Professional and Career Development Loan - HELP.

ChrisSA83

I am wanting to undertake an MSc and require a professional and career development loan in order to do so. I plan to pay off half of the loan throughout my study, as it is interest free. However, one month after I finish studying I will begin to pay interest on the loan. My hope is to transfer the remainder of the loan onto a 0% balance transfer credit and pay the remainder off during the credit card interest free payment period.

1. Can you use a credit card to pay off a professional and development loan?

2. If so, does this transaction with the credit card count as a balance transfer or a purchase?

HELP!!!!

Tixy

1) not directly.
What you might be able to do is to use a card that allows super balance transfers to move cash from your card to your current account and then use that to pay off any loan. Only a few cards allow super balance transfers (mostly MBNA backed ones) and most charge a slightly higher BT %

But that assumes that SBT cards will still exist by the time you finish your course. Plus whether you would get a card with a sufficent limit (which obviously is likely to be dependant on you having a permanent position and be earning enough.

ChrisSA83

my wife works full time and we are counting on her being able to secure said card. Mmm..

ChrisSA83

Thanks. My wife works full-time and we are hoping she will be able to secure said card!

Tixy

Well its certainly an option you could explore at the time, but I wouldn't bank on it being a definite option. The cards that currently allow SBTs are listed here - http://www.stoozing.com/sbt.php but you will see that the ones with the long interest free period have a BT rate of 4% currently (except the mbna platinum card if wife was eligible and able to get that one).

That said the rates on PCDL are fairly competitive I think (9.9% at the moment) so its not such a bad deal if you cannot move it elsewhere.