I have over 200k in debt from law school, and applied for REPAYE, but found out only one of my loans qualified. I began looking into consolidation, to get all of my federal loans into REPAYE, but when I read the fine print in my consolidation application, I found language that stated that none of the payments I made prior to consolidation will count toward forgiveness. Since I’m 4 years into my 2 years, this is a little concerning. However, my interest accrues at soemthing like $800 a month, so I would benefit a lot from REPAYE. Is it true that consolidating my student loans will start my clock over on forgiveness, and I’m looking at another 25 years instead of 21? I’ve attached a screen grab.

I believe so….consolidating will basically pay off all of your loans and a brand new loan will be created, wiping out any PSLF or IBR forgiveness years already completed. Keep in mind that the 25 year forgiveness as it is now will be considered taxable income, so you might want to calculate which scenario would hit harder once that happens. (this could change, but that’s the way it is now.) For example, determine will your balance be when you are eligible for forgiveness under both scenarios, then calculate how much taxes you’d have to pay. Keep in mind that a consolidation will raise your interest slightly, as it is rounded up to the nearest 1/8 of a percent when doing the weighted average.