u/Jaded-Skin8049

I just wanted to provide everyone with a Mohela customer service wait time reference point, given how long they can be sometimes, in case that helps anyone else in planning calls to them. I called the customer service line this morning, Wednesday, October 7th, at about 8:20 a.m. EST. I called 1-888-866-4352, listened to about two minutes of their notices, then when given a menu of options, I pressed 6 for "more options." It then asked for my social security # or account #, and the last four digits of a phone number on file, and then gave me a second menu of options, where I chose 5 for all other questions. Then it had me listen to a couple more minutes of notices, but an initial representative answered almost immediately thereafter. My question was related to forbearances, so of course she transferred me to an advanced agent, and from there I waited approximately 20 minutes for that person to answer.

That was about the same amount of time, maybe a little less, when I called on a Tuesday back in July and was transferred to an advanced agent. I also called that day around the same time in the morning. Today, I also called back at about 9:15 a.m. just to check the prompts before writing this post to make sure I was accurate and the approximate wait time for the initial agent was still only 30 seconds (I have no idea what the wait time for an advanced agent would have been at that point, though).

All in all, not terrible, and the moral of the story is call before 8:30 on any day that is not a Monday (I heard Mondays are atrocious). I've seen horror stories of people waiting hours or having to take an entire day off to spend all of that time waiting on hold, so I hope this provides a little help to anyone else who is also trying to navigate this ridiculous storm.

Government attorney here. In March 2026, I reached my 120 months of PSLF-eligible employment, and had 108 certified payments. I submitted a buyback request for the 12 payments I need, which are missing due to the SAVE forbearance. (Side note: I got off the SAVE forbearance last summer when I switched back to IBR and started making payments again.) Of course, my buyback is still pending. I have since made two more payments and am still at the eligible employer, so I submitted another ECF since I have not yet received my buyback offer. That ECF has been processed and I am now sitting at 110 payments, with 122 months of eligible service.

I am confident that the SAVE months are eligible for buyback and that I have done everything correctly, but much less confident that the U.S. Department of Education won't mess something up. I am getting to the point where my PSLF job is unbearable due to a toxic work environment and I have like 8-9 private firms who have asked me to come work for them. I am a very risk-averse person, particularly financially, but I'm at my wits end and am ready to move on with my life (probably not unlike many of you). My main concern is that I'll leave my current employer, buyback won't be approved, and I'll be stuck with a huge amount of debt with 10 months or less until forgiveness if I had kept working here. One of the prospective private firms, the one I really want to go with for lots of reasons including the fact that they want to bring me on as a partner, has told me that, in the event that the Department of Education does not approve my buyback and I need to do some PSLF-eligible employment, they have no problem with me taking on a second job, or even scaling back on the firm's work to take on the second job, for however many months I need to fulfill the remainder of the 120 months. In fact, they told me they have an attorney there now that works both for them and as a patent attorney for the federal government.

I'm not wrong in thinking that this is a hugely positive factor and really alleviates the risk of me leaving now and going somewhere else, correct?

I'm thinking about taking a few months of FMLA to give myself a break after dealing with some serious medical issues with one of my children, and I know the months during FMLA will also count, so by the time I leave, it would likely put the remaining months I need (assuming no buyback offer at that point) at around 6 months. In my mind, this is a viable option to be able to leave my current employer, go somewhere else and be happier and paid MUCH better, but to also have a back-up plan to still be able to address loan forgiveness if buyback falls through, but am I crazy?