The Government Shutdown Is Still Wreaking Havoc on Workers' Credit Scores
The government shutdown may have ended more than four months ago, but De’von Russell still struggles with it constantly.
The 31-year-old maxed out two credit cards when President Donald Trump partially closed the government for 35 days in December and January. Without roughly $3,000 in wages from his job as a security guard at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., Russell had to charge everyday expenses like gas, food and Pull-Ups for his young daughter. He also applied for loans, which led to hard inquiries on his credit report.
As a result, he says, his credit score fell about 15 points.
“It was ‘fair’,” he adds, referring to a classification on CreditKarma, a service he uses to monitor his score. “Now it’s in the ‘needs work’ category.”
Russell’s not alone. The shutdown forced about 800,000 people to go without pay, and several workers MONEY spoke to say their credit scores have not fully recovered from the desperate measures they took to cope. Because having a low credit score can jeopardize a person’s approval for new cards, loans, apartments and more, it means that not everyone can afford to move on.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/credit/the-government-shutdown-is-still-wreaking-havoc-on-workers-credit-scores/ar-AACxKjU?li=BBnb4R7
"Hey I have a shitty credit score and I still get money. You just have to find the right bank." Donald J Trump.
