Two Important Things to Remember Before You Apply
1. Remember, you can use a Think student loan to pay for tuition, room and board, textbooks, a computer, school fees, travel to and from school and other education-related expenses.
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2. Most applicants need a co-signer to be approved. With a qualified co-signer on your Think Student Loan application, you generally cannot be turned down for credit reasons.¹ And a co-signer with excellent credit, a parent or other creditworthy adult, could help you get a better rate. To apply you must be at least 17 years of age with a qualified cosigner; or age of majority when applying alone.² In addition, you or your co-signer must satisfy the following credit criteria:
- Unless you are retired, you must have a satisfactory employment history for at least the last two years (if you are self-employed, you must have been in business for at least the last two years),
- You must have proof of current positive income (if you are self-employed, your business must also have a net positive income for the last 2 years),
- You must have at least 21 months of credit experience and a satisfactory credit history,
- You must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident and have resided in the U.S. for the previous two years, and
- You must have resided at your most current and immediately preceding addresses for a total of at least one year.
There is no downside to using a qualified co-signer on your student loan application. With a strong co-signer, the likelihood of fast approval and a check mailed directly to you in as few as five business days goes way up — even if you, the primary borrower, don’t have an established credit history, even if you’ve had credit problems in the past.
In addition, a Co-signer Release option is available to borrowers who make their first 48 payments on time and who elect to make automated payments.³
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¹ Student applicants cannot be listed as a debtor in a pending bankruptcy proceeding.
² The legal age for entering into contracts is 18 years of age in every state except Alabama and Nebraska (19 years old), and Mississippi (21 years old).
³ Co-signers will be eligible for co-signer release upon request if (1) the first 48 payments of principal and interest are paid on time, (2) at any time prior to the 48th on-time payment, the borrower who receives the monthly bill elects to have monthly principal and interest payments transferred electronically from a savings or checking account and continues to make such automatic payments through the 48th payment, and (3) the borrower meets creditworthiness criteria at the time of the release of the co-signer. The co-signer release is only available for undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education loans.