Hi Heather,

A few years ago a student loan advisory firm (which is still around but which I’m not mentioning for confidentiality) assisted me for a fee in restructuring my student loan payments to make my payments more manageable at the time (previous job did not pay well) and to enroll me in PSLF.  I was told by them that my participation on a board of a 501(c)(3) (which was/is not my primary job and did/does not meet the 30 hours a week criteria) nonetheless qualified me for PSLF since the “rules are not clearly defined and if you have multiple jobs it counts.”  They submitted all of the PSLF applications and employer certifications on my behalf, and I received credit for my student loan payments going back to when I started as a board member.

I now have a much healthier salary at a fairly large law firm, but remain on IBR which has adjusted pursuant to my tax returns, etc.  I continue to devote my time to the board of the 501(c)(3) throughout the year and I expect to do so for years to come. The advisor suggested that I not pay more than the minimum under IBR, since I would have the PSLF eligible loans forgiven after the requisite number of payments under PSLF.

Should I be worried about my eligibility to ultimately have my loans forgiven? Presumably when the ultimate forgiveness application is out, it will require an income tax return/employer verification, no? Is this advisor offering shady advice and should they be reported?  If I’m not going to have my loans forgiven, I’d rather start paying extra towards principal and reduce the amount of interest I’ll end up paying, along with the payoff period.

I’d be cautious of any student loan advisory firm. Most charge money for things that you can do on your own easily. The fact that you mention that they submit all pslf applications and employer certifications on your behalf is concerning…are you sure that this is legit?

Your loans should be with Fedloan servicing at this point, if you successfully submitted employer certification forms. If they aren’t, you’re being scammed. Logging in to your account at Fedloan servicing, can you see the number of payments that they have counted as qualifying payments for PSLF purposes? If so, that’s at least a step in the right direction that forms were submitted successfully.

You have to be working 30+ hours a week at a qualifying place of employment, or multiple qualifying places on a part time basis as long as all the hours total 30 or more. The HR dept should be signing off on your forms and dictating how many hours you work at that particular place of employment. If you are working at two places of employment that qualify at the same time, and your total is 30+ hours per week, you should have nothing to worry about. When it comes time for forgiveness, you have to submit a forgiveness application as well as the final employment certification form (or all of them if you haven’t been submitting them). These Employment certification forms are what they use to verify your employment. If they are accepting your employment certification forms, you must have multiple places of employment that qualify, or someone is incorrectly stating the amount of hours you work at the board, which could have negative consequences if it is ever discovered. You are ultimately held liable for all forms submitted, so please do check them for accuracy.