Pay off credit card or student loan?

Whichever has the higher interest rate. Credit card debt also hurts your credit rating much more than student loans.
 
Listen to the Dave Ramsey podcast!
 
Dunno how the policies of student loans are in the US, but over here its fairly laxed. Some cases people who can't find a job in their field and work say min. wage at Star bucks or Homedepot can apply for relief where the state can pay a chunk of your debt off.

Here, I've always applied for student repayment assistance where I can pay interest free or at least very low based on income. Also, they're not hawking at me like a CC debt.
There are times on repayment relief where I end up paying up to $50 a month on interest, which is nothing compared to a CC loan.
There are guys I know that have paid minimum on a student loan (I don't recommend as you will never pay it off this way) for about a decade now, and it hasn't hampered into their lifestyle.
CC companies actually enforce their policies pretty tough so I would sort that out first.

I'm in Canada BTW if you were curious about the policies.
 
It depends.

Are you good with money or not?

1.- If you are not good, then pay the college debt, since you are going bankrupt anyway and that debt wont go away.

2.- If you are good with money, you wouldnt be asking us this question, you would pay up the higher interest loan first.

But what would most likely happen is that you wipe away the CC debt and then go on a spending spree since you have little CC debt.
 
Fedorgasm said:
More specifics for those who were asking.

The credit card debt is around 10k with an interest rate of I think 19%

The student loan I don't recall the interest rate and I can't look it up right now but I'd guess it's between 4% and 7%. The student loan balance is 3,300 and I just got a lump sum 3,300 from my company.

I'm not planning on filing bankruptcy. Not at all. I'm just considering it as a factor because you never know what will happen. I could lose my job or become disabled or whatever, who knows.

I guess it comes down to the money I'll save on interest vs. the liklihood that I'll go bankrupt. The money I'll save is very real and tangible, and will definitely happen. The bankruptcy is very unlikely to happen. So I guess I'll go with paying off 30% of my credit card balance.

Another benefit that I didn't think of is that I have to pay credit card payments every month, whereas I don't need to start paying the school loan until I graduate. So the urgency to get the school loan paid is even lower.

Thanks sherbros. Sometimes I need to hear someone else say it before it makes sense.
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19% interest is bad

4-7% interest is not as bad (i'm not a math major but that's all you really need to know)

oh also your student loan interest can be tax deductible, whereas your credit card interest is not

in short, pay off the credit card
 
Just remember that you cannot get rid of SLs through bankruptcy or anything. If you even have the slightest thought that you might be on the verge of filing, pay the SL off.
 
it depends how much debt you're talking about here, without numbers, it's hard to say. For instance, if you had 200K in credit card debt, dont have a super high income, let that sucker default, 7 years later, it wont count anymore. In general, credit card should be paid off, but dont know how much you owe and if you intend to even pay it!
 
Credit card first. Are student loans payments based on your income?
 
Pay your cc until paid off, then pay your sl. The cc has a greater interest rate. Also, it seems likely that sometime in the foreseeable future there will be some student loan forgiveness legislation. You should avoid debt in general, but I would prioritize the cc.
 
Fedorgasm said:
So my company reimburses you for college classes. I just got my reimbursement check for this past semester, so I can pay off my student loan or I can pay off 30% of my credit card debt.

I think it's probably a no-brainer that I should pay off some of the credit card since the interest rate is much higher than the student loan. But then I heard that you can never get away from a student loan, even if you file bankruptcy.

Now I'm not likely to file bankruptcy anytime soon, but finding that out did make me start to wonder if there were any other disadvantages to paying off the credit card instead of the student loan.

So as with every life decision, I thought the best thing to do was to ask a bunch of dudes that watch UFC.
Click to expand...

Nobody has asked you what country you live in.


thats kinda the most important information.

if its UK, then fuck the student loan, you dont pay those back till you earn over x amount anyway



I would use the oportunity to see if you can get a better credit card deal, look at credit card that will take your existing balance and give you an interest free period or something if you tell them "hey i can pay 30% off straight away"
 
it depends on how important your credit history is to you.
 
CC for sure. They usually have higher interest plus you write off the student loan interest come tax time.
 
Pay off cc debt and buy a finance book for dummies
 
Fedorgasm said:
So my company reimburses you for college classes. I just got my reimbursement check for this past semester, so I can pay off my student loan or I can pay off 30% of my credit card debt.

I think it's probably a no-brainer that I should pay off some of the credit card since the interest rate is much higher than the student loan. But then I heard that you can never get away from a student loan, even if you file bankruptcy.

Now I'm not likely to file bankruptcy anytime soon, but finding that out did make me start to wonder if there were any other disadvantages to paying off the credit card instead of the student loan.

So as with every life decision, I thought the best thing to do was to ask a bunch of dudes that watch UFC.
Click to expand...

1. Fake own death.

2. Go to a casino and put everything on red. If you lose, see 1.

3. Play Russian roulette with a co-worker.

On a serious note. Ive had outstanding credit card debt twice in my life. I know exactly where you are in terms of stress/pressure. I been there, bro. I paid them both off in full, as quick as I could (I had three jobs at one stage), as the interest in insanely high.

Important thing is not to panic and have a plan to pay it all off. Get your calculator out and start planning to pay it all off. Be thankful and grateful for the money you borrowed and simply pay it back.

I still have student loans, but will have the balance cleared in a few months, May/June 2017, according to my calculations ... And I owed 30,000$ + ... I have had this balance for over 8 years ... It feels good to finally pay it off.
 
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