Student loan debt collection resumes on May 5. Here's how borrowers can prepare to repay loans and get lower monthly payments.

TransUnion, one of the three major credit bureaus, found that one in five student loan borrowers are at risk of defaulting.

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.”