This is a pretty basic financial distinction. A credit card is an unsecured loan. A car loan is a secured loan, with the car itself as the asset backing the loa

This is a pretty basic financial distinction. A credit card is an unsecured loan. A car loan is a secured loan, with the car itself as the asset backing the loan. A college education is unlike all the other kinds of assets that individual humans tend to "own". The only thing they could meaningfully repossess is the sheepskin.