PLEASE ADVISE --- how to handle massive credit card debt

[lightessenz]

You should take a private loan and pay it all off, if you can offer some type of collateral. Then make payments on 1 amount.

[->Soon]

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/moneymag/0705/gallery.cards_rewards.moneymag/

if you need a card....

[pinkisthenewlawschool]

In a way, a school's stipulation that you can't use financial aid to pay off cc debt is a bit ridiculous. I am sure because of tight budgeting, in most cases it wouldn't be feasible, but in my case it will be necessary and fairly easy.

After working my way through undergrad, I only have a bit of student loans, but no savings. So since I quit my part-time job after graduation to move back home for a month, then across country, there is no way to pay expenses. Deposits were $700, and just my flight was $250. Add in other expenses and I have about $1500 in debt. However, I worked out my school's budget, added in the things they forgot (health insurance anyone?) and I will still have a surplus of about $2500. They budgeted $1000k per month for an apartment, mine is $600.

Clearly $20k is a lot more than $1.5k, and NYC and Columbia are expensive, and I would be way too scared to go to school with that much debt before trying to minimize it a bit. However, I think if you have an extra $400 a month, you should spend it on what you need to (or not take out that much!). I guess I really didn't make too much of a point,  but I really don't think the school will check up on it, but who knows!

[pinkisthenewlawschool]

I guess my point was just that it's hard to make the distinction. $1000 of my credit card debt is related to school expenses, $700 of it directly from the tuition (deposit). If I had to buy my computer on credit, it would have been even more, though that could have waited until August. If I had my loans now, this wouldn't be an issue. 

[sharky]

Loans are deposited into your student account.  They are first used to settle your debts with the school.  Then they cut you a check and say "live on this until next semester."  How you allocate it is your own business. 

(Mine is going into a high-yield savings account with only the minimum amount that I need for the month transferred to my checking.)  But the schools don't track you down and make you turn over receipts to check to see if you spent $100 on a credit card payment, buying rounds at the bar, or groceries.  Also, if you still have other school options, you may consider going to a more "family friendly" school that allots a higher cost of living than it actually costs to live there.  (Like I'm allocated $900 a month for housing in a place where it only costs $300-400 if you have a roommate.  That extra loan amount - just for housing! - would allow you to pay some CC debt.  That's not even counting skimping on the food/travel budgets or buying used books, etc.)  My sense is that the big city schools - NY and DC especially- because the sticker price/COL is already so high there, give you a very, very tight budgets. 

[«ě»]

Just out of pure curiosity... do not American credit card companies give you a credit limit related to what you would be able to pay? There's no way in hell someone here could get enough credit to end up in $20k debt as a student at least.

[jillibean]

and I thought my 3K was bad.

[qmmm]

Just out of pure curiosity... do not American credit card companies give you a credit limit related to what you would be able to pay? There's no way in hell someone here could get enough credit to end up in $20k debt as a student at least.

There was a time when I had a single credit card with a credit limit that was roughly twice my yearly income.  Granted, I wasn't making a whole lot at the time, but I certainly wasn't living below the poverty line either.

[«ě»]

That's kinda scary if you're not able to control yourself.

[sharky]

If you pay on time, they periodically raise your limit.  And you can also request an increase.  But for credit scores, if you have $5,000 in debt it's better to have a $5,000 in debt on limit of $20,000 than $5k in debt on a limit of $6000.