Student loan defaults are rising. What borrowers should know before it's too late.

The so-called student loan default cliff is here. Following a rise in federal student loan delinquencies over the past year, approximately 1 million borrowers’ loans went into default at the end of 2025, according to the latest Household Debt and Credit Report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. And those defaults could continue to increase over the next few months. Overall, 9.6% of student loans are 90 or more days delinquent, with an increasing number of balances moving into serious delinquenc ...