How to finance a laptop for a college student?

[cpu killer]

Hey guys,

So I'm going off to college right now (I start in the summer term, so July) and am trying to get a laptop. The options I'm looking at are somewhat in the $1300 range (After taxes and shipping), so I was thinking about financing one since I have a few other things that have a higher priority for my direct work money right now. I'm getting a full ride for college ($17,300 yearly at UF, pays for everything), so I don't have to mind college costs - would a student loan for the laptop that I could pay off rapidly be a good option? I have Fair credit since I've only had my CC for 3 months so far, but have made full payments and all that so I can build a good credit score. I'm looking at options and it seems like BoA offers some. Anyone been through something similar? Gateway won't finance me obviously since they use traditional financing methods and the company won't approve me. I can probably pay it off somewhat in full by September but since I don't have credit I can't get those "No Payment 6 Months" deals, and my parents probably won't help out.

So, any opinions? Anyone been in a similar situation?

Thanks guys.

[Juts]

A friend of mine just got a loan from his bank in order to buy his laptop before freshmen year. He walked in, they talked about it,

and they came up with a monthly payment plan around 100-200 $$ a month. It seemed to work well, and the amount of interest it

accrued was pretty minimal. I would talk to your bank, see if their interest rates can beat whatever kind of school loan you might

be able to get.

[cpu killer]

Thanks, gonna try and muster time to go to my bank. I get off school at 3:30 and BoA closes at 4:00, so I'm gonna have to pull some pretty elite ninja moves on that one ;p

[ATGC]

Why aren't your parents helping you out? Ask them for their credit card - so you do that pay no 6 month thing. I did that also, it helps out a lot. I used my parents credit card to get my 6 month no pay from Best Buy, I was able to work one month during the summer before Fall 07 started and paid it off quickly.

It will be hard if you go on a plan to pay $100-$200 every month, because buying books and such for courses will need all the money you got.

Apply for grants/ scholarships at your University and use that money to buy the laptop.

[cpu killer]

Why aren't your parents helping you out? Ask them for their credit card - so you do that pay no 6 month thing. I did that also, it helps out a lot. I used my parents credit card to get my 6 month no pay from Best Buy, I was able to work one month during the summer before Fall 07 started and paid it off quickly.

It will be hard if you go on a plan to pay $100-$200 every month, because buying books and such for courses will need all the money you got.

Apply for grants/ scholarships at your University and use that money to buy the laptop.

I got a full ride from UF in grants/scholarships ($17,300 for Fall/Spring), any additional scholarships will just take away from that money as I'd have to report it. I can work and pay it off, but I doubt my dad would be nice enough to allow me to use his CC or even his info to get the credit to do it. I could work the month before and pay off half already, and have the other half payed off before September, but my dad just won't be that generous to let me use his CC. :/ And my mom doesn't have good enough credit (I think? well, she probably does) and she wouldn't want me using her stuff either. It sucks, I wish I had parents who would help me out..if it wasn't for me getting merit-based scholarships to pay for my education, I wouldn't be able to go to college. My parents made no plans for paying it off.

[ATGC]

Ok, I see the situation now. I guess you should talk with the bank after all and explain your situation and come up with a plan to get a loan and pay it off.

On another note, I don't think you really need a laptop for 1st year, its not necessary. 1st courses are all basic and don't require too much write-ups. Just use your current desktop or use computer labs at your University and buy a laptop starting 2nd year. I bought mine 2nd year also.

P.S. I don't recommend summer school, I tried 1st year for Intro Calculus and Intro Physical Chemistry, its not worth the time to just get some credits because you are missing out on working and making at least 2000-3000 during the summer. Just pack the credits during Fall/Winter and STUDY. :D

[Juts]

Welcome to the parents not helping club. Mine don't even pay taxes correctly so i have to pretty much make up a lot of information for the fafsa forms....heres praying i don't get audited next year.

[MGS4-SS]

Dang, and to think that I'm gonna finish my BA next year and couldn't buy a laptop...

A laptop is not necessary, you can use the money on something more useful.

[cpu killer]

Ok, I see the situation now. I guess you should talk with the bank after all and explain your situation and come up with a plan to get a loan and pay it off.

On another note, I don't think you really need a laptop for 1st year, its not necessary. 1st courses are all basic and don't require too much write-ups. Just use your current desktop or use computer labs at your University and buy a laptop starting 2nd year. I bought mine 2nd year also.

P.S. I don't recommend summer school, I tried 1st year for Intro Calculus and Intro Physical Chemistry, its not worth the time to just get some credits because you are missing out on working and making at least 2000-3000 during the summer. Just pack the credits during Fall/Winter and STUDY. :D

Haha, thanks man I'll see how it goes down =)

As for the Summer term, UF accepted me in the summer so I have to go. It's good though, because in Florida, everyone HAS to take a summer term so it's best to get it out of the way the summer before college, that way I don't have to worry about spending a summer at college. I'm also going for a combined Master's/Bachelor's in Finance in 4 years, which takes all the credits I can get, so it's good to start early. Appreciate your advice though, if I can't get a laptop I'll just wait it out.

[Juts]

As for the usefulness of a laptop, it does depend a little on your major. I am a CS major, so i do a lot of programming in lab and

whatnot, so its helpful. Ironically enough though, because of how unorganized i am, i find it much more useful as a centralized

place to store all my notes. Using the laptop to take notes in class instead of paper, has helped tremendously.

[cpu killer]

Yah, the no parents helping sucks. Luckily my parents make very little and have no bachelor's degree (either), so that helped me out in spite of their incompetence to worry about my college education. They unknowingly did something right. But, I think the usefulness of a laptop is debateable..I'm a very organized person, which is why I hate dealing with notebooks and notes. I simply can't take decent notes fast enough usually on a pen and paper, I end up going home and re-doing all of them because I'm not satisfied with the quality. I think a laptop would help me out tremendously there, especially a tablet which I want. I'm gonna try to get one, as I personally think it'd be of great aide to me, but it's not seeming like it's gonna be easy.

[kingpunk]

Firstly, going into debt to finance a laptop is just dumb. Im not being disrespectful, Im just trying to help.

I work for a major banking instutition, and i don't really believe in credit. Stay away from financing whenever possible.

In fact you may want to look into DaveRamsey.com who is really great about finances, etc.

That said, you have a few options:

1. get a job at mcdonald's (or other well-respected employer that is highly flexible with students). If you want a great laptop at a low low price, you can go to dell's business page and purchase a vosotro 1000, the lowest priced one is like 349$. NOT BAD IF YOU ASK ME! And it'll be perfect for school!

2. if you're going to school and you're doing the debt-funded schooling, look at your college's library, im sure that they have a program to finance laptops. Some actually even sell them, if they do you can use your financial aid to purchase the laptop (not wise, imho.)

3. if you go go apple's website for your school, you'll find that you can get a macbook for cheap, usually ~1099$ for the basic macbook. (on-par pretty much with the dell vosotro 1000, but well over double (maybe tripple) the price).

hope this helps!

KingPunk

[cpu killer]

Kingpunk, thanks. I actually work at Abercrombie & Fitch so I have a pretty decent income, and I'm getting transferred to the Gainesville store when I move for college, so I've got a form of paying it off. I'm just taking care of other things right now with that money, such as fixing my car decently. But I thank you for your advice. I looked at the macbook, and for students it's $999, not a bad price. I'm gonna see if I can work something out.

[Pierce28]

I am in a similar situation, kind of. I'm getting ready to start college at NC State in August, and one of the things I need to start worrying about is a laptop. I know NC State allows you to add the cost of the laptop to your tuition so that college loans and such can be applied towards it. If UF has this, would the scholarship go towards it? If so, look into it.

Also, look at what applications you will need to be running and buy a laptop that can run it. For example, if you are just going to be using MS Office, don't spend $2000 on a high end laptop, since you won't need something that powerful. Look at UF's bookstore. NC State's has actually teamed up with Lenovo to offer some really nice, discounted Lenovo laptops. If UF offers this, try to buy one of those, since they may be like NCSU and have on site techs who can fix any problems you may have.

[oldaccount1]

Hey guys,

So I'm going off to college right now (I start in the summer term, so July) and am trying to get a laptop. The options I'm looking at are somewhat in the $1300 range (After taxes and shipping), so I was thinking about financing one since I have a few other things that have a higher priority for my direct work money right now. I'm getting a full ride for college ($17,300 yearly at UF, pays for everything), so I don't have to mind college costs - would a student loan for the laptop that I could pay off rapidly be a good option? I have Fair credit since I've only had my CC for 3 months so far, but have made full payments and all that so I can build a good credit score. I'm looking at options and it seems like BoA offers some. Anyone been through something similar? Gateway won't finance me obviously since they use traditional financing methods and the company won't approve me. I can probably pay it off somewhat in full by September but since I don't have credit I can't get those "No Payment 6 Months" deals, and my parents probably won't help out.

So, any opinions? Anyone been in a similar situation?

Thanks guys.

Hey. UF student here. Have you filled out your FAFSA? Use the money you get from that on a laptop--much better. But if you need to take out a loan but your parents don't want to help out financially, see if they will at least cosign your credit application so you can be approved. Your application's processing will piggyback your parents' credit. :)

[cpu killer]

Gonna take a look, apparently UF Bookstore offers Dell laptops. But McG, yes I filled out FAFSA, and as I mentioned I got $17,300 in grant for fall/spring. $3,300 is for tuition, and $7920 is for my apartment rent, and I guess the rest is just .. left over. I'm thinking probably $1000 on books. Am I really free to use the rest as I please? I also plan to use the rest to eat and whatnot so I don't know. Nice to meet a fellow Gator though! Let's meet up when I finally get there =) How are you liking Gainesville?

[ATGC]

Gonna take a look, apparently UF Bookstore offers Dell laptops. But McG, yes I filled out FAFSA, and as I mentioned I got $17,300 in grant for fall/spring. $3,300 is for tuition, and $7920 is for my apartment rent, and I guess the rest is just .. left over. I'm thinking probably $1000 on books. Am I really free to use the rest as I please? I also plan to use the rest to eat and whatnot so I don't know. Nice to meet a fellow Gator though! Let's meet up when I finally get there =) How are you liking Gainesville?

If your on a meal plan, buy the lowest one first, if the money runs out - add some more. I bought 2000$ meal plan and only ended up eating about 1100 for year. They wouldn't let me take the rest of the money from the card!! Bastards.

Try searching for ebooks online, if you know what I mean of books 1st before you buy them. Don't buy them at the campus bookstore they are expensive.

You can use rest of money as you wish, its your grant/scholarship money. Just make sure you account is under 75 dollar balance, housing is paid off, books are paid off, meal plan and the rest is yours.

[MGS4-SS]

As for the usefulness of a laptop, it does depend a little on your major. I am a CS major, so i do a lot of programming in lab and

whatnot, so its helpful. Ironically enough though, because of how unorganized i am, i find it much more useful as a centralized

place to store all my notes. Using the laptop to take notes in class instead of paper, has helped tremendously.

I'm a Computer Science major too, I did it without a laptop at all.

I usually think everything before I start writing code, but I'm the exception of the rule (everyone else goes into programming without thinking first).

[DigitalE]

Wait... You have a full ride scholarship and you still don't have money for a laptop?

[cpu killer]

Well, that money is only disbursed in Fall, and I have to watch out how I use it, so I don't plan on burning half of the surplus on a laptop. But yes, pretty much.