Take control of your student loans.

If your credit scores have fallen because of late or missed student loan payments, many relief options — including income-driven repayment plans or loan rehabilitation — can help you get back on track.

Since payment history is one of the most important factors for credit scores, missed payments can really hurt, but the negative impact does fade over time. Consistently paying your bills will help you rebuild your track record.

Managing your credit well in other ways — like keeping your credit utilization as low as possible and keeping older accounts open even if you’ve paid them off — can also help increase your credit score over time.

If it’s been hard to keep track of monthly payments you need to make, setting up automatic payments, if possible, is a good way to prevent future mistakes.

It’s also a good idea to check your credit reports on a regular basis in case an inaccuracy might have contributed to the drop. If there’s been an error with your student loan account, you can dispute it directly with the reporting credit bureau and by contacting your loan servicer. 

If you need help understanding your student loan options, the Department of Education’s repayment calculator is a useful tool to compare different repayment plans that may support your goals.

Student loans are reported to the major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — and appear on your credit reports as installment loans. Here’s a breakdown of how they’re typically reported:

Individual accounts: Each individual student loan you take out, even from the same lender or for the same academic year, will likely be listed as a separate account on your credit report. This means if you have multiple student loans, you will see multiple entries.

Information reported: For each loan, your credit report will show key details, including the original loan amount, current balance, monthly payment amount, account status and payment history. 

When they appear: Student loans typically appear on your credit report shortly after they are disbursed to your school.
If you’d like to see how your student loans are being reported, you can get your credit reports from Equifax and TransUnion for free on Credit Karma.

No, Credit Karma doesn’t report loan delinquencies or cause them to appear on your credit report.

Here’s how it works: Credit Karma is a service that provides you with access to your credit information as reported by two of the major credit bureaus, TransUnion and Equifax. Think of Credit Karma as a window into your credit report; it displays information that is already there but doesn’t create or report that information itself.

The responsibility for reporting the delinquency status of your loans lies solely with your student loan servicer. If you miss a payment and your account becomes past due, your loan servicer is the one that reports that delinquency directly to the credit bureaus.

If you see a delinquency listed when viewing your credit report through Credit Karma, it means your lender or loan servicer has reported the account as past due to TransUnion, Equifax or both — and Credit Karma is displaying that information to you. 

If you believe there is an error on your credit report regarding a delinquency, you can file a dispute directly with the credit bureau that is reporting the incorrect information. You should also contact the loan servicer that provided the information to the credit bureau.

Yes, Credit Karma can help you dispute errors found on your credit reports. Through our Direct Dispute™ tool, you can dispute errors on your TransUnion credit report right from Credit Karma.

For errors on your Equifax or Experian reports, Credit Karma can direct you to file disputes directly with those bureaus.

If you need more room in your budget and have federal loans, you might consider exploring Income-Driven Repayment plans. These can potentially lower payments based on your income and family size.

You can use the repayment calculator tool on StudentAid.gov to compare how different IDR options would affect your payment.

You may also want to consider consolidating student loans, an option that combines multiple federal payments into one. Consolidation can offer you up to 30 years to pay off your loans, so your new monthly payment could be lower than your current payments. 

Also, look for assistance programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness if your job qualifies.

For a clearer picture of how much money you’re spending, what you’re spending it on, and how you might be able to tighten up your spending, try using our budget calculator.

It’s understandable to feel overwhelmed by student loans and want to put off dealing with them. Try to keep in mind that addressing them sooner rather than later can be a big positive.

If you’re struggling with your payments, it’s important to act early. Contact your loan servicer to explore relief options like Income-Driven Repayment plans, deferment or forbearance.

The whole purpose of these programs is to get you — and your finances and credit — in a better place.

With student loans, missed payments are not reported until 90 days past due. After that, your loan servicer can report the delinquency to the credit bureaus, hurting your credit scores.

Your loan can go into default after 270 days. The impact of a default can be more serious because it involves greater credit score damage, loss of eligibility for further federal student aid and potential legal action from your loan holder. Wage garnishment and the loss of tax refunds and federal benefits are also possibilities, although these collections are currently paused.

Normally, the U.S. Department of Education can eventually collect on defaulted federal student loans through wage garnishment and by seizing federal payments like tax refunds, but both collection methods are currently paused.

How it generally works: With wage garnishment, your loan holder can order your employer to withhold up to 15% of your disposable pay. The Treasury Offset Program, which collects past-due debts owed to state and federal agencies, is the mechanism for seizing tax refunds and other federal payments. See FSA’s student loan collections information page for more detail.

Borrowers whose loans are in default are urged to contact the Default Resolution Group to either make a monthly payment, consolidate into a new loan for repayment in an income-driven plan, or sign up for loan rehabilitation.

Yes, Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) is still available.

Full-time government employees and qualifying nonprofit organization workers with Direct Loan Program loans may be eligible for loan forgiveness under the program. If you qualify, your remaining loan balance could be forgiven after you make 120 qualifying payments (10 years). Learn more about how Public Service Loan Forgiveness works at the federal student aid website.

No, the SAVE plan has ended. If you were enrolled, compare your new repayment options with Federal Student Aid’s repayment calculator.

The Repayment Assistance Plan is an income-driven repayment plan that became available in 2026, with payments as low as $10 a month depending on your income. You can compare RAP with other income-driven plans at Federal Student Aid.