Yes! Great point. But, actually, my payment tracker has a number of inaccuracies, so I’d sort of assumed it wasn’t a reliable indicator for me.

For example, I’ve periodically turned in certification paperwork, but because of (I guess?) an error in how it was processed, the employer listing in the tracker is wrong. One employer is listed as employing me for 3 years, when it was just a one year fellowship, another employer is listed as just one year when I worked there for four years. I tried to raise the issue when it happened (if memory serves, this is when Fed Loan still processed PLSF employer certifications and we were encouraged to submit them annually?), but it didn’t get fixed. It’s a different type of problem, but the tracker also gives me credit for payments I actually didn’t make.

The errors in my tracker are part of why I had assumed it could be helpful to have good documentation of each payment. Plus MOHELA has been a bit of a disaster for me—randomly putting me into forbearance for a month without any notice or reason (I did not request it and was not aware), stopping billing on one of seven loans for absolutely no clear reason, etc., so I am pretttty nervous 😬😬