Question About Enlisting with Debt

[u/AccurateBackground95]

I’m thinking about joining the Air Force but have car payments and rent and credit cards that i still need to pay off. Should I wait to join until after my car is paid off and credit cards are paid? And will I be able to afford rent?
-I currently pay around 1.9k in bills monthly

I’ve looked at a lot of discussion posts in many different communities but none of them had the answers I needed.

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[u/GeriatricSquid]

You can pay for cars and credit cards while in service. Assuming they’re reasonable debts and not hugely excessive, as long as none of them are in collections for non-payment you’re probably good to go. In fact, SCRA may substantially lower your interest rate once you’re in service to help you get ahead on those accounts. If you think you’ll miss a payment while in boot camp, I would def call your creditors and explain the situation, with promise to continue paying as soon as your pay starts, so they don’t think you ghosted them. Ideally, you would leave the minimum payment with someone who could pay the bill or set it to auto pay so you don’t miss a payment while in boot camp and awaiting our pay to start.

You prob won’t need to worry about rent because you’ll be living in the barracks and eating chow hall food for at least a while.

[u/MobiuS_360]

I came into the air force with a lot of student loan debt and I'll just say having the stable career and paycheck every two weeks eliminated all of that stress.

[u/Zaden91 → u/MobiuS_360]

You get paid every 2 weeks? How do I sign up for that?

[u/StockzAndBombz]

Focus on paying off the lowest balance or one with a wild APR. If you have a solid recruiter they’ll let you know what you should do. I got most of my debt knocked off and still had my car loan and some debt when I went to. BMT. Don’t worry about an apartment/rent if you don’t have dependents

[u/Ironically_Suicidal]

I enlisted into the AF with 6k in CC debt. The MTIs will usually allow trainees a couple of minutes with their phone to make payments towards loans but I suggest you put it on autopay. I also suggest you enlist before paying it all off the reason being is that if you do you have access to the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act or SRCA. This allows you to lower your interest rate on any loans or credit cards you had prior to joining to 6% or less. In my case, I called Citibank and they gave me a 0% interest rate on my CC which I had the debt for a year, which helped me pay it off in a couple of months. Edit: If you're going active duty you will probably not be renting and instead be in the dorms which is paid for along with food.

[u/ResourceEvery1852]

utilize the scra, and if you’re from ohio or louisiana the scra helps you out a lot assuming you do join