Are No Credit Check Student Loans Real? Yes and No.
It’s basically common knowledge that you have two types of student loans: federal and private. What’s less commonly known is that the only student loans with no credit check are the federal variety. Every private student loan provider is going to check your credit, every time.
A no credit check student loan starts with the FAFSA, which stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. FAFSA is also the doorway to many other financial aid programs, but those are topics for another article. The most common next step after you’ve filled out your FAFSA is to get some kind of Stafford loan, the most common subsidized federal student loan. Because you’re dealing with the government’s program here, there will be no credit check. They use other criteria to decide whether you qualify, including factors such as your own income and the income of your parents or other sources of financial support. The government feels strongly enough about education that they’re willing to back loans made to students who have essentially no business borrowing the money.
On the other hand you have private student loans, where there will be a credit check, and if you should happen to qualify you’re likely to borrow much more money than you really need, at higher rates than you would ever want to pay, with no real opportunity for a loan consolidation after you graduate – at least not one that compares to student loan consolidation programs for federal loans.
So, not only is it more appealing to go with no credit check student loans – it’s also the right move financially in the short term and the long term.