Beginning June 30, 2023, the 60-day countdown to the end of the federal student loan freeze began. While the Supreme Court has yet to rule on the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness proposal as of this writing, the three-year pause on payments that went into effect due to the Covid -19 pandemic is set to resume in September regardless. There can be no more extensions of the freeze of student loan payments. According to research by VantageScore, a credit data analytics company, up to 76% of federal student loan borrowers may miss the first required payment and that single missed payment can ding a borrower’s credit score by as much as 82 points, on average. This month we will look at how to prepare for making payments again (or for the first time if a borrower graduated during the forbearance period).