FAFSA parent loan for grad school shows $142K balance despite payments - how is this possible?

Whoa that's insane!! I graduated law school in 1997 and my total loans were like $90k. No way yours should've been $263k in the early 90s unless you went to some super expensive private school and borrowed living expenses too? The discrepancy between MOHELA and DOE is really concerning tho - have you tried calling either of them? I had a similar issue (much smaller amount) and it took 5 phone calls to get it sorted out.

It was a private school but not THAT expensive! I think they've included accumulated interest in that \

Something's definitely wrong with their calculation. $263,899 in the early 90s would be like $500k+ in today's dollars for a LAW DEGREE?? Even Harvard wasn't charging that much back then. I'm dealing with something similar but smaller scale - my servicer shows one amount and StudentAid.gov shows something $11k higher. Super frustrating when you're trying to help your kid with their FAFSA and discover your own loan nightmare isn't over.

thats why im telling my kids to skip college altogether honestly. the whole system is a scam and now they want us to use this new FAFSA with the \

This is actually a known issue that happened during the servicer transitions last year. When loans were transferred between servicers, particularly those with forgiveness components, the data between the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) and servicer records sometimes didn't sync properly. Here's what I recommend:\n\n1. Download your complete loan history from StudentAid.gov\n2. Gather all documentation from MOHELA showing your paid status\n3. File a formal dispute through the FSA Feedback Center\n4. Request a loan verification letter from MOHELA\n5. Ask for a written explanation of the discrepancy\n\nThe good news is this shouldn't affect your daughter's FAFSA since parent loan balances don't impact student eligibility. But you'll definitely want to get this fixed to protect your credit.

Thank you! This is extremely helpful. I didn't realize I could file a formal dispute through the FSA Feedback Center. I'll gather everything this weekend and submit it. Really appreciate the step-by-step guidance, I was feeling completely lost.

I had a similar nightmare scenario when helping my son with his FAFSA last year. My servicer (Nelnet) showed one balance and the DOE showed one almost DOUBLE. I spent weeks trying to get through to someone. Called dozens of times and never got past the automated system. This was making me crazy because we were up against the FAFSA deadline! Finally found this service called Claimyr that got me through to an actual FSA agent in like 30 minutes. They have a demo at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ and their website is claimyr.com. Totally worth it because the agent was able to see both systems and identified exactly what happened - they had duplicated one of my loans during a system migration and the error had been sitting there for months!

Does that service actually work? I've been trying to talk to someone about my daughter's verification issues for three weeks and keep getting disconnected. Getting desperate at this point.

It worked for me! I was super skeptical but I was desperate after trying for weeks. They connected me straight to a real person who actually had the authority to fix the issue on the spot. Saved me literally hours of hold time.

What you're describing is unfortunately common with older loans, especially those that have been through multiple servicers and various income-driven repayment plans. The $263,899 figure is almost certainly including capitalized interest over decades, not your original principal. Here's what's likely happening:\n\n1. MOHELA is showing zero because you completed your payment obligations under a specific program (possibly PSLF or an IDR forgiveness)\n\n2. The Department of Education's systems haven't fully processed the forgiveness and are still showing the theoretical balance\n\n3. The discrepancy isn't automatically fixed because different database systems don't communicate well\n\nYou need to request a formal audit of your loan history through both FSA and MOHELA. Ask specifically for an \

Thank you for this detailed explanation. \

The FAFSA system is completely BROKEN. My daughter's application has been \

The new FAFSA system has definitely had serious implementation problems this year. For your daughter's application, if it's been processing more than 30 days, you should contact FSA directly as that's beyond their normal processing time. For your son's verification, that's actually random and can happen even with the IRS data retrieval - about 25% of applications get selected regardless of how they're completed.

just went through this exact thing!!! the original loan amounts they show on studentaid.gov are TOTALLY wrong and include all the interest that accrued. my \

Thank you! I knew something was off with that number. It's so misleading to call it \

Have you checked your credit report to see what's being reported there? That might help clarify things. If MOHELA is showing paid in full but DOE isn't, your credit report might show which version lenders are seeing. Really important to get this fixed if you're planning any major purchases in the near future.

Great suggestion! Just pulled my credit reports and interestingly, all three show the loans as