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Does anyone know what sort of credit score is required to avoid needing a cosigner for the PLUS loan? My parents are more broke than I am and I am hoping my fair credit score will be enough.

It's not about your credit score, I believe they only are checking for outstanding delinquencies. If you don't have any outstanding unpaid debts they should approve you. Since these are federally-backed loans, it's insanely hard to discharge them during bankruptcy, and presumably an advanced degree will allow you to make enough money to pay them back, they don't care so much about your current credit score, just your current reliability.

vanwinkle wrote:It's not about your credit score, I believe they only are checking for outstanding delinquencies. If you don't have any outstanding unpaid debts they should approve you. Since these are federally-backed loans, it's insanely hard to discharge them during bankruptcy, and presumably an advanced degree will allow you to make enough money to pay them back, they don't care so much about your current credit score, just your current reliability.

Disqualified for some large unpaid hospital bills. What can I say, i'm broke with no health insurance.

misslawyer2013 wrote:

vanwinkle wrote:It's not about your credit score, I believe they only are checking for outstanding delinquencies. If you don't have any outstanding unpaid debts they should approve you. Since these are federally-backed loans, it's insanely hard to discharge them during bankruptcy, and presumably an advanced degree will allow you to make enough money to pay them back, they don't care so much about your current credit score, just your current reliability.

Disqualified for some large unpaid hospital bills. What can I say, i'm broke with no health insurance.

God bless America, keeping the poor poor.

But the first quoted post is correct. It does't matter what your score is, so long as you don't have any accounts unpaid. The latter will disqualify you even if it is for $1.

Oblomov wrote:It does't matter what your score is, so long as you don't have any accounts unpaid. The latter will disqualify you even if it is for $1.

Please tell me this wouldn't include Stafford loans I still have to repay from undergrad.

conformalgeom wrote:

Oblomov wrote:It does't matter what your score is, so long as you don't have any accounts unpaid. The latter will disqualify you even if it is for $1.

Please tell me this wouldn't include Stafford loans I still have to repay from undergrad.

It's only about delinquency. You can have outstanding debt, as long as you've been making payments on time. If you have, you'll be fine.

One thing to add:

When I read over the eligibility requirements, I noticed that any defaults, repossessions, tax liens, etc. in the last five years will result in you having an "adverse credit history." In those cases, as well as what has already been mentioned, you will need a cosigner.

Fortunately, 2004 was my bad year.

Here's a link to Q&A from PLUS:

http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/attac ... oansQA.pdf

Oblomov wrote:
God bless America, keeping the poor poor.

Yeah, evil America, paying for people to go to law school...

misslawyer2013 wrote:

vanwinkle wrote:It's not about your credit score, I believe they only are checking for outstanding delinquencies. If you don't have any outstanding unpaid debts they should approve you. Since these are federally-backed loans, it's insanely hard to discharge them during bankruptcy, and presumably an advanced degree will allow you to make enough money to pay them back, they don't care so much about your current credit score, just your current reliability.

Disqualified for some large unpaid hospital bills. What can I say, i'm broke with no health insurance.

Did you try to contact the hospital to work out a discounted deal? They give the uninsured significant discounts. It's better than having collection out on you