@Nixon Does slate offer them?
@Anonymous wrote:Maybe just make extra payments on the loan as opposed to putting it on a credit card. You can pay extra to kill it off sooner.
Do not want to pay interest though. I'll call both NELNET & Chase tomorrow morning and see whats what.
@Kostya1992 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Maybe just make extra payments on the loan as opposed to putting it on a credit card. You can pay extra to kill it off sooner.
Do not want to pay interest though. I'll call both NELNET & Chase tomorrow morning and see whats what.
Give serious consideration to the recommendation fitchaber has. You are talking about paying off $7k in 15 months. What is the current actual APR on the loan? Your payment rate is going to be about $500 per month in any situation. By accelerating the payments on the current loan, you have the ability to speed the reduction of the debt, and still have the fallback to the existing payment plan, monthly payment minimum (which is all that is expected in these cases) and most likely a favorable APR compared to what you will see from any credit card that offers a 0% APR.
If for some reason you start with the 0% APR and things go sideways, you end up not paying it off by 15 months, you will have a higher APR at the end of that time. Potentially half or more could go into a 20% APR mode if things do not work out as planned, payments do not stay at $500 per month for a long time. Ouch.
Now, you will say, "That won't happen because we are 100% certain DM loans will be paid off in 15 months". Which only works to encourage keeping the existing loans and paying faster. You should really look at the actual interest expected with this "pay existing loan faster" and you will be surprised how much the interest cost goes down, because the principal triggering interest is falling so fast every month.
Bottom line, you are likely to pay some interest on this loan, either on the existing APR (for fewer months than the original plan) or through BT fees.
If you continue, you may end up with a lower BT offer card, a lower available credit limit that doesn't catch all the $7k. If you still want to BT to that, you can still make this work: just pay the $500 per month to the two loans, accelerating whatever remains on the student loan heaviest first, and catching up and finishing the BT loan by the end of the 15 months. If there is a remainder on the BT at the end of 15 months, there's some interest cost there, but of course by that time it should be less than $1k open amount if all goes well.
Good luck!
@Kostya1992 wrote:You mean the DCU (non-rewards) Visa that has a low APR? I'll take a look.
What interests me about the Discover IT is the 18month 0% APR, and she can use the card at Sams since she doesn't have any good mastercards/discovers.
This is possible though right? I can open a credit card, request balance transfer check and pay off a government student loan?
This is a concen. How strong is DM credit profile?
Also, combining a BT offer of a large amount, of $7k, with a timebomb of interest waiting at the end of that time, and then stacking monthly spend on top of it is a recipe for disaster. You have to stay absolutely committed to paying that $500 permonth to get the $7k reduced, but if you are putting daily spend on top of it, it takes a lot of discipline to add the daily spend amount to your monthly payment. Not that it is impossible or DM will not do it, but it is a risk that you end up with a high APR balance at the end of the 18 months.
Not saying you can't do it, but go in with eyes wide open to the risks.
