Student-loan payments could redirect at least $100 billion from Americans.

Beginning Oct. 1, student-loan borrowers will make payments of about $200 and $300 per month since the Education Department initiated a halt in March 2020, although business analysts state the restart of payments is a small concern for the overall economy, some of the nation's biggest merchants worry about a spending slowdown as buyers' budgets become tweaked.

By Anita Johnson-Brown