In deciding which student loans to pay off first, consider factors such as loan type, interest rates, and repayment terms. There's no universal answer.

Credit scores could drop by more than 150 points for some borrowers and will likely result in "reduced credit limits, higher interest rates for new loans and overall lower credit access" for affected borrowers, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York report posted Tuesday.

In March 2020, at the start of the pandemic, the federal government paused student debt payments. When they restarted more than three years later, the government told delinquent borrowers that missed payments wouldn’t impact credit scores until fall of 2024.