Has anyone else been able to access the loan simulator on studentaid.gov? I have tried all day and it just keeps spinning on a white screen?

I was very lucky to go through most of college debt free, fafsa covered most of it and I only had to pay a few thousand out of pocket each semester. I was able to do it easily with summer and winter job money, and during covid it was peanuts. But after a bad stretch financially, I had to take out 40k in loans to finish my last few semesters. My brother was in the same situation, down to the same rough total, 40k. We each took out parent plus loans on our mother's account.

My mom is an older woman. She is technologically illiterate, as well as generally very ditsy and slow. Sorry, that's really mean (and I know calling a woman "ditsy" is very loaded), but it's relevant. She cannot figure out how to do anything on a phone or a computer, she cannot remember passwords, she cannot fill out forms. She doesn't know anything, she doesn't remember anything, she doesn't understand anything.

The student loan process is already somewhat daunting and complex for the average person, but this element made it impossible for us. I had to do all of the FAFSA stuff for her as well as my own, which made everything vastly more complicated. Renewing my FAFSA each year was a gordian knot. Something was always wrong and it was always tedious to fix because I couldn't access my mother's account, and I'd have to keep resetting passwords and contacting the help line etc. Because of this I wasn't always thorough and just wanted to do what I had to and get it done asap.

I thought that the language of the parent plus loans was fairly clear. The parent is a guarantor who's legally held liable, but it's credited to our college account, so it's our responsibility to pay back. I don't think I was just making a stupid assumption, this was the sincere impression I got after reading the info. Sure enough, when I graduated, I had $40k in debt on my nelnet account.

A year and a half later i've got it down to $28k. The payment is only $328 a month. I have had virtually no issue paying this off. I sometimes have to pay late bc of paycheck timing, i've had to miss a month or two when I was unusually broke, but for the most part this debt hasn't been a problem. The debt on my account is most likely not going to mess up my life.

Since graduating, my mother frequently tells me that fafsa texts/emails her about paying back loans. She doesn't understand the texts, she won't tell me the specific content of the texts, she doesn't remember how any of the student loan debacles went down. Every single time, I say "mom, it's just reminders for my loans bc your name is on them, i'm paying them off, don't worry."

(Before you comment: yes, I have considered the possibility that she has early onset dementia or some other memory issue. We've talked about it as a family.)

Turns out I was dead wrong. My mother neglected to tell me that she got a letter in the mail informing her that she has 9 months to make a payment or else she'll default. This was 6 months ago. I just saw the letter on the counter, neither of us have brought it up because we're both too embarrassed. I'm cutting her a lot of slack and not getting too mad because this was a collective disaster between 3 different people.

After learning this, I realized that the 40k I've been paying off is mostly the unsubsidized FAFSA loans, accrued over the first few years of college. This did not cross my mind at all, because I hadn't accepted one of those loans in years and it all got lost in the mess.

Tl;dr: my family and I didn't quite understand parent plus loans, and got the wrong impression on how they worked. My brother and I are okay with our own loans on our nelnet accounts, but my mother is presumably 80k in debt that she'll default on. Don't ask me for specifics bc I won't remember and won't have access. Just tell me how bad it will be for a low-income 65 year old woman to default on her debt.

Quick question. I have loans through Nelnet. I know the 1% interest reduction offer ends at the end of September. How long will it take to change loan repayment plans and sign up for autopay in order to not miss the deadline? I am trying to wait to switch out of SAVE to IBR as long as possible, but would also like to take advantage of the 1% reduction.

I graduated in 2019 with around $50k in federal and private loans. I paid off my $24k private loan very quickly as the interest was batsh*t crazy. I shifted gears and paid off my car in 2 years, and during that time federal loan repayments were paused due to Covid. I took advantage of that and saved, paid off some other small loans, etc. I’m sure a lot of people have been in the same boat, but since graduating, the status of loans has been so frustrating. Paused, then unpaused, then forgiven (fully, for me as I had a Pell grant as well). Then unforgiven.

I kind of just gave up on caring for a while because so much was unclear (and frustrating), until my partner encouraged me to face it last summer. I paid about $5000 to bring my account up-to-date, but received a notice in the mail a month later that my loan had been sold to a collections company in the full amount - excluding the $5k I had paid. It pissed me off so much that I finally gotten back on track to payments but my credit tanked from near-perfect to 600s and that $5000 was nowhere to be accounted for. I’ve not been contacted since that notice and did not have any wages garnished this past tax season.

I’ve scrolled through this Reddit a bit as I’ve heard after 7 years, they fall off of your credit. I haven’t reached out to collections because I’ve also read that sometimes you can just offer an amount to them as a payoff (not sure how true this is). I am unfortunately at the point of needing a new car in the next year, so I really want to fix my credit. Of course, I want to be responsible as well despite the frustration of being a borrower between 2020-2024 lol.

Any advice and insight appreciated, but please be kind as this topic haunts me and has been a very touchy subject.

I am on the SAVE plan. I have to pick a new plan by end of September. I found out I had cancer October 2025.

I was on maternity leave during chemo and have been on unpaid leave since January. I am still not back at work and still in active cancer treatment.

I logged in a few days ago. The “smallest” pay plan is $1,000 a month. I can’t afford that.

What can I do?

Like everyone else, I've been trying to figure out whether I should switch to RAP or go to IBR. I was on SAVE before this and I figured it made sense to switch to RAP.

It turns out that I'm 82 months into my 240 month repayment journey until forgiveness and it makes more sense for me to switch to IBR. Unfortunately, my months in forbearance did not count.

If you haven't switched to RAP yet, here's how you can see how many months of payments you've made toward your balance even though the assholes in power apparently don't want us to see that information right now:

• Log In: Go to StudentAid.gov on a desktop or laptop computer browser and log into your account.
• Open a New Tab: Keep your logged-in session active, open a completely separate tab in that same browser, and copy/paste this exact URL into the address bar: https://studentaid.gov/app/api/nslds/payment-counter/summary
• Read the Text: The page will load a wall of unformatted code text. Press Ctrl + F (or Cmd + F on Mac) and search for the phrase: qualifyingPaymentCount
• See Your Progress: The number listed right next to that term is your official, certified month count toward your 20-year (240 months) forgiveness

Maybe this is common knowledge, but I didn't know how to find this information. Hope this helps someone!

In may I got a notice that my plus payment was going up to appx $600 from appx $500 effective July. The July debit was the correct amount but the August debit was about $1000. I got on line today and saw my September debit will be about $1200 but no notice about the higher debits. Fortunately I am in a position to afford the higher payments and with the higher payments will be done in less than a year but does anyone have any idea why the increase especially without notice. My income has not increased for the last several years

So seems I got the 90 days to switch to a payment plan via letter but no email or nelnet messages in my account. Anyone have the same issue?

The loan calculation and application is addressed to studentaid.gov.

I can't believe I'm done but I have officially paid off $150,000 of student loan debt and I'm officially debt free.

How i did it? Unfortunately there was not cheat code. All just hard work and dedication and not buying myself anything unless i really needed it.

Worked and still work overtime every week since I started my job.

This debt included a Associate's degree, bachelor's degree and Doctorate degree. I feel like I sacrificed my entire twenties going to school to achieve it and I'm not sure the sacrifice was worth it, but here I am. Somehow I thought that I would feel much more excited once being where i am now..

I’m hoping someone here has been in a similar situation because I feel like I’m caught in a student-loan vortex. There are several different things happening with my loans at the same time, and I’m having a hard time figuring out what the safest path forward is.

Here’s my timeline as clearly as I can lay it out:

2007 – Everest College / Corinthian Colleges I started attending Everest College in February 2007 and took out federal student loans. Navient originally serviced these loans.

2013 – Community college I went back to school at my local community college for an associate’s degree and took out additional federal student loans.

2017 – Bachelor’s degree I attended a different school for my bachelor’s degree and took out additional loans.

June 2018 – Consolidation I consolidated my loans. I ended up with two consolidation loans: one subsidized and one unsubsidized. They were serviced by Aidvantage and were later transferred to MOHELA.

This is where everything gets messy.

Corinthian/Everest discharge

In November 2022, I received an email from StudentAid.gov telling me that my loans would be discharged as part of the Department of Education’s action involving Corinthian Colleges because of widespread misconduct.

Then, in January 2025, I received another email from ED confirming that the federal loans I received to attend a Corinthian-owned school would be discharged.

The email specifically said that if the discharge was still incomplete, I did not have to make payments on the loans being discharged, that ED would discharge the full remaining balance of my eligible loans, and that payments previously made to ED on those loans would be refunded.

My understanding has always been that the portion of my debt attributable to Everest/Corinthian would be discharged, but I would still owe the debt from my community college and bachelor’s degree.

However, because all of these loans were eventually consolidated, I have no idea what my balance will actually look like after the Corinthian discharge is finally processed.

PSLF

I’ve worked for a PSLF-qualifying employer for about 11 years.

I currently have 94 qualifying PSLF payments, so I am 26 payments short of 120.

Some periods don’t currently qualify because I was in school/in-school deferment.

However, I currently have approximately 25 months that appear potentially eligible for PSLF buyback.

My plan was pretty straightforward: get onto an eligible repayment plan, make approximately two more qualifying payments, and then request buyback for the remaining 24 months so I could reach 120.

SAVE complication

At some point I was placed into SAVE, and eventually my loans went into the SAVE-related forbearance.

After receiving notice that I needed to select a new repayment plan, I applied for IBR, because that appeared to give me the best payment.

My intention was to get back into repayment, make the couple of payments I still needed, and then pursue PSLF buyback.

Instead, last week I received notice that my IBR application had been canceled because my loans are in forbearance.

At first I thought, “Of course they’re in forbearance — that’s the whole reason I’m trying to change plans.”

But another Redditor suggested that the problem might actually be a Borrower Defense/Corinthian forbearance, rather than just the SAVE forbearance.

Call with MOHELA Tier 2

Yesterday I spoke with a Tier 2 representative who looked more closely at my account.

She confirmed that I apparently have two different forbearances affecting my loans, including a Borrower Defense forbearance.

She told me that I could opt out of the Borrower Defense forbearance so I could presumably enter repayment.

BUT she warned me that opting out could potentially interfere with or complicate the Corinthian discharge, (which, she said, potentially could forgive all my student debt?) that I’m entitled to.

Her other suggestion was to stay in the Borrower Defense forbearance and wait for the Corinthian discharge to finish.

She said that after the discharge is processed, I could enter an eligible repayment plan. By then, enough additional time may have passed that I could potentially use PSLF buyback to reach 120 without needing to make additional regular payments.

That sounds great in theory, but I’m nervous about just sitting in forbearance when I don’t fully understand what happens next.

What I’m trying to figure out

Should I stay in the Borrower Defense forbearance until the Corinthian discharge is completed, or should I opt out so I can get back into repayment and continue progressing toward PSLF?

Could opting out of the Borrower Defense forbearance actually jeopardize or interfere with the Corinthian group discharge? This is probably my biggest concern.

Because my Everest loans were consolidated with loans from schools that are NOT part of the Corinthian discharge, is there any way to determine now what portion of my current consolidation balance should ultimately be discharged? I would really like to know approximately what balance I will still owe afterward.

If I remain in Borrower Defense forbearance and the Corinthian discharge is eventually completed, what happens to the remaining consolidation balance? Does the forbearance automatically end? Do I then choose a repayment plan? Could I automatically be placed into the Standard plan?

Since SAVE is ending/changing separately, does anything happening with SAVE affect my Borrower Defense forbearance, or are those two completely separate things?

Most importantly for PSLF: Can the months I spend in Borrower Defense forbearance potentially be bought back later for PSLF? If so, waiting may actually make the most sense because I could eventually have enough buyback-eligible months to reach 120 without making additional payments.

I also called the Borrower Defense hotline that the Tier 2 representative gave me. They weren't able to answer my questions and basically told me to open a feedback case and hope someone could give me more information.

I’m really hesitant to opt out of anything or make a change until I understand the consequences. I don't want to accidentally jeopardize the Corinthian discharge, but I also don't want to sit in a forbearance for months or years only to find out later that I hurt my PSLF progress.

Has anyone here had Corinthian/Everest loans that were consolidated with loans from other schools AND also been pursuing PSLF?

If so, what happened when your Corinthian portion was discharged? And did anyone successfully use PSLF buyback for the Borrower Defense forbearance period?

Please ask me any questions you need. I know this is complicated, and I have a hard time keeping all the dates, consolidations, servicers, forbearances, and rules straight, but I’ll try to provide anything that would help.

At this point, I mainly want to know: What is the lowest-risk path that preserves both my Corinthian discharge and my ability to reach PSLF as soon as possible?

Currently freaking out. I graduated undergrad with zero student loan debt and I was extremely happy about this. However, I started a Grad school program that is 2 years long. I am currently one year in, only have a year left of school. I will be getting my Master’s in May in Medical Imaging with state registered licences in XRAY, CT, & MRI. However, I am freaking out right now. I checked my NelNet account and I currently have over $90,000 in student debt. I believe I will finish school with around 120k in student loans. It has been a rollercoaster of emotions. Of course I knew what I was getting myself into when I agreed to the student loans when I first started the program. I am a first generation student so I cannot ask my parents for advice or money as I am the first in my family to experience this. At first, I was pretty calm about the loans because people around me would say “they’re student loans, you don’t have to pay them all off… as long as you pay little by little.” But now I am stressed. I want to be able to buy a house, a car, and travel, and live comfortably without the stress of this debt. I currently do not have any other kind of debt. No car debt, no credit card debt, only student loan debt. But I am scared for the future. Like I mentioned earlier, I still have one more year of school left… this fall semester, the spring and then the summer semester and then I am done. Any advice would be helpful. PLEASE

I was planning on choosing a plan within a few days of the deadline of October first but seeing conflicting information. That if I wait until the last day or so, it wont be enough time, especially with the backlog of so many trying around that time and it will most likely choose the standard plan for me. Also saying that it will take about a month to process so today should be the latest with choosing a plan. Then seeing that when you apply, a temporary forbearance is immediately placed on it while they have time to process it. Then I wondered if I could choose a little over two weeks before the deadline since it will be placed in a temporary forbearance as well.

For anyone that has applied already, is the temporary forbearance immediate when you submit or only if you're able to speak to someone directly or can it be anytime before the deadline?

Update: I just checked studentaid.gov and it says I don't need to recertify until January, 2028. I still have to recertify but since the SAVE plan has ended, I am somehow still grandfathered back into the ICR plan that I had before being pushed onto SAVE because that was what I was on for years I guess. All of this is still confusing and part of the reason why I wondered how close I could recertify is because my job is ending at the end of September, seemed like it would align with when I had to recertify by October first but now I might leave a couple weeks earlier and recertify at least two weeks sooner so there isn't a lapse and getting a huge bill for a month or two while it is being processed and I should be put on a temporary forebearance and on ICR until January 2028. I am now stressing with wondering if I can still even change it back to ICR because it looks like I should but I thought I had seen that some people couldn't even though they were supposed to be allowed to do so. I hate all of this so much.

Hi there, I’m getting mixed feedback as to what I should do. Do we have to switch by the end of September or when I get my Nelnet notice (which can happen anytime until next year right)? I’ve been waiting for my Nelnet notice but since the month just started I wanted some clarity and maybe some valid sources to that information. Thanks

Title. There’s debate if all payments that qualify for IBR forgiveness also qualify for RAP forgiveness. We know it doesn’t work the other way around (RAP -> IBR), but a lot of people are reporting it just says 2056 when they look at plan option projected forgiveness or ‘null’ on the backend data.

Does anyone that’s actually made the switch to RAP show anything but 2056? I’m tempted to apply for IBR for a month or two from SAVE instead of RAP until this stuff is confirmed since I don’t necessarily trust implementation and those years are crucial to me.

It’s possible though everything is fine and nothing will show until they’re able to process everyone. But at the same time RAP may be stricter on what qualifies than IBR is (e.g. must be made on time/in full, etc) even if how it’s written says they should generally transfer. It seems like at least somewhat of a red flag their systems aren’t populating it.

I know I *have* to given what the administration is doing, though according to my loan servicer: my SAVE plan ends September 20th, 2030. Forbearance ends October 31st, 2028. So do I have to apply for a new repayment plan?

This whole process has been confusing and overwhelming. I just wish someone would make student loan debt and data disappear. 😩 Or may the universe let me find a suitcase of $150k on the ground so I don't have to think about this anymore.

Hi-

I was wondering if anyone was in a similar boat. I am currently on SAVE and planning on switching to the New IBR, but I only see the old IBR as one of the options. (Edit: I know I qualify for the New IBR.)

I haven't received the notice to switch yet. I have Nelnet.

If you experienced something similar, did you contact Nelnet to fix it or did it automatically get fixed eventually?

Thank you!

Hey everyone. Recent grad with a balance of around 400K (380ish balance, the rest interest) after 3 degrees. My interest rates range from decent (3% from my earliest undergrad) up to 9% for federal and 12% for a private loan. I plan to attack the private loans to get those gone and done. And the federal I’m thinking of leaving on an income driven plan (whatever still exists) to allow me a lower payment in case of of emergency but want to kinda attack semi-aggressively (more than minimum but want to live my life after being in school nonstop until 28). I just don’t know if it’s better to leave things as they are or refinance some of the higher interest loans in chunks to get lower rates and attack those or what to do?? Advice please?

I don't know what to do. The IBR will have me paying only for 4 more years, but I can't afford that monthly payment. It's also basing the estimate on last year's tax return, but I make less than that by about 20-30K/year. Hopefully it's okay to paste the info below.

Here are my options:

Extended Graduated Repayment Plan

Monthly Payment Over Time: $535 -> $1,089

Payments start low and gradually increase every two years. You will repay your loans over an extended period of 25 years.

Total To Be Paid: $218,999

Principal Paid: $112,220

Interest Paid

Interest paid explanation: $106,779

Discharge Amount: $0

End of Term Date: Mar 2050

Graduated Repayment Plan

Monthly Payment Over Time: $538 -> $947

Payments start low and gradually increase every two years. You will repay your loans over 10 years (for most loans, but it is usually longer for consolidation loans).

Total To Be Paid: $239,631

Principal Paid: $112,220

Interest Paid: $127,411

Discharge Amount: $0

End of Term Date: Oct 2054

Standard Repayment Plan

Monthly Payment: $663

Fixed monthly payments are usually set at a 10-year repayment term, with longer terms possible for consolidation loans.

Total To Be Paid: $226,535

Principal Paid: $112,219

Interest Paid: $114,316

Discharge Amount: $0

End of Term Date: Feb 2055

Extended Fixed Repayment Plan

Monthly Payment: $718

This plan allows you to pay a fixed monthly payment over an extended period of 25 years.

Total To Be Paid: $204,784

Principal Paid: $112,219

Interest Paid: $92,565

Discharge Amount: $0

End of Term Date: Jun 2050

Repayment Assistance Plan

Monthly Payment: $1,096

Monthly payments are based on a percentage of your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI), ranging from 1% to 10% depending on your income level, with a minimum payment of $10 per month.

Total To Be Paid: $149,123

Principal Paid: $104,101

Interest Paid: $45,022

Discharge Amount: $0

End of Term Date: Jul 2036

Income-Based Repayment (IBR) Plan

Monthly Payment: $1,232

Your monthly payments are limited to 15% of your discretionary income, depending on when you received your first loans.

Total To Be Paid: $50,505

Principal Paid: $23,526

Interest Paid: $26,979

Discharge Amount: $80,576

End of Term Date: Jan 2030

I was in a program that required two years of employment through a position in human services to pay off a portion of your student loans. I completed my two years recently and my payment finally went through. I ended up owing $2k of my own money at the end, but was able to save up quite a bit over the past two years and paid off the rest in full.

These past two years have been the hardest of my life and there were many times I did not think I was going to make it through. While not completely debt free (car payments), I can breathe a sigh of relief.

I recently found out there’s a special forbearance form for teachers who are pursuing Teacher Loan Forgiveness (TLF).

If your loan amount is under $5000 or $17,500 (depending on your teaching area) you won’t have to make any payments while you work towards fulfilling the 5 years of service needed for TLF.

Has anyone applied for this forbearance? If you did, what did you put as the end of the current academic year? Do you try and get the whole year covered or just stick to the academic year dates?

How do you afford paying off as a contractor? Given that it’s unstable and there’s set employment limits (let’s say 13 week contract hard stop)

After doing the income recertification…do you just file for deferment each time your work contract is up? Can you do this multiple times a year?

I can’t believe as of today I’m officially student loan debt free after 56 months of paying it off as fast as I could!! This loan includes 2 Bachelor’s degree, the other one from going to a private school!

I cannot do a PSLF because I am 67 and retired, but my payments are starting up again in 2028 and I will not be able to afford them. I was a teacher. I will not be able to afford the payments on a pension. Is there anything I can do?

My wife had some student loans before we met that were in deferment she says. She did not have to pay anything from 2020 on, but at the end of June she got a notice that she would need to start paying back.

She has not done anything and she has a 3 month window.

I am starting to get very worried this will screw us, specially since I was just laid off, but still was the main salary earner in out household.

I had some questions:

What does she need to do? She says she goes to the site and it has a calculator, but not sure where to go from there?

Are there tips on what plan is best to pay back?

Is this based on my salary too, even if I did not have the loan or she had it before we met?

Can they garnish my wages? Or mess with the severance from my lay off?

is there anything we can do since I was laid off?

What type of professional can guide me/my wife on this? Would the CPA that does our taxes be able to help.

I am so lost and worried. My main concern is that she doesn't do anything and it screws us or locks us into a worse payment plan. I saw in the calculator thing payments up to 1k a month that would be too much.

I guess our main concerns are what would be the best plans for us, since I got laid off and she is not working a lot, and if I need to talk to someone that can help make it easier/better in some way.

I'm having a terrible time trying to recertify PAYE, which I've been on for several years. It started when FSA sent me a message in April that auto-recert failed and that I had to manually upload an application or send directly to my servicer. The FSA application didn't work for a week straight so I sent one directly to my servicer, MOHELA, with tax returns, back in early May. Then my application just sat for months, right up until my deadline in August. I called every 2 weeks and was told it was still "processing." Then I got a message that I didn't send proof of income (which I very much did), so I sent that in again and called to let them know. The agent said they had everything they needed but because my deadline had passed, they'd put me into a 60 day forbearance. The agent said they thought my application would be finalized soon.

Nothing happened for several weeks. I sent a message asking what was going on, and got this entirely new language in response: "Processing has resumed for the Income-Based Repayment (IBR), Pay As You Earn (PAYE), and Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR) applications. All other IDR applications will remain on hold at this time. MOHELA will place your account into a Processing Forbearance for up to 60 days....If you submitted an IDR application prior to April 27th, 2025, and your application has not been processed, you can reapply at studentaid.gov/IDR."

Wait, so they were NOT processing PAYE recert applications until now?! Why?! And should I resubmit a new application after waiting and calling and jumping through every hoop for months?! I applied maybe two weeks after that April 27 deadline but clearly some glitch happened around then that also affected me. I'm just worried that the recert app won't be processed very quickly or will go to the back of the line when only 60 days of forbearance counts for PSLF. So I'll be stuck between losing PSLF credit or paying an insane amount under the standard plan.

Does anyone have any advice?!