<p>can i use my direct student loan to pay off my credit cards? i didn't get the money in a reasonable fashion, so i used my cards to pay for most of my school stuffs. i'd rather consolidate my interest to the loan alone instead of across the loan and 3 credit cards. i know i'm only supposed to use it for 'school,' but my school stuff is paid and i want to limit my debt.</p>
<p>You used your credit cards to pay for things for school, right? Then you are using your loan for educational purposes if you use the loan to pay off the credit cards you used to pay for things for school.</p>
<p>well…partly. a large chunk of my card balance is just outstanding stuff.</p>
<p>otherwise what, i just sit on the money/repay it and sit on 4 different kinds of debt?</p>
<p>Once you get your check from your student loan (after direct school costs are paid), you can use the money to pay down/off your credit cards. </p>
<p>No one is going to look over your credit card bills to see if all/some/most of the charges were for school. Besides…“school” costs are vague…transportation, gasoline, food, etc.</p>
<p>^^^^ True, however how much money are you talking about, small numbers may not raise suspicion, large numbers might. However, if some of the credit card expenses were legitimate school expenses, e.g. gas station charges for school related travel, meals on days when the school meal plan was not available, or books and stationary etc, you could argue that you charged it to your credit card but they were school expenses that would have been covered by the loan.</p>
<p>well to be specific, most of the charges over the summer (when my balance built up bc no income or finaid) were for gas, food, and maint/upgrades for my car. also, i’m not sure what ‘substantial’ is, but it’s upshot of 2grand. it’d be the full leftover of my loan check after tuition/fees to pay them off.</p>
<p>I don’t think $2k towards credit card bills is anything to worry about. Again, once you get your disbursement check, no one is going to be looking at your credit card bills. </p>
<p>Just take the money and pay off your credit card bills.</p>
<p>true. regardless, i’ll probably have to do it anyways because it’s tough playing the ‘will this one charge through’ game…</p>
<p>Don’t worry about it…when you get the money, pay off your credit cards. It’s better to do that then pay interest on credit cards.</p>