Author Topic: Handling deferred student loans in a hair-on-fire CC situation?  (Read 3078 times)

OctaviusIII

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Handling deferred student loans in a hair-on-fire CC situation?
« on: September 19, 2015, 10:38:23 PM »
I'm prepping a proper case study in between my homework, but I have a more pressing question.

I'm enrolled as a first year grad student for city and regional planning at Cornell, and I've had to pay for this with loans. I already have a hair-on-fire credit card situation that I'm getting under control, so I have the following debt situation:

Credit Card: $13,988, 15.99%
Unsubsidized Stafford Loan: $10,302, 5.84%
Graduate PLUS Loan: $6,641, 6.84%

For the question: does it make sense to pay down the interest as it accrues on the two student loans while I still have this credit card debt, or should I leave the student loan debt alone until the credit card is paid off? Or does it depend on income?

As I said, a proper case study will come eventually, but it might be a few weeks, and an answer will be more important sooner rather than later.

pbkmaine

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Re: Handling deferred student loans in a hair-on-fire CC situation?
« Reply #1 on: September 19, 2015, 10:49:26 PM »
Credit card, because of interest rate, should be paid off first. I spent 6 years at Cornell - my undergrad and MBA are from there.

MDM

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Re: Handling deferred student loans in a hair-on-fire CC situation?
« Reply #2 on: September 20, 2015, 12:04:46 AM »
Credit card, because of interest rate, should be paid off first.
^pbkmaine has the answer.

See http://www.vertex42.com/Calculators/debt-reduction-calculator.html for a nice downloadable tool that will tell you how much interest you pay using various payback scenarios.

ShoulderThingThatGoesUp

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Re: Handling deferred student loans in a hair-on-fire CC situation?
« Reply #3 on: September 20, 2015, 06:33:23 AM »
Big Red Mustachians! Alright! (Engineering '10 here.)

Credit card. Also, take the bus to Wegman's for groceries. Are you living in university housing or off-campus?

Do you have a good winter coat? It's about to get COLD and you have walking to do.

OctaviusIII

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Re: Handling deferred student loans in a hair-on-fire CC situation?
« Reply #4 on: September 20, 2015, 02:10:01 PM »
Thanks for confirming my intuition. It'll take me a while to knock that down, but I'm getting some education-style loans from my parents which will help me cut the interest rate, and the payment schedule, quite a bit. I can then start working on the PLUS loan.

Quote
Big Red Mustachians! Alright! (Engineering '10 here.)

Credit card. Also, take the bus to Wegman's for groceries. Are you living in university housing or off-campus?

Do you have a good winter coat? It's about to get COLD and you have walking to do.

As for Wegman's - are you nuts??? SO expensive. I shop Aldi and Ollie's whenever I can. The local Dollar Tree has some fantastic frozen veggies, and my wife and I just found the Maine Party and Food Warehouse, which is very cheap. We do have to drive way more than either of us would like (she works in Binghamton, about 75 minutes away), but it's the best we've got right now. It also opens up a few Asian markets, too, for cheap noodles and spices.

Thank God for the bus, though. I've been taking that up to campus (free for the first year!) and around town when it's too far to walk or bike and the car isn't available. And yes, I have warm clothes - I used to live outside Calgary, Alberta, so I know cold.

Living off-campus near downtown. Glad to see there's plenty of Cornellians around the forums.

pbkmaine

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Re: Handling deferred student loans in a hair-on-fire CC situation?
« Reply #5 on: September 25, 2015, 07:12:42 AM »
Tons of cheap or free things to do in Ithaca and at Cornell. There's the farmer's market, of course, and all the great parks. At Cornell itself, take advantage of free lectures by amazing professors. Lots of hiking trails. On a beautiful day, take one of the trails through the gorges and hike up to campus. Do not miss Cornell Plantations (particularly the herb garden), the Johnson Art Museum, and the Ornithology Lab at Sapsucker Woods. Make sure you try the excellent, campus-made ice cream at the Dairy Barn. Go to a hockey game at Lynah Rink and a lacrosse game. Listen to the carillons play "Eveningsong" at close of day. Learn the words to "Eveningsong", "Give My Regards to Davy" and our beautiful Alma Mater. Have a bagel at Collegetown Bagels.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!