If you are working toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), you may have heard about PSLF Buyback — a way some borrowers can address months that did not count because they were in deferment or forbearance, by paying amounts tied to what an income-driven payment would have been. The rules, caps, and eligibility come from the U.S. Department of Education and your loan servicer — not from any website calculator.
We still thought it would help to add a simple, transparent illustrative estimate right inside our existing Student Loan tool, so you can see a ballpark lump sum and how many payments might remain toward 120 under a few clear assumptions.
Where to find it
- Open the Student Loan (RAP) calculator from the site navigation or the home page.
- Scroll to Past Payment History.
- Check Working toward PSLF (Public Service Loan Forgiveness).
- The PSLF Buyback (illustrative estimate) section appears below your PSLF qualifying plan choice (IBR, RAP, or ICR).
How to use it
- Qualifying payments already made: Enter this at the top of Past Payment History, same as before. The buyback math uses it to show payments remaining to 120 and a “before and after” view.
- Months you might buy back: Enter how many months you are modeling (for example, months in deferment or forbearance you hope could count after buyback). The tool caps this at 120.
- Assume each bought-back month costs: Choose either the same as my first-year PSLF payment from this calculator (it follows the PSLF plan you selected: IBR, RAP, or ICR), or enter a custom amount per month if you have a figure from your servicer or want to test a different assumption.
The results show an estimated lump sum, your assumed per-month amount, qualifying payments after buyback (capped at 120), and payments remaining to 120 before and after the buyback months you entered. If you enter more buyback months than you need to reach 120 in the scenario, the tool adds a short note so you do not double-count in your head.
What this is not
- It is not an official quote from Mohela or any servicer.
- It does not recreate month-by-month historical IDR math (your income in past years can differ a lot from today).
- It does not decide eligibility. For the real program description, start with PSLF Buyback on StudentAid.gov.
Everything runs in your browser like the rest of the tool; nothing you type is sent to our servers.
Open the Student Loan tool and expand the PSLF section to try the buyback estimate alongside your plan comparison.