Car Payments During OD School

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Stirling

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I'm applying this summer, so OD school is about a year-and-a-half away. My current car is an 03 Volkswagen Passat, with 187k miles and needs some minor repairs that add up to $1500. Even if I repair it, I'm not sure that it will last another two or three years afterwards. I'm considering getting a used car to replace it. Right now, I use the car for work and commute about a half hour each day.

I don't have any money saved, so I would have to get a loan to buy a replacement car. If I got a used car with a loan, would I be able to use student loans while in school? Or would I have to pay off the car before?


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I am applying this summer too and just bought myself a brand new car in December, about $300 a month. I work part time while in school now and full time in the summers to get ahead of the payments and hopefully not have to worry about it for a while. I have a loan in my name for the car (hence the payments) and I have loans out right now for my undergrad. Im not sure if they will do financial aid differently for Opt school, but it hasn't changed any of my undergraduate loans thus far!
 
So are you allowed to use undergrad loans for the car? Or do they restrict what the money can be used for?


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With our loan money they don't dictate how you spend it. I will warn you however that the interest rates are TERRIBLE and some loans have origination fees as well. If I were you I would make that car last as long as possible because you'll end up paying so much more after interest if you use school loans. Not to mention the cost of school is so high, you don't have a ton of extra money for a car payment unless you are living at home or have another way of cutting costs.
 
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If it were me i would work and save about $1500 or so and use that and the trade value of your passat for a $5 grand camary/accord/civic. Might not be as nice as a volkswagen, but much more reliable and cheaper to maintain. Paying cash upfront will save a lot of the pain from high interest rates and getting loans.
 
I preface this by saying anything I say is my opinion and what I would do:

Stay away from German cars. They are crazy expensive to fix.

I recommend chevy or anything GM (reliable and easy to fix) Honda (super reliable) and Toyota (super reliable)

Stay away from anything German (so expensive to fix), early kias (break down) and fords (break down easy)
 
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Perfect situation to find a relative with a "hand-me-down" car that you can get cheap or free.

A car payment during school will be an anchor around your neck and it's a terrible habit to start diverting school loans toward personal property.

Follow the golden rule: Never borrow $$ for anything that depreciates in value.
 
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I think I’ll just have to keep my car in working order with bandaids (like just adding oil every fill-up instead of fixing the leak). Obviously major stuff will get fixed. I’m gonna set aside money for car repairs and treat it like a car payment


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