EnShanté

Today, March 1, 2026, marks the month my student loans become eligible for forgiveness under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. While I’m happy the day is finally here, I’m not jumping for joy yet because the process isn’t going to be as seamless as I thought.

What happened?

In November 2025, I realized that my October payment was deemed ineligible for forgiveness, so I called to inquire. The first StudentAid.gov representative told me that it was ineligible because my loans were in forbearance. This didn’t make sense for two reasons: one, my loans had been in forbearance since March 2025 — every payment from then to September was deemed eligible, so why not this one? — and two, I was in an Administrative Forbearance.

According to their website, Administrative Forbearances are eligible for PSLF. The second representative that I spoke to immediately after told me that it was a mistake on their end that would be cleared up once I certified my employment.

When I certified my employment in January 2026, nothing changed, and the second representative (the first reps are never helpful) told me that I needed to contact my student loan provider to find out why they weren’t reporting my payments. Mohela said they weren’t reporting them because they don’t count toward forgiveness since they’re in forbearance… 😕 I was feeling pretty defeated and annoyed that day, so I didn’t push the issue further. I just confirmed that I would be able to buy back the months and planned to do so. Oh, I asked the Mohela rep what they counted my October through December payments as, and they said “extra payments.” Okay…

What’s next?

Tomorrow, I’m going to begin the process of certifying my employment for the first quarter of the year. Once that’s updated (after about a month or so) I’ll submit the Buyback form. They’ll tell me how much I have to pay to buy back the months; I’ll pay, and hopefully, my loans will be forgiven by June 2026. I did (and am doing) everything I was supposed to; I hope they follow through on their end. 

I’m going to track and share my progress here, so I’ll be back with an update!