Millions of Americans are seeing their credit scores drop significantly because the US government has started collecting student loan debts again. If payments are missed for 90 days, student loan companies report this to credit bureaus, which can hurt credit ratings as much as going bankrupt. This makes it harder or more expensive to get things like car loans, mortgages, and credit cards. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that in early 2025, more than 3 million student loan holders had their scores fall a lot. The US Department of Education stopped federal student loan payments in March 2020 because of the pandemic, and they started again in 2023 with a one-year grace period. However, the Trump administration began collecting outstanding student loans again in late 2024.