You’re responding to a 2+ year-old question, so the original question may be outdated due to the Covid-19 era waivers.

As of this date (and until May 2023), if you consolidate an FFELP loan into a Direct Conoslidation loan, prior payments made under the wrong loan will count towards your PSLF payment total. You can see this on the Dept. of Education website.

Note: once these current waivers expire, then it will also likely revert back to the “old” ways – where past loan payments under different loans won’t count.

I’m confused about this. In the above article it states that the waiver:

[offers] a temporary one-year waiver for those with old FFEL loans or Perkins loans to consolidate into a Direct Loan and let past payments qualify for PSLF. This is a big win – but the consolidation and employment certification must be done by October 31, 2022.

Doesn’t that imply that payments made prior to consolidation will count, even if they’re FFELP?

Back when I was sending the $$$ at the beginning of COVID, I didn’t qualify for the forgiveness so I was trying to NOT get behind on paying this stuff off (I didn’t have the qualifying payment plan). It was only with the temp forgiveness changes that I was able to qualify.

I checked my info and those payments I made don’t count so the 117 is even without those payments. So still 3 left to go. But since my employer is now certified, the one I made should count. I just don’t want to wait until the pause is lifted. What if they pause again and the money runs out before I hit my 120 count? I know that for the TEPSLF, there isn’t a ton of $$$ available and it’s first come, first served

Whoa whoa, wait. Yo realize that each month “paused payments” during Covid count as a payment towards your 120 as long as you certify your employment. So you should never be sending in any actual money towards your loans since March 2020? It doesn’t impact your payment count at all. It’s the first line of the Department of Education FAQ.

The only exception to this is if you have FFEL loans, which weren’t paused. In which case you need to consolidate immediately (by Oct 31) to even qualify for PSLF. But since you have a payment count already, I don’t think this applies to you.

What you need to do right now is get a refund of all of these payments so your money doesn’t go to waste! That’s potentially thousands of dollars you’re throwing away. Here’s how to do it: Refund of your student loan payments.

Because I am hoping to make three payments this fall and not have to wait until after payments are unpaused. I also made payments during most of 2020 which counted toward the 120 (or else I would have more than just 3 payments left). It would be nice to make the last 3 payments and come into 2023 with my 120 payments completed rather than waiting until the pause is lifted. 🙂