The Department of Education announced on Monday that it will restart collecting federal student loans in default on May 5, ending a pandemic-era pause that began roughly five years ago.

When you default on your student loans, your debt is transferred out of the normal repayment servicing system. It enters “into what’s almost like the ‘bizarro land’ of the repayment system,” says Denten, “where it can be difficult to understand how to actually get yourself back on track and back into the status of making payments sustainably.”