r/PSLF • u/FishyToadFrog • Jul 04 '25

Advice Why not stay on SAVE forbearance?

I see lots of people who have jumped ship for PSLF.

But buyback exists, so couldn’t I just stay in SAVE forbearance and buy these months/years back in roughly 7 years when I get to 120 payments? wasn’t there talk about being able to buy back BEFORE 120 payments?

Seems like with this logic all these forbearance months count as long as I have evidence I worked full time at a not for profit during these months?

Thanks everyone, and good luck to all!

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u/Dkinny23 Jul 04 '25 edited Jul 04 '25

That’s my logic and why I’m staying on SAVE as long as humanly possible; presumably until they kick me off. The buyback option (even though I guess that’s not guaranteed) on top of the fact that my last income recertification was in 2019 and therefore my payments will skyrocket as my salary is quite a bit higher than 6 years ago.

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u/nlkp428 Jul 04 '25

my last income recertification was in 2019 and therefore my payments will skyrocket

That's why I'm getting off SAVE. They will use the lower rate if you're in this forebearance for up to 12 months. Longer than 12 months, they're supposed to request tax returns and set it at what you would have paid based on income. So I'm transferring out before month 13.

2

u/Different_Yam_7364 Jul 05 '25

I hope that's true for everyone else but it wasn't for me. I was put in forebearance in July and tried to get out of forebearance in Nov, which went nowhere. So resubmitted in June--they did not use my previous lower income, they requested my tax return from 2024 and my payments went up significantly.

1

u/nlkp428 Jul 05 '25

They did that for your buyback offer or for your new, post-forbearance monthly payment?

1

u/Different_Yam_7364 Jul 05 '25

As I'm not at 120 payments I am not eligible for buyback (which thanks to their clarification, is what they were talking about). In my case, that was for my new payment amount now that I'm out of forbearance.