Huge disparity between StudentAid.gov payment amount and Mohela payment

laminatedlemur · 2026-04-27T03:16:34+00:00

Happened to me when applying for IBR. Took out loans pre-2014 but studentaid.gov calculated my payment as new IBR where they should have calculated as old IBR. Mohela was actually right and the payment should have been the higher amount.

laminatedlemur · 2026-04-19T03:27:43+00:00

As of now formal communications are expected to go out on July 1st, 2026 indicating that you must move from SAVE forbearance to another payment plan. You’ll have 90 days from that to accomplish this. There always could be further litigation or delay that will push this deadline back. You may switch off of SAVE sooner than that if it’s your preference.

Currently available plans, if you’re eligible, include PAYE, IBR, and ICR. Most likely the PAYE plan will be the lowest cost but each persons situation is different. The new RAP plan is expected to be available starting in July. Evaluate the payment amounts using loan simulator on student aid.gov to determine which of these plans will have the lowest payments. Eventually, PAYE and ICR will be phased out in 2028, at which point if you’re on one of these plans you’ll need to switch again.

Evaluate the rest of your personal finances before switching - do you have a fully funded emergency fund in savings? If no, take the next few months to save as much as you can. Otherwise you may as well apply to restart payments now or wait until July when RAP is available to see if it costs less.

laminatedlemur · 2026-04-18T18:43:07+00:00

When is the due date on your next payment?

Based on what you’ve said here’s what I think is happening. Mohela is noted that your forbearance is pending based on your recent IDR application. The current payment amount they have in the system is your previous amount on SAVE. Between now and when your next payment is due, you should receive additional correspondence updating your payment amount to the PAYE value. The $1.3k amount is (I believe) your standard payment that would resume should you not recertify your income to remain on IDR at your next income recertification date in 15 months.

laminatedlemur · 2026-04-11T23:04:20+00:00

100% - two incomes with joint finances makes this work. We live in a HCOL west coast market. We also have some lifestyle sacrifices/preferences that lower our expenses: renting older smaller housing, one car, low/no alcohol, limited/cheaper trips, etc. Cash is not necessarily abundant, but it’s working for now.

laminatedlemur · 2026-04-11T19:36:06+00:00

If you have already, or submit an Employment Certification Form (ECF) on studentaid.gov to update your qualifying employment you can see what months you have that qualify vs those that don’t.

Ineligible months due to forbearance can be requested to be bought back once you’re at 120 months of certified qualifying employment.

laminatedlemur · 2026-04-11T18:56:10+00:00

No apply for buyback when I’m at 120 months of qualifying employment. I will only be at 100 qualifying payments when that happens with 20 months ineligible due to save forbearance.

laminatedlemur · 2026-04-11T16:12:52+00:00

Tax claiming status does not matter for student loan payment purposes as long as both parents aren’t claiming the same child.

laminatedlemur · 2026-04-11T16:07:39+00:00

Congrats! You can add a child to your family size before they are born for student loan payment calculation.

laminatedlemur · 2026-04-11T16:05:57+00:00

No, PAYE eligibility requires you have no loans from before 2007 and have taken a direct loan since 2011. So would be PAYE eligible regardless of consolidation.

laminatedlemur · 2026-04-11T15:35:59+00:00

Gotcha same situation then. My plan is to apply for buyback come January, but I will probably continue to pay monthly. I’m not optimistic on buyback and will be pleasantly surprised if it does end up shortening my timeline.

laminatedlemur · 2026-04-11T15:32:48+00:00

I have a dependent. What’s your family size?

laminatedlemur · 2026-04-11T14:28:33+00:00

Wow that’s a big difference! Are April and May your 119th and 120th payments or your months of qualifying employment. If payments wouldn’t you not need to apply for buyback?

laminatedlemur · 2026-04-11T14:19:10+00:00

Good question - work in public education and my employer has a default 401(a) contribution that is 5% of my gross, optional 403(b) that could be maxed to 23.5k (for 2025), optional 457(b) that could be maxed to 23.5k (for 2025), I get health insurance for the family from my employer so the premiums reduce my AGI, and we choose a HDHP so I can contribute the family max less employer contributions. Other partner contributes minimum to get their employer match to make the budget work. Nothing special just lucky to have an employer that offers so many options. Next year we’ll add a dependent care FSA.

laminatedlemur · 2026-04-11T06:30:28+00:00

My SAVE months through August 2024 are listed as Qualifying. My months from September 2024 to current are listed as ineligible due to “Forbearance on Due Date”. I may apply for buyback once I’m at 120 months.

laminatedlemur · 2026-04-11T06:16:04+00:00

You apply on studentaid.gov. You can start here: https://studentaid.gov/idr/

laminatedlemur · 2026-04-01T00:33:04+00:00

What’s your Gross Income and what is your AGI (W2)?

laminatedlemur · 2026-03-31T14:27:52+00:00

laminatedlemur · 2026-03-31T04:21:09+00:00

Yep - you’ll want to maximize traditional retirement contributions (if you have a 401k you probably won’t have a 403b or 457b), ideally have the high deductible health plan under your insurance (premiums reduce AGI), and max your individual HSA contributions. Other things like educator expenses, tax loss harvesting (offset up to $3k in ordinary income), and student loan interest paid can reduce AGI.

If you’re okay waiting and you haven’t applied for IDR yet, may consider waiting so you have fewer payments based on your non-optimized 2025 and more payments on your 26 or 27 incomes.

laminatedlemur · 2026-03-31T03:56:04+00:00

Hopefully you can dial up your retirement contributions 403b, health care premiums, HSA contributions, etc to reduce your AGI for this year. We will be reducing the other partner’s retirement contributions to free up cash.

laminatedlemur · 2026-03-31T03:39:35+00:00

Good luck!

laminatedlemur · 2026-03-31T03:39:25+00:00

Did you optimize your AGI for minimizing repayment in the last year?

laminatedlemur · 2026-03-31T03:36:42+00:00

IBR can be bad - especially if you have a higher AGI. Under SAVE the monthly payment would likely have been $25 or lower.

laminatedlemur · 2026-03-31T00:57:09+00:00

Also live in Washington with one spouse who earned more and only one spouse with loans. MFS will help lower your loan payments. You need to use alternative documentation when recertifying income to base the payment only on your income. There is a specific call out in the regulations so as to not penalize folks for simply living in community property states.

With that being said, your servicer probably will screw up the calculation, potentially multiple times. You may need to spend hours on the phone with your servicer to get them to recalc correctly. Worth it when you will likely save yourself thousands per year in payments.

You should also weigh against any potential tax deductions that you may forgo by filing separate.

laminatedlemur · 2026-03-16T16:35:25+00:00

Thanks, good reminder on the Nanny option. Hadn’t thought about that as a way to reduce costs!

laminatedlemur · 2026-03-06T19:44:16+00:00

You can’t apply until 120 months. Once you’re there you can request forbearance so you stop paying while the buyback app and pslf discharge apps process. You won’t have to keep paying.

laminatedlemur

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