Federal student loan borrowers should start repaying their loans so as not to affect their credit scores. A pause on credit reporting ended Jan 1.

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.

Some student loan borrowers are facing penalties with late payments on federal student loans. Over 9 million borrowers could face large drops in credit scores once delinquencies appear on credit reports for the first half of 2025,