How to Identify How Much IDR Forgiveness Credit You Actually Have?

A new income-driven repayment (IDR) forgiveness tracker has just dropped on the Student Aid website. It was released literally at the last minute during the final days of the Biden administration. But can you actually trust it?

More importantly, how can you know if your IDR forgiveness count is correct?

We’ll walk you through how to verify your IDR forgiveness credit so you can be sure you’re getting the relief you deserve.

IDR payment count tracker: A new feature for borrowers

For years, borrowers pursuing Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) had access to a payment count tracker. But borrowers going for IDR forgiveness were left in the dark — no such tracking method existed.

In early 2025, the IDR payment tracker launched, giving you a way to see your progress toward loan forgiveness. It uses your payment data while you were enrolled in an IDR plan to predict when you would first be eligible for student loan forgiveness in the private sector.

It also adds payment credit under the formula that existed during the IDR Account Adjustment. 

How was your IDR forgiveness credit number determined?

Wondering how your IDR forgiveness credit was determined? Here’s how it works:

• If you’re enrolled in New IBR or PAYE, the payment count tracker knows you have to pay for 240 months, or 20 years, before receiving forgiveness.
• If you’re enrolled in any other income-driven plan, the number is 300 months, or 25 years, of qualifying payment.
• Every month of eligible payment credit counts down from that total.

First, the tracker will look at all payments made on an income-driven repayment plan since September 2023. The SAVE plan forbearance is not included in that calculation.

Before that date, the Biden administration’s formula from the IDR account adjustment will be used to determine how much credit you should have on each individual loan.

Different formula calculations for consolidated vs. unconsolidated loans

If you consolidate your loans, your IDR forgiveness credit follows a different formula than loans that remain unconsolidated.

If you consolidated before July 2024:

• All payments of any kind are counted towards IDR forgiveness.
• Many types of deferment and longer-term forbearances also counted towards forgiveness. 
• The total payment credit applied to your new consolidated loan should be whatever your oldest loan was that was included in the consolidation. 

If you have unconsolidated loans:

• The formula for your payment credit is based on each individual loan, which might have separate forgiveness dates across your account.

Quick way to determine your IDR forgiveness credit

You can get a rough idea of your IDR forgiveness credit by using this formula:

1. Count all payments made from September 2023 to the present.
2. Add up to 41 months for the COVID-19 student loan pause (March 13, 2020, to September 1, 2023).
3. Add all months from before the COVID-19 pause. To do this, try to remember when you entered the workforce for the first time. If you went back to get another degree, back out any time when you were enrolled as a full-time student. Because of the IDR account adjustment, most periods pre-COVID count towards forgiveness unless you were in a very short-term forbearance.
4. If you have a consolidation loan, know that the amount of credit you received for payments pre-COVID would be based on whatever loan was the oldest that you added to the consolidation (this is only true for consolidations prior to July 2024).

The full way to identify your IDR forgiveness count

The only complete way to know how much IDR forgiveness credit you should have is by looking at your NSLDS file.

For clients who do a student loan consultation with us, we do this with you.

You have to look at your loan payment history and apply the rules of the IDR account adjustment to what’s going on currently with your payment history.

Why you can’t fully trust the IDR payment count tracker

The main reason you can’t “set it and forget it” with your IDR payment count tracker is that the tracker itself is not fully trustworthy. While it's a helpful tool, it’s far from perfect.

As the tracker was introduced in a rushed way at the end of an ongoing administration, we’ve seen numerous problems with the payment count either not being high enough or being too high for others.

For example, some borrowers did not have their full payment history accounted for with their consolidation loan credit. 

For other borrowers, we’ve seen the tracker incorrectly count their in-school deferment when that was not supposed to count under the rules of the IDR account adjustment. 

With the Trump administration actively reviewing numerous Biden-era programs, there’s also a possibility at some point the payment count tracker gets removed or edited.

Always double-check your payment history, verify discrepancies with your servicer, and stay informed — because small errors could cost you years of extra payments.

Know when you should get forgiveness

At the end of the day, tracking your own path to forgiveness is the best way to make sure it happens on time.

The IDR payment count tracker is a good first step, and it will likely improve over time, but it shouldn’t be something borrowers can count on completely.

For best results, calculate when you believe you should get forgiveness and be ready to appeal if you need to. And if you’re getting additional credit that you don’t think you would be entitled to, you are not under an obligation to point that out. That’s the responsibility of Federal Student Aid.

Just know when you expect to receive forgiveness so you don’t make a single extra (unnecessary) payment. If you need help verifying that date, we’d love to assist.