As the U.S. government has restarted collecting student loan payments, many Americans are seeing their credit scores go down. If payments are not made for 90 days, student loan companies tell credit bureaus about these overdue accounts, which can hurt credit ratings as much as declaring personal bankruptcy. This makes it harder or more expensive to get car loans, mortgages, credit cards, and other financial services. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that in the first three months of 2025, over 3 million student loan borrowers saw their scores drop a lot. The U.S. 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.