Many Americans are seeing their credit scores drop because the US government has started collecting student loan payments again. If payments are more than 90 days late, loan companies tell credit agencies, which can hurt credit ratings as much as going bankrupt. This makes it harder or more expensive to get loans for cars, homes, 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 people with student loans saw their scores drop a lot. The US Department of Education stopped federal student loan payments in March 2020 because of the pandemic, but they started again in 2023, with a one-year period where payments were not strictly enforced. However, the previous government began collecting unpaid student loans again in late 2024.