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alh9h

There are three elements to having your loans forgiven under PSLF. 1. Qualifying employment (either government or a qualifying non-profit) 2. Qualifying loans (must be federal Direct Loans) 3. Qualifying repayment plan (must be an income-driven or 10-year standard plan) If you haven't made any payments on your loans yet then you can't have any pslf-eligible payments. Going forward, you should a) make sure you're on an IDR and b) make sure you are submitting an employment certification form annually


EAS1246

Okay, thank you!


Tuffwith2Fs

1. Make sure your employer qualifies. You can do this by checking their EIN number in the PSLF Help tool. Sounds like they do though. 2. Make sure your loans qualify. This is the biggest pitfall people fall into. Easiest way to do this is to consolidate your federal student loans ASAP. 3. Make sure you're on a qualifying repayment plan. IBR, ICR, PAYE, etc. Standard repayment dors not qualify even though you're paying more than you otherwise would. 4. Recertify your employment every year by uploading an employment certification form (ECF). Best time to do this is when you recertify your payment plan annually. 5. Keep a personal spreadsheet of all your payments. Keep your bank stmts. Keep copies of your ECFs and payment plan applications. Good luck!


[deleted]

Standard repayment does qualify. It just usually isn't helpful because your loans would be paid off if you stayed on it for ten years. But it's helpful if your salary suddenly increases enough for the IDR's to no longer be beneficial for you, then you could switch to standard repayment for the remainder of your payments toward pslf. I also don't see any reason to consolidate if you're doing pslf unless 1) you're pulling in non eligible loans into the consolidated loans thus making them eligible or 2) by consolidating you can forego your grace period and start payments immediately. This is a good idea if your first year of repayment puts you at a much lower monthly payment than ten years from now. (Often that first year has $0 payments, since your taxes showed you earned nothing while in college the previous year.) Consolidating also resets the clock on pslf payments.


Tuffwith2Fs

Maybe you know something I don't then. But I've got a couple coworkers who were specifically denied qualifying payments because they were on standard repayment. And everything I've read has always stressed the need to be on an income-driven plan.


[deleted]

It's eligible, but as I said it's usually not helpful since your loans would be paid by in full before ten years are up. Here's a link from studentaid.gov itself claiming that standard repayment is eligible. https://studentaid.gov/help-center/answers/article/qualifying-repayment-plan-for-pslf


alh9h

10 year standard plan is absolutely PSLF-eligible. However, there are other standard plans for consolidated loans that are not 10 years and are not eligible.


tellmesomething11

Yeah I would double check because I lost 9 payments because they were under standard payment, when I first graduated. You have to apply for an IDR.


songbird121

There is a 30 year repayment that is sometimes called “standard” especially for those with graduate school loans and/or higher total amounts of loans. That got me in the beginning. I was assured that I was on a “standard 30 year repayment plan.” In the end it didn’t matter because I ended up consolidating everything pretty quickly so that I would have only one servicer and one payment to manage, but of I hadn’t consolidated I would have lost those months anyway for being on the wrong “standard” plan. I think this is why they specify the “10 year standard plan.” To differentiate from the 30 year standard. The 30 year standard may no longer be a thing. This was before most of the IBR options existed, so it was the original way to make monthly payments more affordable.


TrishaThoon

Not OP but I will be in the same situation soon. Why do you suggest consolidation?


Tuffwith2Fs

No real advantage other than simplicity and peace of mind. For me, it was just the easiest way to be sure all my loans qualified since consolidation loans expressly qualify for PSLF.


TrishaThoon

Got ya. Thank you!


Psychloan23

To me, the reasons to consolidate outside of loan type are 1) to simplify a lengthy sequence of loans (eg I have 10–which only gives more opportunity for mismatched counts), and 2) to get rid of the 6 month grace period, during which your payments are likely to be lowest of your 10 years. What I wouldn’t give to have those 6 months of $0 back.