When I compare my school loan statements and my credit card statement and my car loan it appears to me that school loans operate like credit card debt?

My loans were like a car payment, if I remember correctly. But have you ever deferred any of your loans or ever had them in forbearance? Depending on the type of loans you have, that would effect the total amount due. That’s what messed me up. I deferred them and went into forbearance so many times that I ended up owing significantly more than I did at the beginning. It took me 12 yeas to pay them off. Ugh! Can’t tell you how glad I am that that’s over and done with.

I would say, generally speaking student loans are not structured to compound interest.

If you are worried about your student loans, and you have not yet had them consolidated, go to www.dl.ed.gov

that is the government website that will get the government to buy your loans, and lock in a great simple-interest rate that works with you to get your loans payed and be flexible with your budget.

I may sound like I am trying to be a mom, but the fact that you haven’t or didn’t read your contract is terrible. You should be able to figure out what your signing even around the ‘legal speak’.
Ok, I’m done.
I also agree with @mrrich724 Go to the website and get your information, figure out what to do and get it done.
I paid almost 5k for a 3500 dollar loan back in 1985. The pay off can take forever if you do not have set amount, with set payments just like you said, like a car loan. If your amount is changing you do Not have ‘like a car loan’. You do have like a credit card, or what used to be called a ‘revolving account’.
Good luck, and read your contract next time you sign anything! This is the twenty-first century, fluther it!

Are you talking about subsidized student loans or unsubsidized student loans? Unsubsidized is like credit card debt. It’s horrible. You want to pay those off as quickly as you can, even if you have to take a second job and apply the money earned to the unsubsidized loans.

@BarnacleBill

That is not the case at all the only difference between unsubsidized or subsidized is that for one, the government picks up the tab on the interest, and for the other, you pay interest. And neither of those cases liken a student loan to a credit card.

Also, if you have a student loan, it’s probably a simple-interest loan, and at a MUCH lower rate than any credit cards. In fact, the student loan is likely to carry a lower interest rate than your mortgage! So it’s (probably, since we don’t know the terms of OP’s agreement) not a bad deal, like 99% of credit cards.

All debts will be shown, the type is not relevant, i.e. credit card, student loan, etc.

The rates on the unsubsidized loans can jack up immediately to 16 – 20% if you are late with even one payment. This is not the case with subsidized loans. You can end up with student loan payments of $800 a month or more on unsubsidized loans very quickly.

Filing bankruptcy will not dismiss student loans, subsidized or unsubsidized. Student loans are the latest form of enslavement.

@BarnacleBill I think maybe there might be a need to reform the student loan system and try to find ways to make a college education more accessible and more affordable but I wouldn’t say that student loans are “the latest form of enslavement.” I borrowed a lot of money to pay for grad school. I had an obligation to pay it back, just like I have an obligation to pay back any money that I borrow. It took me 12 long, painful years to pay back my student loans, because of multiple deferments and forbearances, and it was hard to do, but I did it, I didn’t default. College student are still just kids, away from home for the first time, not always savvy about finances and debt. Someone needs to do a better job of explaining to them what exactly they’re getting into and how the various loans and grants work and they need to do a better job of listening when it is explained to them.

Student loans, car loans, and credit cards may operate almost the same if you are referring to interest application is the minimum amount is paid and not the total amount due for a particular paying period. However, there is a type of credit card called bad debt credit card that does not necessarily works like those loans in the sense that the interest if settled upon approval. This is done mainly because this type of credit card is obtained for the purpose of eradicating bad debts. It works like a consolidation. Therefore, if you have a problem with your different loans, you might consider a bad debt credit card or other types of consolidation.