I consolidated my old FEEL loans to direct federal loans so they could qualify hopefully for the IDR one time credit for time. These were from 1999 – 2003. Then I have fed loans from graduate from 2011-2013. They are not consolidated together into one though. I guess that would require another consolidation. Guess will need to figure out if that makes sense or not.

Depends on the loan type and repayment plan. And if you consolidate, they new loan gets the shortest loan forgiveness period and maximum qualifying payment credits.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) is the “best” option in terms of forgiveness because it provides total forgiveness tax-free. But it requires 10 years of employment. Assuming you started working in 2015, 2025 would be when you get your loans forgiveness. Assuming you’re certifying your employment every year, you can log into MOHELA’s website and see your updated payment count – you just have to get to 120.

But in terms of “paid enough”, you shouldn’t have paid anything in the last 3 years. All paused months count as a qualifying payment as long as you certify your employment. So the payment pause alone has gotten you 1/3 of the way to forgiveness without having to make a single loan payment.