When President Joe Biden announced in August 2022 the federal student loan payment pause would be extended one “final” time, millions of borrowers took him at his word. Then he extended it again. And again. By the time payments actually resumed in October 2023, some borrowers had gone years without making a single payment, convinced forgiveness was imminent—while others took him at his word and paid aggressively, thinking it was indeed the “final” time.
That flip-flopping forced American federal student loan holders to go through a rollercoaster of emotions at the time, and now, researchers have put a real financial cost to it too.
