If you have little or no credit history can you get a student loan without a co-signer?

Answer

Well that's a tricky question it depends.

There are 5 major types of loans to fund an education.

Stafford Loans (sub and unsub) No credit checks are required but they have certain loan limits. 3500 Freshman 4500 2nd year 3rd and beyond $5500 per year. But if your are older than 24, married, in the military, or your parents have poor credit you can be eligible for an additional $4000 in un-sub Stafford loans each year.

Perkins Loan- which your eligibility for these loans are for the neediest students can be an additional $ 2000- 4000 for more info you would need to talk to your school or check your financial aid award package.

PLUS loans- Parent loans for Undergraduate Students- are taken out in parents name and certified by the school and it will cover the rest of the cost of attendance.

School Certified Private Loans- require at least a 620 FICO score and it will cover the rest of the cost of attendance. and if you didn't meet that requirement you would need a co-signer.

Direct to Consumer Private Loans- where the money is sent directly to the student for education related expenses. Housing, Transportation, Books, Beer, etc. The credit qualifications are hardest. So you better have good credit or a good co-signer.

(Direct loans through the department of education aren't any better or more lenient when it comes to credit. ) Some schools are only direct loans schools that's what the other person said everyone he knows has direct loans. Because they couldn't get any other loans.

From other contributors:

• Similar situation here for my daughter. She has no credit history whatsoever. We make too much money for grants but here's the problem: my husband refuses to help pay for school at all, in any way, shape or form. He also will not allow me to co-sign any loans even though I was prepared to do so. Basically she's on her own with this. She has applied for loan and after loan after loan and so far all have been rejected due to no credit history. We haven't heard anything back from Stafford or the Direct Loan she applied for yet. FAFSA said she didn't qualify for any grants and she didn't get any scholarships. She's set to start school at the end of next month but are at the end of the road here. What does one do in this situation? And does anyone know how to check online for the status of a Stafford loan?

• Yes. Everyone I know in college has gotten a Direct Loan through the government. As long as you are not bankrupt or owe the government, you are approved. Many people do not realize that pretty much everyone is eligible for a government loan.

• Hi - problem with Federal Government loans like Stafford are that the student with no credit history can not fully fund their tuition with a Stafford loan. Stafford has very low limits (like 2,650.00 in freshman year). As a parent it was my expectation that my daughter would just get student loans on her own to fully pay for her own college without involving her parents. We can not afford to pay her tuition and have never started a college fund as we could not afford it. And now our income is better but we can not afford to pay it without changing our lifestyle. Anyway, I decided to help my daughter by applying for a PLUS Parent loan but was rejected due to bad credit. I was told that she can get additional Fed. Stafford funds up to another $4,000. That helps but she really needs the whole amount of the tuition and room/board. In this case she needs a total of $10,000 per year. Stafford sucks.. they should not cap the amount that can be borrowed. The student should be able to borrow the whole tuition amount without help from parents.

• I agree with you Stafford sucks! but, it does not change the fact that the tuition still needs to be paid, I have been to every website, talk to over 25 lenders and had my credit ran 10 to 15 times and I still can't get anywhere. My son want's to go to school, I can't help him and no one will lend him the money without credit and no cosigner. what am I going to do? school starts in about 13 days and he still needs $13,000.

• This only applies if you own a house. My husband and I just moved from England so we have no credit history but we bought a house here about a year ago, even though we have no equity in the house we were able to get a home equity loan for $20,000 from our bank (Wachovia Bank) Our house is worth about $126,000, and our combined income at the time we applied for the loan was only $30,000. Both of our credit scores were about 620. We got this loan so I could attend college. The only thing about it is we have to pay $177 a month right away to pay off the loan, however it is a 20 year loan, with no prepayment penalties. Its not as desirable as a student loan but it was our only option because we do not have a co-signer for a student loan. I cont think I would have been able to attend school without it.

• What no one else really says is that you have to have a COSIGNER for pretty much all loans besides Stafford and PLUS loans. I, myself, haven't been able to find ANY loans that I can get without a cosigner. I don't have bad credit - just NO credit. I'm actually at a complete loss, but it's just FYI that a cosigner is needed for loans if you have no credit or bad credit.

• There really is no private lender that will approve you without credit history or a co-signer. The only sure thing is to get a credit card and use it responsibly for a year or two. That is, until the government cleans up it's federal aid system so it works for everyone.

• It depends that how good you are in your education how efficient enough you can proof your self to get a loan of any type. Federal students loan and private students loan offers various advantages. You will not need any cosigner if you have good academic record.
  

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First answer by ID2844853003. Last edit by Sdresh. Contributor trust: 864 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 241 [recommend question]