Credit Debt:

Student Loan Debt

I have heard something about a program that is used in Australia whereby students receive a fully paid education but after graduation they pay a percentage of their income for X number of years. Thus the current payees are funding the schools for the current students.

Consolidating Credit Card Debt:

Pay Off Credit Card Debt

Student loans are usually some of the cheapest and most convenient loans of any type; they usually have very low interest and very generous terms.

If your concern is to not borrow at all for school, then you could either go to a cheaper school in the first place, so that you have to pay less, or do work-study programs to earn more of your way through school (though some may disqualify you from grants, due to “too much income”, depending on the type of program).

You can also work to better qualify yourself for other aid, such as grants and scholarships. Work really hard in school and get good grades, to better qualify for scholarships; work on arranging your finances to maximize your chances at financial aid that you prefer to aid in the form of loans — for example, separating your finances from your parents early, so you could qualify as independent (this may or may not be feasible for you, but it’s usually the simplest way to qualify for more and better aid); plan your family’s finances around financial aid rather than around taxes (some moves to help your taxes are also good for aid, but some are to your detriment when it comes to aid).

You could also work to save up enough to pay it up front yourself without having to worry about aid. This often takes years of working at low-pay jobs though — compare to working at higher pay jobs out of college, even though you may have to pay back loans; often people think the tradeoff is worth it to owe debt against higher future income than to work to earn it beforehand at low income. Especially when the low income jobs are getting more and more scarce in this economy.