My dad missed 4 of my student loan payments as a co-signer, credit dipped 167 points

Yesterday, I (NB23) found out that my dad had not been paying my federal student loans since March of this year and my credit score dropped from 675 to 508. I have been without full time work for the past year since I graduated in May 2025, so my parents have been handling my student loan repayments until I find a full time job. My state loans have been paid in full every month, but my fed loans are the ones that my dad has not been helpful with me in repaying.

Unfortunately, my parents demand full control over my loan information and other important documents and processes (my PCP even changed one of his in-office policies due to my parents’ extreme oversight in my prescription refills). So it has been difficult to assert any autonomy over my own financial ecosystem when my dad especially waves me off with a, “Stop asking me before I ignore you entirely, I’m already on it.” All the while that he had been “on it” with repaying my loans, he apparently ignored them altogether after March because “we didn’t have to pay them back until I re-enter graduate school” (these are my UNDERGRADUATE loans, which are separate from grad school).

I called MOHELA and was able to refinance my loans so that I won’t be paying anything until I find new work. Until then, I’ve done my research with my situation and it looks like I won’t be able to see any real opportunity to improve my score until 18 months from now and my delinquencies won’t be erased from my record until I’m 30.

I’m aware that despite this largely being due to my dad’s lack of discretion and responsibility, I as an adult also had a responsibility to make sure that my loans were being handled appropriately and not assume that things were going well.

Does anyone have any tips on what I could do to improve my situation? I plan on consulting with a credit union within the next few weeks, so any advice on how to navigate this major issue is appreciated