The buyback opportunity is available for borrowers who currently have a balance on their Direct loans and are pursuing PSLF. This will allow borrowers who would have 120 qualifying payments but were in certain types of deferment or forbearance buyback those periods to receive forgiveness.
Certain periods will not be eligible for buyback, including:
- Periods of in-school deferment
- Grace periods (the three to six month long period after you graduate before your loans go into repayment)
- Default or bankruptcy periods
- Periods on loans before consolidating. Direct Consolidations loans will only be eligible for any payments made after disbursement on the new consolidation loan.
Borrowers must be at 120 qualifying months at an eligible employer to be eligible for this program. We recommend that borrowers wait to see the updates later this year with the Account Adjustment before buying back any periods of deferment or forbearance. The Account Adjustment will count various periods of deferment and forbearance towards qualifying payments. You can read more about that here.
To request a buyback, you will submit a Reconsideration Request on the FSA website. You will want to state "I have at least 120 months of approved qualifying employment, and I am seeking PSLF or TEPSLF discharge through PSLF buyback. Please assess my eligibility for PSLF buyback." in the request. You will then receive the amount that you will need to pay and you will have 90 days to pay.