Originally Posted by ISP James
do you mean like a home equity?
you could do that but the benefit wouldnt necessarily make it worthwhile.
if you can find a secured LOC with an interest rate as low as a gov't issued student loan, then yeah its not a bad thing. but, chances are you wont be able to. right now prime is 8% i know my student loans are like 3% if it's a private student loan (key loan for example) it will probably be more worth your while cuz some of those have insane rates.
furthermore, a lot of creditors look at student loans as .... "clutter" i guess is a good way to say it. its there but if you have 20k in credit card debt, they see that as "bad debt" but if you have 20k in student loans its not as bad. kinda weird.
also, having something like a home equity cuts back on your houses LTV (loan to value) which is just a relationship to what you owe and what it's worth. that only matters if you wanted to refinance or something.
either way (student loan or home equity) your interest is tax deductable. thats a good thing. but overall, might not be worth it.
Well, any line of credit attached to a mortgage should feasibly be secured, right?
And yeah, good point on the interest rate difference, I didn't even think of that. But it does make sense from a creditor standpoint why a student loan isn't seen equally as credit card debt. A student loan is for education, meaning the person is atleast someone intelligent enough to maintain a decent credit score. Only in theory, of course.