Student Loan query

j-9_2

So, I'm reaching the very end of my student loan payments (finally!).  However, I'm incurring interest of almost 6.5%.  I've managed to get an interest free credit card which would mean I can pay off the balance of my loan, halve my month payments and still pay it off in under the next 12 months incurring no additional interest from today (I'm fortunate, I know).

However, the fly in the ointment is that the Student Loans Company have advised I can't pay off the loan with another debt facility, even in circumstances where that debt facility offers better terms than they do.  Has anyone else found this?  Surely this can't be right?!  It cannot be reasonable that I'm tied into a facility that is not actually in my best interests compared to other options out there?

Sorry for the slight rant at the end there.....

marcia_

 Its standard across government. I cant pay my council tax with a credit card, debit only and I'm fairly sure you cant pay HMRC with one

apw81

It’s fairly widespread that you cannot use a credit card to pay off other credit and loans. It’s not the SLC being difficult. Good thing to know, since it can trip people up (after they’ve maxed out a high interest store card, for example). To do what you want to do, I understand you would need a money transfer card. You might get an interest free period on a transfer, though there would still likely be a fee to pay (usually around 4%) on the amount you transfer.

CliveOfIndia

It's largely standard that you can't pay off a loan with a credit card - not just with government debts, it's pretty much across the board.

Even if you could, your credit card would class it as a cash transaction, so you'd be penalised with a cash advance fee, as well as interest (a cash transaction wouldn't qualify for the 0% promotional rate).

As mentioned by the previous poster, one option may be a Money Transfer card.  But you'd need to factor in the transfer fee, and weigh up whether that, combined with the card's interest, would make it worthwhile (Money Transfer cards usually offer a low rate of interest, but very rarely 0%).

silvercar

The cheapest way of doing this that I have found is with Curve fronted. It will cost you 2.5%, certainly cheaper than the slc interest rate, but not at 0% as you were hoping.

https://help.curve.com/what's-curve-fronted-rkuEB_2Iu

nokia1100

marcia_ said:

 Its standard across government. I cant pay my council tax with a credit card, debit only and I'm fairly sure you cant pay HMRC with one

Credit card works for paying yearly VED on DVLA website.