Student loan repayments are set to resume. Here's what to know.

About 44 million Americans with student debt must soon start repaying their student loans, a change that could impose a financial strain on many households after a three and a half year hiatus. Interest will start accruing on education loans on Friday, with payments set to resume in October.

The student loan reprieve began in March of 2020 as part of a series of pandemic-related measures geared toward keeping households financially stable as COVID-19 shut down the economy. Since then, the pause had been extended several times, but Congress earlier this year blocked additional extensions.

The resumption of loan repayments may not only be confusing to people who had been paying off their balances prior to the pandemic, but also to young professionals who are among the four years of graduating classes who earned their degrees during the health crisis. About 20% of borrowers are those who graduated from college during the pandemic and will be new to loan repayments, noted Robert Farrington, founder of The College Investor, a personal finance site for millennials.