before many people consider refinancing.

The Education Department implemented this grace period to ease the borrower’s transition to make payments after a three-year payment pause during the COVID-19 pandemic. During this year-long period, borrowers were encouraged to keep making payments since interest continued to accumulate.“Normally, loans will default if you fall about nine months behind on making payments, but during this on-ramp period, missed payments would not move people towards defaulting and then being subject to forced collections. However, if you missed payments, you still be falling behind ultimately on repaying your loans,” said Abby Shaforth, director of National Consumer Law Center’s Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project.

Since this grace period has ended, student loan borrowers who don’t make payments will go delinquent or, if their loans are not paid for nine months, go into default.Borrowers who cannot afford to make payments can apply for deferment or forbearance, which pause payments, though interest continues to accrue.Borrowers who can’t or don’t pay risk delinquency and eventually default. That can badly

and make you ineligible for additional aid and government benefits.If a borrower missed one month’s payment, they will start receiving email notifications, said Shaforth. Once the loan hasn’t been paid for three months, loan servicers notify to the credit reporting agencies that the loan is delinquent, affecting your credit history. Once the borrower hasn’t paid the loan for nine months, the loan goes into default.

If you’re struggling to pay, advisers first encourage you to check if you qualify for an income-driven repayment plan, which determines your payments by looking at your expenses. You can see whether you qualify by

. If you’ve worked for a government agency or a non-profit organization, you could also be eligible for the, making it hard to determine if it was making things up.

Musk, an adviser to President Donald Trump, has regularly accusedof being anti-white and has repeated a claim that some of the country’s political figures are “actively promoting white genocide.”

Musk’s commentary — and Grok’s — escalated this week after the Trump administrationto the United States as refugees Monday, the start of a larger relocation effort for members of the minority Afrikaner group as Trump suspends refugee programs and halts arrivals from other parts of the world. Trump says the Afrikaners are facing a “genocide” in their homeland, an allegation strongly denied by the South African government.