Payments jumping to 741 dollars on IBR
Hi all, longtime lurker, first time poster who's seen a lot of people in a similar situation. I made the mistake of freaking out about the end of SAVE deadline and applied through StudentAid for the IBR plan mid-June. It pulled in my tax information, since I'm still opted in from when I switched plans in 2023, and showed that my monthly payment was expected to be 50 dollars (which I now know is a glitch). I got the first notice from MOHELA that my payments were going to be $0 from July 2026 to October 2027, and then go up to $741 then. I did the whole freak out thing, then realized this was a stupid generic payment schedule change, since the IDR application still hadn't processed.
Then, last week, I got an email from MOHELA notifying me that my IDR application had processed and I had a new payment schedule - and suddenly now I owe the $741 beginning at the end of THIS month. The letter does say "IBR" at the top, not the generic IDR. It also has me making payments over 10 years, which seems like I was placed in the standard plan.
For context, I owe $68,361 total, a combination of undergrad and grad. AGI from 2025 taxes is $41,416, filing single with no dependents. When I went back to FSA and used the calculator again, it showed that my IBR payment would be just over $200, and RAP was even lower.
Should I call MOHELA and ask them to verify their calculation, or should I just reapply for IBR through FSA? Do I have to specifically ask for the administrative forbearance, or will it go into affect if I have them recalculate?
I have enough in savings to cover this month's payment if it comes to that, but I don't know how I will manage in the future. I have a decent salary, but after taxes, insurance, and paying into pension, I only bring home about a third of that. I also have significant medical bills from managing a chronic condition and my rent just recently went up. I also have a credit card payment every month from when I ran up my balance during the pandemic (as a graduate student assistant I didn't qualify for unemployment assistance). I also don't have a car, and was hoping to be able to get one this coming year (I live in an area that's very car-oriented and hard to get around without one, as public transit is unreliable), but with this new payment there's no way I would be able to afford another monthly payment and gas, insurance, etc. I'm also realizing that I will most likely never buy a house, or at least have my own apartment without a roommate. I just feel stuck, and this feels like being kicked repeatedly when so many things in my life are already going to shit.
ETA: When logging into my FSA account, it still shows the IBR application as "In Review," and my loan dashboard shows that I'm in SAVE with a recertification date of September 2027. It also says Enrollment Start as June 8, 2026, which is when I submitted the IBR application??? None of this makes sense.