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0% card or Student loan?

TheGardener
TheGardener Posts: 3,303 Forumite
Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
edited 9 May 2015 am31 9:09AM in Credit cards
Hi
Daughter currently works fulltime on low-ish salary approx. £15K pa. gross. She wants to go back to Uni 1 day per week to get quals that will increase her salary but in order to do this she will have to reduce hours to 4 day week and will lose 20% of salary.

Has a current debt of £3.5K on a 0% card and is paying at £500pm off with no further expenditure on the card. Despite income she had an excellent CR as very good at managing her money.

She will have to pay £2.2K in Sept in tuition fees. So the question is:

Should she carry on paying off the current CC at 0% (so it will be clear by Sept) and then pay tuition with a CC and then do a BT to a 0% or - should she save for the tuition fees and just make minimum payments to current CC...she is eligible for a student loan (she already has one from a few years ago but has switched careers) but that carries an interest rate.

Comments

  • grumbler
    grumbler Posts: 58,629 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    She will have to pay £2.2K in Sept in tuition fees. So the question is:

    Should she carry on paying off the current CC at 0% (so it will be clear by Sept) and then pay tuition with a CC and then do a BT to a 0% or - should she save for the tuition fees and just make minimum payments to current CC...
    Well, this obviously depends on when 0% expires.
    Generally, what's the point in paying off one 0% deal early only to take another 0% deal and pay BT fees?
  • jonesMUFCforever
    jonesMUFCforever Posts: 28,898 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    If she was excellent at managing her money she would not have credit card debt and would have saved the tuition fees - apart from that dad is right!
  • TheGardener
    TheGardener Posts: 3,303 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    If she was excellent at managing her money she would not have credit card debt and would have saved the tuition fees - apart from that dad is right!

    The CC debt was from buying a small car for work - once the car loan was set up she BT'ed the car loan onto a 0% card with a v.low transfer fee. The 0% period ends in September. On her salary she couldn't have saved up for a car fast enough and now has a car on a loan with no interest - I can't see how that was a completely bad move myself nor that it makes her bad at managing money?

    I had forgotten about the BT fees and I have encouraged her to use the student loan system - if she lost her job the SU wouldn't be a problem - the CC debt would be :)
  • jonesMUFCforever
    jonesMUFCforever Posts: 28,898 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    What happens in September if she can't get a new balance transfer to pay the card off?
  • grumbler
    grumbler Posts: 58,629 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    She gets a new 0% first, then uses another card to pay the fees (or the new card if 0% is on purchases). Otherwise she uses a student loan that, I think, she can apply for in advance.
  • TheGardener
    TheGardener Posts: 3,303 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    What happens in September if she can't get a new balance transfer to pay the card off?

    Well that's exactly what I said to her - as she works in local authority - I'm more concerned about her still having a job. If she goes with the student loan Co at least it spares her the panic of not being able to make the CC payments. The 0% card was just an idea and I though I would sound out the collective brains on here to see if it was a viable option.
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