Hello,

When I graduated in March 2014, it was taking me awhile to find a job so I called Great Lakes and applied/qualified for the IBR plan, $0/month until Nov 2015. I, recently, called and asked about PSLF and was told two different things:

The first time I called, I was told I would not qualify for PSLF because I would not get approved when I would need to reapply for IBR in 2015. He said my income (<60k) is too high and to go ahead and proceed with the Standard 10 year Repayment Plan.

The second time I called, I was told that I would qualify for IBR and PSLF. She also told me that I currently don’t need to change my IBR plan ($0/month) or make any payments until Nov 2015 and these $0 payments for the year will count towards my 120 payments.

I’m skeptical and concerned because I want to be as proactive as I can with my loans and if my $0 payments aren’t counting towards my 120 years I’d like to fix that.

I would guess that the first person you talked to was incorrect or confused. Once you are on IBR, you should remain on IBR as long as you submit paperwork every year. Even if you no longer had a financial burden, I think you remain on IBR but might be paying the same amont per month as you would the 10 year plan. This means that if you lost a job or took a pay cut, you could get your payments lowered again. Keep in mind that in order for your payments to count, you must be working at a qualifying job and your loans must be Direct loans. Are you sure of both of these things? You could submit an employment certification form to see whether or not your payments have qualified so far, but your loans will transfer to fedloan servicing and it takes them 4-6 months to do the paperwork. I submitted in December and am still waiting…