Student Loan Repayment - Since the Payment Restart - Using Credit Bureau Data to Assess Borrower Progress

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Bintang

After the COVID-19 federal student loan payment pause ended, federal borrowers restarted monthly payments and protections against missed-payment consequences changed over time. Using credit bureau data from 2015–2025, the analysis compares repayment progress over two years after the restart with prepandemic patterns. Results show prime-score borrowers pay down balances more slowly, delinquency reaches prepandemic levels, and default risk is expected to rise, motivating policy options to reduce harm and prevent future defaults.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

Restarting Payments After the Student Loan Pause

How Have Balances Changed Since Restarting Payments?

Credit bureau data and borrower groups

Balance changes by credit score

Student Loan Repayment Since the Payment Restart Using Credit Bureau Data to Assess Borrower Progress Jason Cohn January 2026 After more than three years of the COVID-19 payment pause, most federal student loan borrowers were required to start making payments in late 2023. Protections from negative consequences of missed payments were removed in late 2024. In this brief, I use credit bureau data to assess borrowers’progress making payments in the two years since the end of the payment pause and compare repayment outcomes with those in prepandemic years. I find that borrowers are paying down balances more slowly than before the payment pause, and recent delinquency rates have reached prepandemic levels and are likely to continue rising. These findings suggest default rates will spike over the next several months. This brief offers policy options for providing smoother pathways out of default, protecting the most vulnerable defaulted borrowers, and preventing future defaults. Restarting Payments After the Student Loan Pause In October 2023, most federal student loan borrowers were required to start making monthly payments again after more than three years of the COVID-19 payment pause.1 For the first year after restarting payments, borrowers were protected from most consequences of missed payments, including delinquency reporting to credit bureaus and default. Interest continued to accrue during this time, but borrowers were not otherwise penalized for missing payments until October 2024. Defaulted borrowers also had one year after restarting payments to enroll in the Fresh Start program, which would transfer their loans out of default and erase the default from their credit record.2 After more than three years without required payments, getting borrowers engaged with the loan system again is a challenge.3 And many newer borrowers had no experience with making required payments each month because they took out their first loans during the pause or were still in school, and therefore in deferment, when the pause started. Additionally, the creation of the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) income-driven repayment (IDR) plan and then the plan being held up incourt created more confusion for borrowers.4 These conditions created circumstances that could cause borrowers to struggle making payments and to have difficulty navigating the federal student loan system. Research has shown that student loan delinquencies are rising, causing borrowers’ credit scores to fall.5 Now that borrowers have been responsible for making payments for a full year since the “on-ramp”protections were removed, I assess the progress borrowers have made and compare repayment trends since the restart with prepandemic trends. How Have Balances Changed Since Restarting Payments? I use data from one of the three major credit bureaus from 2015 to 2025 to examine repayment trends. The data include a random sample of all Americans with credit records and are collected in August of each year.6 These records have the amount of student debt (federal and private combined) a borrower holds, the status of that debt, expected monthly payments, the number of student loan delinquencies in the past 24 months, borrowers’ credit scores, and information on other types of debt. Examining how student loan borrowers’ balances have changed since the end of the payment pause is a helpful indicator of how much progress borrowers are making paying down their loans, particularly relative to before the pause. I examine balances for two groups of borrowers. The first group was inactive repayment on their student debt in August 2017, and the second held student debt in active repayment in August 2023. I track balances for these borrowers over the following two years. The comparison between these groups can help us understand how balances are changing since the payment pause ended and how that compares with loan repayment before the pause. The typical borrower

FAQs

What changed when student loan payments restarted in 2023?

Most federal borrowers began required monthly payments after more than three years without required payments. For the first year, borrowers were protected from most missed-payment consequences, including delinquency reporting and default, until protections were removed in October 2024.

How does the report measure borrower progress?

It uses data from one of the major credit bureaus covering 2015–2025, including student debt status, expected payments, delinquency counts, and credit scores. It tracks changes for borrowers who were in repayment before the pause and those holding debt in active repayment around August 2023.

What does the report find about balances and delinquency after the restart?

Prime-credit-score borrowers’ balances declined more slowly than before the payment pause, while delinquency rates reached prepandemic levels and were likely to continue rising. The findings suggest default rates could spike in the following months.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Bintang