 TITLE: Can You Pay Student Loans With a Credit Card? CONTENT: Why Paying With a Credit Card Might Not Be a Good Idea\n------------------------------------------------------\nThe companies that collect student loan payments generally require cash payments and don't allow you to use a credit card to pay your bills. The following options are available to you instead, but they all come with downsides:\n*   **Use a third-party provider to make monthly payments by credit card.** Services such as Plastiq allow you to pay bills with a credit card, but you'll pay a transaction fee on each payment (Plastiq charges 2.5%, but fees can vary). This charge will add to the cost of your loan.\n*   **Pay off a student loan balance with a credit card.** Some private lenders allow student loans to be paid off with a credit card, which some borrowers do to get rewards. The lender usually charges a transaction fee, however, which could be significant on a large student loan balance and outweigh any potential rewards. You'll also need a credit limit that can accommodate your student loan balance, but pay attention to your credit utilization ratio.\n*   **Transfer a student loan balance to a credit card.** Some credit cards allow student loan balance transfers, which could be beneficial if you qualify for a 0% APR balance transfer offer. You'll have a period of months to pay off the balance interest-free, which could make sense if you know you can get rid of the loans you transferred in that time. But in most cases, you'll pay a fee—often 3% of the transferred balance—which will add to your debt load.\n*   **Pay student loans using a cash advance.** Your credit card issuer may allow you to get a cash advance on your credit line. While you can use this money to make a student loan payment in an emergency, cash advances come with extremely high fees and interest rates that can exceed 25%. Consider this option a last resort. You're likely better off looking into other ways to get relief from student loans, which we'll cover later on.\nInterest fees charged by your student loan issuer might sting, but it's very likely your credit card interest charges will hurt even worse. Unless you've taken advantage of a 0% APR offer or immediately pay off your bill in full, you're likely to pay steep credit card interest fees. The average credit card interest rate is currently more than 17%, which could lead to substantially higher costs over time.\nTake care to protect your credit score while paying down your student loans—not only by paying bills on time, but by keeping credit card balances low. As your balance rises, so does your credit utilization ratio, which is the portion of your total credit limit you're using. Credit utilization is the second most important factor in your credit score, after payment history. Generally, credit scores suffer as utilization grows past 30%. END