12 things student loan borrowers should know about the return to repayment

All good things must come to an end.

For three and a half years, tens of millions of federal student loan borrowers have enjoyed an unprecedented respite, not only from their loan payments but from the accumulation of interest on top of those loans. Countless books and doctoral theses will be written about what that money paid for instead; what matters today, though, is that interest resumes its inexorable march come September and, in October, so do loan payments.

Here's the problem for borrowers: A lot has happened over the past few years. Their lives have likely changed – perhaps dramatically – and, like them, so has the student loan system itself. Some of the biggest loan servicers pre-pandemic are gone, their borrowers shuffled to other servicers, and a new, more generous repayment plan awaits low-income borrowers.

It's a lot to navigate – but don't worry, we're here to help. NPR's Education Desk has been covering student loans for years. We've published investigations into mismanaged loan programs, and then written about the fixes that came out of those stories. And most importantly, we've been following every development in the pandemic payment freeze. It's a lot. So...

Here's a list of 12 things borrowers should