Transferring Student Loan to Credit Card

rich2198

I'm looking to transfer my student loan onto a 0% interest credit card, however they won't do it as a balance transfer. Would it count as a "purchase" or will they class it as something else and sting me for loads of interest??

You thoughts and advice please!!!

Margaret_Millne

What kind of card is it? If it is what Martin calls an SBT card you could balance transfer the money straight to your current account and then pay your student loan with it.

Why do you want to pay off your student loan, when it is about the cheapest loan you will ever get? Even if you do want to, can you get a big enough credit limit to do it?

rich2198

Its a capital one card with 0% interest on balance transfers and purchases. It has enough limit to transfer the remainder of my loan, and although the student loan is cheap its still charging me interest!!!

Margaret_Millne

Fair enough, but I don't think Capital One is an SBT card. Do you have an Egg card? If so balance transfer to put it in credit - or if you have a concience about doing this transfer up to the credit limit to your current account then transfer the balance to your Capital One. Lots of people here have put there Egg card into credit before transferring to their current account, without any apparent problems.

Does Capital One limit the number of transfers you can do to the same card? You have to be careful about this.

If you don't have an Egg card it would be useful for you to get. It is always good to have one SBT card, and they also give you 5 months interest free on the anniversary of when you got the card. So you get your introductory period at 0%, then a few months later you get another 5 months at 0%.

jonesMUFCforever

IMO this is a bad thing all round. Will you be able to pay off entire student loan within Interest free period?If so all well and good BUT if you cannot you will be replacing low long term interest debt with high interest charges.
Presumably when you pay off student loan you do not get the option to reapply for it a few months later so what will you do?
Eric

Fatboy_NSS

Do not pay off your student loan any faster than they make you. If you are able to obtain credit at 0% then you would be better off stoozing it into a decent savings account paying 5%+ rather than paying off your student loan which will be charging a much lower rate. Remember that the 0% on your CC will last for a year at the most, after which you won't be able to transfer it back to the low student loan rate.

rich2198

The main idea was to save money on not paying the interest (however low) on the loan, once on a credit card its easy then to be a rate tart and switch between 0% interest cards, plus it'll make me pay off my loan quicker.

Walletwatch

The main idea was to save money on not paying the interest (however low) on the loan, once on a credit card its easy then to be a rate tart and switch between 0% interest cards, plus it'll make me pay off my loan quicker.

You are the best judge here, but playing devil's advocate, if 0% deals stop altogether, or you do not get a 0% credit card to BT your existing card, what then? If you don't manage to clear your credit card balance then, you would have ended up with a new liability at a higher rate of interest than the student's loan.

I think what the other poster has said here makes sense. SBT the money into a Savings account, and let it earn interest at 5% plus.

Margaret_Millne

You could always use the interest earned to make additional payments to the student loan, but you would have the capital available to repay if you could not get another 0% deal.