Understanding your options as student loan payments resume on February 1

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- President Biden announced this week that borrowers will have to start making student loan payments again beginning February 1st, 2022.

It's been 22 months since Congress passed the historic student loan relief for an estimated 40 million people. Both former President Trump and President Biden have extended the relief twice.

And with less than 60 days until millions of borrowers have to make their first payments, Sonia Lewis, founder of Philly-based company the Student Loan Doctor, says it's important to understand all your options.

"One of the things we are telling people is that they need to look at their overall expenses and see where they can make some cutbacks. You want to have a conversation with your borrower or you want to do an updated income driven renewal application so that if anything has changed from last year with their finances, they'll be able to show that so that their payment is not what was expected to them before the pandemic," said Lewis.

Lewis, who runs the first female and black owned student loan debt repayment company, adds that the zero interest rates that borrowers had gotten used to these last two years will also be a thing of the past.

So, she says if you can make a payment of any amount from now to January 31st, you could actually see a boost in your credit score because it will go towards the principal and not the interest.