Frequently asked questions

You've got options, and this is one of the most common situations right now. With plans like SAVE and PAYE being phased out, many borrowers have to move to a new program. When you run your free assessment, Finnita evaluates the plan you're in and identifies the best program you qualify for going forward. Which one that is depends on your specific loans, income, family size, and employer — there's no one-size-fits-all answer, which is why we analyze it for you. If you enroll, we handle the entire move.

No. If your employer offers Finnita, you can enroll at any time without approval. If they don't offer it yet, you can still use the free assessment, and Finnita can reach out to your employer about adding the benefit.

Yes. If you work full-time — an average of at least 30 hours a week — for a federal, state, county, or city government employer, your employment qualifies for PSLF, and your specific role doesn't matter. The one thing to watch is who signs your paycheck: you need to be employed by the agency itself, not by a for-profit contractor staffing it. Your free assessment confirms this before you enroll.

Yes, in most cases, and your role doesn't matter. What matters is that you work full-time — an average of at least 30 hours a week — and that you're employed directly by the 501(c)(3) nonprofit hospital or the public school, college, or university. The main exception is being employed and paid by a for-profit staffing or contracting firm rather than the hospital or school itself, as some physicians are. That time may not count even though you work on-site.

Yes. If your employer offers Finnita, your family members can use the service too. They get the same enrollment, the same ongoing support, and the same refund guarantee, at the same cost as any other customer.

Start with the free assessment to see your projected savings — there's no cost and no commitment to find out what you'd save. Pricing details are presented after you see your results, so you can make an informed decision with full context. Finnita customers are net-positive from month one: you save more than you pay from day one.

You do, and that's by design. The borrower is Finnita's customer, and we work under a legal obligation to you, not to your employer, so you're the only one who pays us. The service is free to your employer. Yes, it has a cost. But because we answer to you and not to an employer, we work solely to maximize your benefit, and customers are net-positive from month one.

No. The assessment is free — no charge, no commitment, just a look at what you'd save. You only pay if you decide to move forward and enroll, after you've seen your projected savings.

They cover two different kinds of work. The one-time enrollment fee covers the upfront work: evaluating your situation, gathering and verifying your information, building your application, and working with the Department of Education until it's approved. The ongoing fee covers everything after that — monitoring your payment credit, managing your plan and moving you to a new program if one is required, handling your annual recertifications (the paperwork federal plans require every year), and keeping your case in good standing.

You don't have to pay it all upfront. The enrollment fee can be paid in full or split into two or three equal payments, with no interest and no added fees — just the total divided evenly. That lets you start without a large one-time cost, and since customers are net-positive from month one, you're ahead from the first payment.

No. Finnita never takes a cut of your savings. We're not a middleman — you stay directly connected to the Department of Education and your loan servicer, and every dollar you save is yours. We work on your behalf.

Start with a free assessment — answer five questions and upload your loan file. In under 60 seconds, Finnita's proprietary algorithm identifies the federal programs you may qualify for and shows you how much you could save. If you move forward, our team handles everything: enrollment paperwork, employer certifications, and ongoing annual recertification. Learn more about how Finnita works →

The initial assessment takes under 60 seconds. Once you decide to move forward, enrollment typically takes a few weeks depending on your loan servicer and the specific federal programs involved. Finnita manages the timeline and keeps you updated throughout the process.

A few things. Your employment, income, marital status, and tax-filing status. Personal details: name, address, driver's license, and Social Security number. Your student-loan text file, which is a summary of your federal loans. Your two most recent paystubs. And two personal references who don't live with you. Our team takes it from there.

Every year, federal repayment plans require recertification, and Finnita handles the whole thing. We collect and review anything that's changed since last year: a marriage or divorce, a new child or household member, a job change, a change in income. Then we rebuild your recertification paperwork, which looks much like your original application, make sure you get payment credit where it's due — toward PSLF, for example — and submit and manage it through to approval. You don't track deadlines or chase paperwork yourself.

No. Finnita isn't a loan servicer, and enrolling with us doesn't change who services your loan. Your servicer stays the same, and your relationship with them and with the Department of Education is unchanged. What Finnita does is enroll you in the right federal programs and manage that process on your behalf.

You get a full refund. 100%. If Finnita can't successfully enroll you in a qualifying federal program, every dollar you've paid is returned. No exceptions (other than cases of misrepresentation on the application).

No, and we'll always be straight with you about that. Your monthly payment can go up or down over time, because federal plans recalculate at each annual recertification based on changes like income, family size, or marital status. And the Department of Education sets the programs — it can change or end them, as it has recently. What Finnita does guarantee is that we manage those changes for you: if a program you're in is changed or discontinued and you need to move, we handle the move at no extra charge while your account is active.

There's no long-term contract and you're not locked in. You can cancel anytime. If you do, federal plans still require annual recertification, and you'd be responsible for managing that yourself going forward. Missing a deadline can raise your payment or set back your forgiveness progress. Managing that is what Finnita's ongoing service is for.

Recertification isn't optional. Miss the annual deadline and your monthly payment can jump, sometimes to a standard amount well above your income-driven payment, and you can lose progress toward forgiveness. While you're enrolled, Finnita tracks every deadline and handles each year's recertification, so you stay in good standing.

Finnita customers save an average of $468 per month across all enrollees and all programs. Your individual savings depend on your loan balance, income, family size, employer, and which programs you qualify for. The free assessment shows you your projected savings before you commit to anything.

It's a fair question, and the answer is no. The service is free to your employer because you pay for it directly, and customers are net-positive from month one. You stay directly connected to the Department of Education and your servicer throughout. And if Finnita can't enroll you, you get a full refund — misrepresentation is the only exception.

You can. Think of it like doing your own taxes instead of using tax software: possible, but complicated, and a lot can go wrong. The numbers bear that out. Only 11% of borrowers who try on their own succeed, and only 5% of PSLF-eligible borrowers succeed on their own. Finnita's enrollment success rate is 98% — all customers, all programs, misrepresentation the only exception. The rules change often, and one mistake can cost years of progress. Finnita does this one thing, end to end, and backs it with a 100% refund if we can't enroll you.

A few things. Finnita's proprietary algorithm evaluates your complete loan picture — loan types, balances, income, family size, and employer — to find the combination of federal programs that saves you the most, not just the first plan that fits. We also know how to maximize the benefit; strategically consolidating some or all of your loans, for instance, when that makes for a stronger application. Our analysts handle enrollment and keep optimizing at each annual recertification. And because this is the only thing we do, nothing else competes for our attention: the whole focus is finding you the biggest savings we can, and keeping them.

Because we publish how we calculate them. Finnita's $468/month average savings and 98% enrollment success rate — all customers, all programs, excluding only misrepresentation — are calculated across every enrolled customer and every federal program, not a hand-picked subset or a best-case example. You can see the full methodology on our Results page. We do only this one thing, which is why the numbers hold up.

The Department administers the programs, but it won't tell you which one is best for your situation, build your application, or manage it year after year. That's on you. Finnita does all of it: we identify the federal programs that save you the most, handle enrollment and employer certifications, and manage your annual recertifications, while you stay directly connected to the Department and your servicer. Same programs, far less risk of a costly mistake.

No. Enrolling borrowers in federal repayment and forgiveness programs is the only thing Finnita does. There's no upsell, no side products, and no refinancing, ever. Doing one thing is why we're good at it.

No. Finnita will never refinance a federal student loan. Refinancing converts federal loans into private loans, which permanently strips you of protections like income-driven repayment and loan forgiveness. Your federal protections stay intact.

Finnita enrolls borrowers into federal programs administered by the U.S. Department of Education, including income-driven repayment (IDR) plans that cap your monthly payment based on income, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), which can forgive your remaining balance after 10 years of qualifying payments. The free assessment identifies which programs fit your situation.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) is a federal program that can forgive your remaining student loan balance after 10 years (120 months) of qualifying payments while working for a qualifying employer — including government agencies, public schools, and nonprofit hospitals. Every year you've already worked at a qualifying employer counts, even if you weren't enrolled in PSLF at the time.

Not automatically. Months in administrative forbearance generally don't count toward the 120 payments PSLF requires, unlike the COVID-19 payment pause, which did. But there's a path: once you reach 120 months of qualifying employment, the PSLF buyback program can let you pay what you would have owed for eligible forbearance months so they count toward forgiveness. It's paperwork-heavy and worth acting on early, which is the kind of thing Finnita tracks and manages for you. You can confirm your payment count anytime at studentaid.gov.

It comes down to how you file. If you file separately — or you're single — your spouse's income generally isn't counted in your payment calculation; if you file jointly, it generally is. That holds both on income-driven plans and under RAP, the newer federal repayment plan. Which approach leaves you better off overall depends on your full tax picture, so it's worth confirming with a tax professional. Finnita factors your filing status into the analysis, so you can see how it affects your projected payment before you decide.

Reach out through our contact page or schedule a call. We'll walk you through the model, set you up in our system, and give you everything you need to start introducing Finnita to your clients. The process takes about a day.

It's the easiest pitch in your portfolio: a meaningful employee benefit that costs the employer nothing. Employees save an average of $468/month, there's a 98% enrollment success rate and a 100% refund guarantee. You make the introduction. Finnita handles everything — including the presentation to the employer.

Finnita handles the entire sales process after the introduction, manages all enrollment and recertification, and provides ongoing customer support to enrolled borrowers. You make the connection. We do everything else.