A Credit-Score Hangover Is Hitting America’s Riskiest Borrowers
These borrowers are falling behind on payments after pandemic aid ran out and inflation skyrocketed
Photography By Michaela Vatcheva for Wall Street Journal | 24 December 2024 | Read the full story here
“After federal loans helped Jennifer Lee pay down debt and keep her diner afloat during the pandemic, she racked up tens of thousands in new credit-card balances.“
When Rachel Mendelson, features photo editor at the Wall Street Journal, first called me to work on a story on borrowers falling behind on debt after pandemic aid ran out, I didn’t expect it to be the most touching assignment I’d work on all year. I got to spend a day with a small business owner who was also the mom of a toddler. And that mom, Jennifer Lee, was all of us American toddler moms ca. 2024.
Pushing two XL carts through Costco, baby strapped to her back trying to take off mama’s glasses, wiping snot in her hair, asking for a snack. While mama worked a cook-prepper-waitress-cleaner shift in her dream-come-true diner, toddler lay on the floor watching cartoons, greeted customers in baby babbles, drank half and half, or demanded to participate in cleaning the grapes in the kitchen sink. But for American toddler moms in 2024, it’s not simply a matter of juggling the work we love with child care. That’s tough, but we make it work.
“People fell behind on credit-card bills and car payments more often in 2024 than any point since the aftermath of the Great Recession.”
“pressure that is disproportionately hitting people on the lower extreme of the credit spectrum.”
“Even for people who have kept their score steady by making payments, higher prices and interest rates are proving to be a double whammy.”
And so, Jennifer Lee’s small, family-run Break Your Fast restaurant, which survived the pandemic in part thanks to two federal loans totaling $115,000, is likely going to get sold.
Thank you to Rachel Mendelson for being a truly intentional editor. Read David Uberti and Katherine Hamilton’s story on WSJ.
