Yes, you can’t discharge student loan debt through bancruptcy. But, 1) the interest rate is fixed and relatively low, 2) it doesn’t affect your credit score as negatively as consumer debt, 3) you can write off the interest, and 4) they can never force you to pay more than you can afford to pay – worst case scenario is income-contingent repayment, and that’s after you’ve used up forbearance. As long as you communicate with your lender, they will always, always work with you – which is more than can be said for a credit card company.

Yes it is true that bankruptcy does not cancel student debt. However sometimes you have to roll the dice. In the end my student loan debt total (for both undergrad and grad) rose to about 40,000 after leaving it on forbearance for a period of about 3 years before starting to pay it off. It would have been about 32,000 had I not applied for that second graduate semester loan that I never used. Now compare that 8000 loan difference to a 6000 credit ccard balance. Those credit card interest rates will kill you!!

I learned the hard way to pay off credit card bills in full each month (if you can’t afford it, DON’T CHARGE IT!!!!!). I now have about 75000 in savings and have decided in the next day or two to completely pay off my remaining 29000 student loan balance.

My message: there is nothing wrong with using student loan money to pay off a credit card if you are sure you can avoid further credit debt acccumulation. I would not be where I am now if I had not done that!

I owed about $15000 in credit card debt (about 9 cards) when I began graduate school. I couldn’t go to school and make any sort of dent in my debt when you consider the interest rates. So I dropped out of graduate school and worked full time for the next three years. Over this 3 years, I paid off most of my credit card debt except for the last card which was about $6000.

I then re-entered graduate school and got my master’s in a year and a half.

Here’ the kicker. I then reapplied to another Master’s program for the sole purpose of dropping out at the first or second week of the semester. I never wanted the second graduate program. I just wanted the loan money so I could use it to pay off that last credit card which I had been paying off via a collection agency! So instead of paying off a credit card debt with a high interest rate, the debt just transferred to a student loan where the interest rate was much lower!!!!!!!!

I’m sorry that you had a rough time at school I am also non-traditional, thanks to the selective deafness of FAFSA to reality, but loans are NOT the only way, nor are they the problem. Neither is education, unless you go to school for four years to be an actor (which means you were warned you’d be waiting tables a while) or to major in something almost entirely useless, like a culinary degree (no offense to you culinary majors, but I had to work with some of you and we made the same money. They paid to learn it and I just worked there a year and got a raise.) The problem is blowing caution to the wind, taking any loan they offer you at the maximum and being a money funnel. If you lowered the class load to just enough hours to qualify as full time while you work part time, you wouldn’t have had so much debt. But if you think prison and drugs are the answer to happiness, by all means, go for it. It just proves that some people don’t really want to leave the slums, so they barely try, they fail, and then they blame the system so they can return to the slums. What you say makes me think you are just one of those who think the system is there to wipe your nose and put money in your pocket for nothing. That’s called Communism, and if you ever read a book about it, you’ll find out it fails everywhere it’s been tried, right along with National Healthcare. Capitalism is benefiting financially from your own efforts. I’m sorry that the idea of working hard and saving for the future is like kryptonite to you, who used to suck my taxes up with your druggie welfare mom plan. If this is the result of welfare, then no wonder the economy is suffering.