Hi,

I turned 18 four days ago and am looking to actually apply for a student loan.  I have been scouring the internet for the last 3 months tryingto figure out what loans are available and which ones are good, which ones are scams, and which ones don;t apply. I am starting an online degree for Interior Design and Westwood college online. It will take me 3 years to finish,but i need a job now. So I have decided to get my Home Staging accredidation through Haverhill and to begin working for them because it gives me an insight to what it will be like to do interior design for a living, allows me to work while i am doing my schoolin, and goes hand-in-hand with my sought after degree. But like most i don't have $1000 just lying around. I can't  borrow from family since my fiance brings home more than my parents, and both his parents and my grandmother are all retired. So I am looking for a good student loan that I can get by myself with no co-signer that will cover the cost of the course. I have looked atalot that want me to go to an actual college and since haverhill is actually a company that gives an accredidation and then a job. The school offersto let you make payments, but my fiance bought me a brand new car for my birthday with all of his savings ( which is what it took since he screwed his credit royally a few years ago) and the best they can do is 3 payemnt of $333. So if anyone knows of loan that would cover this please let me know. Thanks.

You say your fiancee's credit is bad, but how about yours?  Since you have a new car that you own outright, I'd think that a bank would lend you $1000 using the car as collateral.  Just make darn sure that you can meet the terms of the loan!

Beyond that all I can think of is getting an unsecured loan, which at your age in this credit market I doubt will be easy for that amount.  In other words, an unsecured bank loan, or getting a credit card that has that much of a limit. 

By the way, I cuffed up my credit when I was your age with credit cards.  Like fire, they are a dangerous servant and a terrible master.  Beware.

-=Steve=-

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B.S., Info Sys, Charter Oak State College
M.A., Educational Tech Leadership, George Washington University
Doctor of Health Education, A.T. Still University, in progress

Well i turned 18 seven days ago so i have no credit. But I do no own the new car. Our whole savings was only $6,000 which is what it took as a down payment with his credit being below 550. So i cannot use the car as collateral for a loan. I have considered putting my old car collateral but we do not think that will be $1000 worth of collateral. But thank you for you help. It gave me something new to look into.