4 things student loan borrowers should do before July 1

The student loan decisions you make in the coming weeks could impact your balance for the foreseeable future. Jinda Noipho/Getty Images For most of the past decade, the smartest thing many federal student loan borrowers could do was wait — whether that meant waiting for a payment pause to be extended, waiting for a forgiveness program to clear the courts or waiting for the rules to settle. That wait-and-see strategy is about to backfire for many borrowers, though. On July 1, the federal student loan system will stop being something borrowers can ride out and become something they have to actively manage. That shift traces back to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which the Education Department is using to collapse a tangle of repayment plans, cap how much families can borrow and unwind the SAVE program that has kept millions of student loan borrowers in payment limbo. These changes will have a direct and clear impact on the federal student loans landscape, and unlike past overhauls, much of it lands on a single date . That, in turn, leaves a narrow runway for borrowers. And, whether you're a parent weighing a student loan for your child, a graduate student mapping out tuition or a borrower who hasn't logged into your account recently, the decisions you make now could impact your balance and your monthly bill for the foreseeable future. So, what steps should you take in the coming weeks, before those changes go into effect? That's what we'll outline below. …