How to pay off your student loans using your credit card.

Nowadays, it is very difficult to pay for college. Back in 1998, when I started at Fairleigh Dickinson University, I didn't get a full scholarship to attend. So like every student in the US, I had to apply for student loans. By the end of graduate school, I owed about 30,000 dollars. Which isn't a lot compared to other college graduates out there. So after getting a job, I started paying them monthly, but the interest rate was really high. On one loan I had a variable interest rate of 8 % and on the other loan I had an interest rate of 5.8% fixed.

I decided to use my credit card to do a transfer balance to the 8% loan. I had a 0% apr, so I figured I might as well use it. I knew that in a year I could probably do a lot of damage to it and that the good thing was that after a year, the 0 % apr would turn to 2.8% APR. This was a capital one credit card I used. I know right now that discover offers a lifetime apr of 3.3 % for transfer balances. But remember when you do this, you will end up paying a higher monthly payment for a few months. For the first few months, my minimum monthly payment was about 540 dollars. But as time went it went down because your monthly payment for a credit card depends on the balance carried. Also, if you do this, never, ever and i repeat, NEVER EVER use the credit card with your loan balance for any purchases. Keep this credit card as your sole lender.

This also works to your advantage because some cards offer cash rewards or points for each balance transfer.