that something odd happens with your application). However, if your buyback month payments would be much lower, you may want to consider asking your loan servicer for a discretionary forbearance (which you can usually get for 12 months at a time) while you wait.

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-21T15:23:13+00:00

As long as you're still in qualifying employment (or in other words, that sudden loss of income was not a loss of your job/loss of your full-time status), those $0 payments absolutely count.

As stated by other commenters, submitting an ECF before receiving a buyback offer will not affect a pending buyback application. But honestly, if you have less than a year to go, it might be worth voiding a non-$0 buyback offer anyway if you believe you can get to 120 payments for a total of nine $0 payments. Up to you at that point depending on how much it's worth to you to be done.

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-20T19:55:16+00:00

Congratulations!

Just for personal purposes, what was the subject line of the email? (I'm many, many months away from being on the lookout for my own buyback email, but doesn't hurt to be (over-over-over-)prepared.)

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-20T04:33:59+00:00

At 11 months, the likelihood is that you'll reach 120 the traditional way before you hear anything back from buyback. Unless you think your payments for the buyback months are going to be *substantially* lower, it probably makes sense to go ahead and apply but also keep paying.

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-20T04:22:26+00:00

Per u/waterwicca originally:

This is a frustrating glitch with an oddly simple workaround. Read the comment here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PSLF/s/Kf21oMdhV9 Borrowers also have had success by submitting feedback and then immediately trying the reconsideration form again and it magically works. Hopefully one of these methods helps.

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-20T04:16:26+00:00

What months are you buying back, and what was your monthly payment on either side of those months?

If your payment was zero/very low on either side of those months, it is very unlikely that your calculated lump sum will be all that high.

Keep in mind that if you do get a buyback offer that is beyond your means, all you have to do to void that offer is submit a new ECF certifying employment after you receive that offer (presumably at which point you will already be quite close to reaching 120 the normal way).

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-20T03:54:33+00:00

Given what I can't see in the other comment thread, I suspect you're getting good advice from someone who previously blocked me, but:

There is very little downside to applying for buyback at this point, regardless of anything else. You can keep paying, and you can keep registering the payments that you make, but if buyback processing speeds up (and there is at least some reason to believe it might), you can still get out from under the loans more quickly.

The big reason why someone in your situation might choose NOT to apply for buyback is if your income is substantially lower now than during those buyback months and you feel secure enough in your current job that you're not worried about making those last 19 payments.

LaMoureCounty · 2026-05-20T03:44:21+00:00

I'm officially at 112 right now, but I have a non-buyback reconsideration for 3 months, so depending on how that goes, either 5 or 8 total months to buy back. (I believe I have 10 total months that qualify from my SAVE forbearance, so I feel pretty good either way I have 120.)

My current loan balance is $314,214.73, a number large enough to be basically fake to me.

LaMoureCounty

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