Credit card debt

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

0919mmk

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Oct 27, 2009
Messages
947
Reaction score
25
Quick question: I'm entering med school with some credit card debt. The interest rate on student loans is obviously a lot lower, so will my school give me money to pay off my credit cards? Either way, I have to pay off the cc's, and its cheaper for everyone if they let me pay them off up front rather than budget in my monthly payments right? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Also, I hate being poor lol!

P.s. in case its relevant, I have less than 5k in cc debt.
 
Quick question: I'm entering med school with some credit card debt. The interest rate on student loans is obviously a lot lower, so will my school give me money to pay off my credit cards? Either way, I have to pay off the cc's, and its cheaper for everyone if they let me pay them off up front rather than budget in my monthly payments right? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Also, I hate being poor lol!

P.s. in case its relevant, I have less than 5k in cc debt.

Report an over-estimate for your housing budget; get an apartment below this, and use the monthly difference to pay off the debt.
 
Quick question: I'm entering med school with some credit card debt. The interest rate on student loans is obviously a lot lower, so will my school give me money to pay off my credit cards? Either way, I have to pay off the cc's, and its cheaper for everyone if they let me pay them off up front rather than budget in my monthly payments right? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Also, I hate being poor lol!

P.s. in case its relevant, I have less than 5k in cc debt.

NO ABSOLUTELY NOT.


Live with few luxuries and save any loan money not used for housing/food to pay off those bills pronto. You can also sell stuff you don't need - an old instrument, furniture, plasma, sperm, whatever
 

NO ABSOLUTELY NOT.


Live with few luxuries and save any loan money not used for housing/food to pay off those bills pronto. You can also sell stuff you don't need - an old instrument, furniture, plasma, sperm, whatever

This sounds like uninformed advice.

Even as little as $3000, is very difficult to pay off by living stringently. I work full time, and I am paid what most would call handsomely, for what my job is. Even spending money on just the essentials (rent, cheap food at the grocer, gas, cell phone bill (with all extra features removed, btw,) car insurance/maintenance) I barely squeeze by making payments a few hundred above the minimum required monthly payment.

Take my word for it; my above suggestion is an easy easy way out of consumer debt. Just over-estimate your financial aid budget somewhere that it won't seem obvious you are using some of the loans to pay off your consumer debt.
 
This sounds like uninformed advice.

Even as little as $3000, is very difficult to pay off by living stringently. I work full time, and I am paid what most would call handsomely, for what my job is. Even spending money on just the essentials (rent, cheap food at the grocer, gas, cell phone bill (with all extra features removed, btw,) car insurance/maintenance) I barely squeeze by making payments a few hundred above the minimum required monthly payment.

Take my word for it; my above suggestion is an easy easy way out of consumer debt. Just over-estimate your financial aid budget somewhere that it won't seem obvious you are using some of the loans to pay off your consumer debt.

My schools allotment for rent alone is ~$900/mo. I spend ~$500 for on-campus housing rent. I "save" (really accumulate in debt) $400 for every month. 400 x 12 = $4800. I could have had a much more luxurious apartment I assure you.

You do not report how much you spend for housing, food etc. At my institution, when they give you the loan you simply state if you want to take all ("max" allowable) or some of it.

- someone who's actually in med school
 
Last edited:
Quick question: I'm entering med school with some credit card debt. The interest rate on student loans is obviously a lot lower, so will my school give me money to pay off my credit cards? Either way, I have to pay off the cc's, and its cheaper for everyone if they let me pay them off up front rather than budget in my monthly payments right? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Also, I hate being poor lol!

P.s. in case its relevant, I have less than 5k in cc debt.


Hey, coz. Heard you're having money problems. Listen, I got the answer. You declare bankruptcy, all your problems go away. Bankruptcy, OP, is nature's do-over. It's a fresh start. It's a clean slate. Like the Witness Protection Program.
 
Hey, coz. Heard you're having money problems. Listen, I got the answer. You declare bankruptcy, all your problems go away. Bankruptcy, OP, is nature's do-over. It's a fresh start. It's a clean slate. Like the Witness Protection Program.

Now this is uninformed trollish advice
 
My schools allotment for rent alone is ~$900/mo. I spend ~$500 for on-campus housing rent. I "save" (really accumulate in debt) $400 for every month. 400 x 12 = $4800. I could have had a much more luxurious apartment I assure you.

You do not report how much you spend for housing, food etc. At my institution, when they give you the loan you simply state if you want to take all ("max" allowable) or some of it.

- someone who's actually in med school

Yeah, except what you fail to realize, is that $400/mo difference, as money borrowed on a student loan, is accruing interest at a much, much lower rate than if it were say, consumer borrowed money, owed to ChaseBank or HSBC, for example.

Your signature is arrogant. I'm not in a medical program (yet,) but that doesn't preclude the possibility that I might be/have been in a situation where I am borrowing money for education beyond undergrad....
 
borrowing in student loans is pretty cheap right now. I have privates that are at 3.5%, so it makes sense that this is a good way to pay off higher rate debt. just remember that student loan debt is NOT dischargable in bankruptcy.
 
This sounds like uninformed advice.

Even as little as $3000, is very difficult to pay off by living stringently. I work full time, and I am paid what most would call handsomely, for what my job is. Even spending money on just the essentials (rent, cheap food at the grocer, gas, cell phone bill (with all extra features removed, btw,) car insurance/maintenance) I barely squeeze by making payments a few hundred above the minimum required monthly payment.

Take my word for it; my above suggestion is an easy easy way out of consumer debt. Just over-estimate your financial aid budget somewhere that it won't seem obvious you are using some of the loans to pay off your consumer debt.

I can regularly make $300+/mo credit card payments using just my COA allowance. While your situation might be true in YOUR case, it certainly isn't universally true.
 
Report an over-estimate for your housing budget; get an apartment below this, and use the monthly difference to pay off the debt.
Please name a US MD school that allows you to tell them how much money you need for living expenses.

Because this isn't how it works at any US MD school I've seen. What I've seen: the school declares the cost of attendance (ie budget). Students can petition to raise their budget for medical expenses, child care, away rotations, required computer. You can't ask for more money for consumer debt, moving expenses, AMCAS/interviewing expenses, etc. As others have said, the only way to get more money is to spend less than the school-defined budget.

Up to the school-defined budget, you can swap in a private loan and swap out a federal loan (please don't do this if you don't like to read fine print and/or if you don't understand the word "variable"). It's now all but impossible to find a lender who will give you a private student loan without going through your school.

Very curious to know if my comprehension of this is provincial.
 
Take my word for it; my above suggestion is an easy easy way out of consumer debt. Just over-estimate your financial aid budget somewhere that it won't seem obvious you are using some of the loans to pay off your consumer debt.

Except, as FunnyCurrent said, it's not possible. You don't tell the school what you need for financial aid. Every school has a cost of attendance, and this is the maximum they'll give you. It's your responsibility to live within those means. Some places are more generous than others in what they budget you, but it's nowhere near as simple as you make it seem.

To the OP: your best bet in paying it down is probably to sit down and take an honest assessment of what your expenses for the year will be, then take out enough loans to cover that, have some extra for emergencies if possible, and whatever else you can get to help pay down those credit cards. This will probably put you at the maximum (which I would suggest anyway for at least the first year to let you see how much you're actually spending in your new location so you don't run out of money).

If your school budgets you $7200 a year for rent and you find a place that'll cost you $6000 for the year, you can put that toward your credit card. This is your biggest non-tuition expense, and also the easiest to plan for, so it's good to target to free up some extra money. The same thing goes for groceries, though on a smaller scale.

And once you get your credit card debt back to $0, make sure you start using their automated payment plan to pay down the full balance every month. If you're carrying a balance as a student, you're losing far more than the few percent cash back they're giving you.

borrowing in student loans is pretty cheap right now. I have privates that are at 3.5%, so it makes sense that this is a good way to pay off higher rate debt. just remember that student loan debt is NOT dischargable in bankruptcy.

You're an MS-2 with private medical school loans at 3.5%? Where did you find those? And are they a variable rate? I thought the Stafford loans were the best rate you could get, and that's at 6.8%.
 
Yeah, except what you fail to realize, is that $400/mo difference, as money borrowed on a student loan, is accruing interest at a much, much lower rate than if it were say, consumer borrowed money, owed to ChaseBank or HSBC, for example.

oh my god. You can't see that we're recommending the same thing!?!?!? I am simply correcting the fact that the max cost of attendance & living is set by the school not by any amount you declare.

My recommendation is that he pay off his credit card bill with the 4800 dollars shifting his credit card debt to student loan debt.

jesus christ

If you go to a medical school in a nice area like SF, SD, LA, Miami, Houston, NYU they are generous and chances are if you live without luxury (ie get a roommate/cheap ass apartment) you will have money left over. If you go to school where the cost of living is already low well... you probably won't have 4800 left over.
 
Last edited:
Except, as FunnyCurrent said, it's not possible. You don't tell the school what you need for financial aid. Every school has a cost of attendance, and this is the maximum they'll give you. It's your responsibility to live within those means. Some places are more generous than others in what they budget you, but it's nowhere near as simple as you make it seem.

To the OP: your best bet in paying it down is probably to sit down and take an honest assessment of what your expenses for the year will be, then take out enough loans to cover that, have some extra for emergencies if possible, and whatever else you can get to help pay down those credit cards. This will probably put you at the maximum (which I would suggest anyway for at least the first year to let you see how much you're actually spending in your new location so you don't run out of money).

If your school budgets you $7200 a year for rent and you find a place that'll cost you $6000 for the year, you can put that toward your credit card. This is your biggest non-tuition expense, and also the easiest to plan for, so it's good to target to free up some extra money. The same thing goes for groceries, though on a smaller scale.

And once you get your credit card debt back to $0, make sure you start using their automated payment plan to pay down the full balance every month. If you're carrying a balance as a student, you're losing far more than the few percent cash back they're giving you.



You're an MS-2 with private medical school loans at 3.5%? Where did you find those? And are they a variable rate? I thought the Stafford loans were the best rate you could get, and that's at 6.8%.

Lol if they let us declare the amount we need I am pretty sure the med student parking lot would be full of leased BMWs and Lexi (plural of lexus, pronounced Lex - eye) :meanie:
 
borrowing in student loans is pretty cheap right now. I have privates that are at 3.5%, so it makes sense that this is a good way to pay off higher rate debt. just remember that student loan debt is NOT dischargable in bankruptcy.

Beware of exchanging unsecured debt for something that will hound you for the rest of your life if you fail to pay it off later. But if you live below your med school's estimated cost of living, you should be able to scrounge up money for cc payments.
 
Beware of exchanging unsecured debt for something that will hound you for the rest of your life if you fail to pay it off later. But if you live below your med school's estimated cost of living, you should be able to scrounge up money for cc payments.

Yeah, I'm def not going to go in to bankruptcy to escape $3000 cc debt. Thanks for all the advice - this is pretty much what I was thinking, and yeah, I can def live below the official "cost of living" from my med school and make payments that way.

It just seems like a shame, because if my med school just gave me $3000 up front to pay off the cc, then I wouldn't have to pay a total of $4000 in payments throughout the year, you know? It would just be cheaper for everyone (well I guess for me lol). Either way, I'll be borrowing the $ to pay off the cc's, but it would obv be cheaper to do taht up front in one big chunk. I was thinking of getting money for a new laptop, and then just using that money instead of actually getting a new laptop, but I don't want to get on the wrong side of my med school. I'm guessing they wouldn't care? But I don't know.

And yeah, once I get out fo the debt, I'm cutting up all my cards forever. cc debt sucks, but for me it was the cost of kaplan classes plus interviewing expenses that went on those cards - I saw it as a necessary evil, and I would do it again, but yeah, it sucks.
 
By the time you emerge from bankruptcy, you'll be an attending. Its almost a no-brainer...
 
Please name a US MD school that allows you to tell them how much money you need for living expenses.

Because this isn't how it works at any US MD school I've seen. What I've seen: the school declares the cost of attendance (ie budget). Students can petition to raise their budget for medical expenses, child care, away rotations, required computer. You can't ask for more money for consumer debt, moving expenses, AMCAS/interviewing expenses, etc. As others have said, the only way to get more money is to spend less than the school-defined budget.

Up to the school-defined budget, you can swap in a private loan and swap out a federal loan (please don't do this if you don't like to read fine print and/or if you don't understand the word "variable"). It's now all but impossible to find a lender who will give you a private student loan without going through your school.

Very curious to know if my comprehension of this is provincial.

All, US MD schools, actually. There is such a thing as irresponsible borrowing; financial aid officers can help you work out a budget the won't require borrowing max allowable; I am saying, when making said budget, if not borrowing the max amount, inflate housing, so that you can use the difference to pay off the cc. In the end, it doesn't matter where it comes from; it just appears less obvious this way, if not borrowing the full amount.
 
It just seems like a shame, because if my med school just gave me $3000 up front to pay off the cc, then I wouldn't have to pay a total of $4000 in payments throughout the year, you know? It would just be cheaper for everyone (well I guess for me lol). Either way, I'll be borrowing the $ to pay off the cc's, but it would obv be cheaper to do taht up front in one big chunk. I was thinking of getting money for a new laptop, and then just using that money instead of actually getting a new laptop, but I don't want to get on the wrong side of my med school. I'm guessing they wouldn't care? But I don't know.

You do get the money up front. Most (if not all?) medical schools are going to disperse your financial aid once per semester. If you are good at budgeting you can pay off however much of it you want in one lump payment, and/or buy a laptop. Also, a lot of schools provide additional aid for the one time purchase of a computer.
 
And yeah, once I get out fo the debt, I'm cutting up all my cards forever.

Unless you can't trust yourself to spend within your limits, this is a bad idea. You can get anywhere from 1-5% of the money you spend back when you put it on the card, depending upon the company and your credit history. Just do like I said and set it to automatic, full-balance payments every month, and exercise restraint in what you're buying.

Plus, it's important to build a credit history for when you eventually try to buy a house. Using a credit card and paying it off in full every month is one way to do this.

All, US MD schools, actually. There is such a thing as irresponsible borrowing; financial aid officers can help you work out a budget the won't require borrowing max allowable; I am saying, when making said budget, if not borrowing the max amount, inflate housing, so that you can use the difference to pay off the cc. In the end, it doesn't matter where it comes from; it just appears less obvious this way, if not borrowing the full amount.

This isn't necessary. When you apply for loans, you will get a statement saying you're approved for whatever the cost of attendance is. You then just type in how much of that you want, and they cut you a check. You don't have to tell them what you intend to spend on housing, food, and entertainment. You just tell them what amount you need up to the COA, and they trust that you'll use it to live on instead of blowing it on hookers and cocaine.
 
Unless you can't trust yourself to spend within your limits, this is a bad idea. You can get anywhere from 1-5% of the money you spend back when you put it on the card, depending upon the company and your credit history. Just do like I said and set it to automatic, full-balance payments every month, and exercise restraint in what you're buying.

Plus, it's important to build a credit history for when you eventually try to buy a house. Using a credit card and paying it off in full every month is one way to do this.

True, that's why I got the cc's in the first place. I suppose restraint is something that any physician ought to be capable of anyways!



This isn't necessary. When you apply for loans, you will get a statement saying you're approved for whatever the cost of attendance is. You then just type in how much of that you want, and they cut you a check. You don't have to tell them what you intend to spend on housing, food, and entertainment. You just tell them what amount you need up to the COA, and they trust that you'll use it to live on instead of blowing it on hookers and cocaine.

Haha, awesome. Yeah, actually that makes a ton of sense - they're not giving you money every month! Good advice man- thanks.
 
borrowing in student loans is pretty cheap right now. I have privates that are at 3.5%, so it makes sense that this is a good way to pay off higher rate debt. just remember that student loan debt is NOT dischargable in bankruptcy.

Where are you getting private loans at 3.5%????
 
They're probably variable. I qualified for loans at that rate, except they could go up to 20%. Jee, thanks Discover! What a great deal!

(sent from my phone)

Wait do you mean credit card or student loans? I have never heard of variable student loan interest rates (although I guess they probably exist). I mean even if the "variable" rate averaged out to 5% you would save a heck of alot of money compared to the stafford loans.
 
Wait do you mean credit card or student loans? I have never heard of variable student loan interest rates (although I guess they probably exist). I mean even if the "variable" rate averaged out to 5% you would save a heck of alot of money compared to the stafford loans.

Yes, student loans.

(sent from my phone)
 
Wait do you mean credit card or student loans? I have never heard of variable student loan interest rates (although I guess they probably exist). I mean even if the "variable" rate averaged out to 5% you would save a heck of alot of money compared to the stafford loans.

Yeah I actually have a few private student loans that are at like 2-3% right now because I took them out back in the day (2007, 2008) when banks didn't have any floor on interest rates because they thought that the prime rate would never drop to 0%. You can't do that anymore, they usually have a floor of at least 5%+ your variable rate.
 
Yeah I actually have a few private student loans that are at like 2-3% right now because I took them out back in the day (2007, 2008) when banks didn't have any floor on interest rates because they thought that the prime rate would never drop to 0%. You can't do that anymore, they usually have a floor of at least 5%+ your variable rate.

Ya...its just sickening because I have great credit and yet still have the 6.5% stafford loans. Heck my credit card is 9.0% fixed, thats not much worse than my loans....and I get 2% cashback with it...
 
This isn't necessary. When you apply for loans, you will get a statement saying you're approved for whatever the cost of attendance is. You then just type in how much of that you want, and they cut you a check. You don't have to tell them what you intend to spend on housing, food, and entertainment. You just tell them what amount you need up to the COA, and they trust that you'll use it to live on instead of blowing it on hookers and cocaine.

Yah it's fairly clear he (the nontrad) doesn't know how medical school loans are disbursed. Per my financial aid office anyways, "99% of the class elects to take the max amount". Furthermore, although a presentation is given during orientation regarding how the loans work there is no counseling, sitting down, or discussing the making of a budget that will allow you to loan less. That is up to you. I guess we're all irresponsible borrowers. But it's fine the OP's question was answered.
 
Yeah, I'm def not going to go in to bankruptcy to escape $3000 cc debt. Thanks for all the advice - this is pretty much what I was thinking, and yeah, I can def live below the official "cost of living" from my med school and make payments that way.

Of course not, not now anyway. But most people start out with a small amount of debt like this, and then things happen. Illness, joblessness, an expensive car accident, or whatever. Interest accrues. Bankruptcy can definitely happen years in the future, if not now.
 
Top