Millions of student loan borrowers may be headed for default: Here's who's most at risk—and how to avoid it

Student loan payments can cost borrowers hundreds of dollars each month. But falling behind on those payments may wind up being even costlier.

Advocacy organizations and student loan experts have warned of a coming “default cliff” for millions of borrowers who are already behind on payments. The last of the pandemic-era safeguards expired earlier this year, and President Donald Trump’s administration has made it clear it is intent on collecting outstanding loans.

“We are committed to ensuring that borrowers are paying back their loans, that they are fully supported in doing so,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon wrote in The Wall Street Journal in April.

Federal student loans enter default when a borrower goes 270 days without payment. The potential wave of defaults is the culmination of a number of circumstances.

Borrowers weren’t required to make payments from March 2020 until September 2023, but loan servicers were instructed not to report delinquency — missed payments — to credit bureaus until September 2024. That delinquency reporting resumed at the beginning of 2025.