Financial Aid at Southwest Truck Driver Training
- Explore possible financial aid through state grants and payment plans
- Customized, individual counseling from our team to answer all your financial questions about paying for school
- We're proud of our student-first philosophy: we get to know our students on a personal level so we can help them best
Next Step: Talk to Admissions
One of the first questions most people have when looking at truck driving school is, "How am I going to pay for this?" We're here to help! Southwest Truck Driver Training has several financing options directly through us or our partners. And, if none of those work for you, we're here to give you some details about accessing money elsewhere. Let's dig in.
"We have a financial plan that will assist just about everyone, and we are always looking at other options that benefit the student."
Steve Strong, Vice President of Administration, Southwest Truck Driver Training
Payment Options at Southwest Truck Driver Training
At Southwest Truck Driver Training, we offer several payment options:
- Self-pay: Paying out-of-pocket yourself
- Internal funding options: Loans offered by Southwest Truck Driver Training; $500 discount for U.S. military veterans with proof of service
- State grants: Funding through the state via a WIOA agency, for those who qualify
- Third-party loans: Loans offered by a third-party lender, for those who qualify
One of our Admissions Representatives can review your options during your interview. Our Admissions Reps love seeing people trying to improve their lives—we can work with you as much as possible to help you pay for your education.
Southwest Truck Driver Training Internal Financing
Some students qualify for internal funding in the form of loans. If eligible, a down payment will need to be paid prior to starting classes. Amounts vary by campus—your Admissions Representative will go over this during your meeting if this is an option for you.
Students can pay the remainder upon graduation. This financing option gives you 45 days after graduation before repayment begins. This gives you time to find a position and start earning some money. Remember: We have career services to help you get a trucking job!
State Grants
Southwest Truck Driver Training is a provider of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). Students involved with this agency may qualify for state grants. Some (but not all) of the WIOA agencies we work with are:
- City of Phoenix
- DES Jobs
- DES Vocational Rehabilitation
- Friendly House
- Goodwill
- Job Connect
- Maricopa Workforce Connection
- Phoenix Workforce Connection
- Pima County One-Stop Centers
- Santa Cruz Workforce
Unlike most other governmental education funding options, WIOA grants are available to trucking students. As they're grants and not loans, they don't need to be repaid.
Loans for Truck Driving School: Tips and Tricks
You might be able to get a bank loan to pay for truck driving school. Before applying, though, be sure you know your credit score—a person with a high credit score is more likely to qualify and be able to handle a hit on their score from a loan application.
Once you have an idea of your credit score, you can go onto many lenders' websites to run a prequalification check. This does a “soft” pull of your credit, which won't harm your score, and gives you a decent view of what you could qualify for. (A preapproval will do a “hard” pull on your credit score, harming your credit score even if you don't take the loan. Be sure to read the fine print before filling out anything!)
After comparing several lenders via prequalification, we advise speaking directly to a loan representative before applying for any of them. This is because some banks may want trucking school to be paid for with a personal loan, while others may want it to be a school loan, and you could find yourself in hot water if you use a personal loan for school costs in some cases.
When you talk to this loan representative, you should also get clarification on your APR (annual percentage rate) and interest rates, repayment terms, and more. The longer you take to pay off a loan, the more interest you'll pay. So, it's usually best to repay the lender early. However, some lenders charge a penalty for early repayment, so that's something to ask about too.
Loan Option for Southwest Truck Driver Training
Climb Credit is a new kind of student lending company which focuses on financing career-building programs. They believe education is an investment toward your future career and earning potential and provide loans for Southwest Truck Driver Training programs to help you reach that potential.
Climb offers students the following benefits:
- A quick online application — with the ability to add a cosigner — completed in as little as 5 minutes with no impact to your credit score*
- Prepay, in part or in whole, at any time without penalty
- Instant decisions a majority of the time, with the ability to accept and e-sign your documents in just a few clicks
- Friendly and responsive customer service available by email (hello@climbcredit.com) and live chat from 10 am to 8 pm Eastern
Apply now for Southwest Truck Driver Training financing with Climb
*To check the rates and terms you qualify for and your eligibility, Climb conducts a soft credit pull that will not affect your credit score. Once a loan is accepted and funded, we will request your full credit report from one or more consumer reporting agencies, which is considered a hard credit pull and may affect your credit.
Other Ways to Pay for Trucking School
If none of the payment or financing options are right for you, there may be other ways to help pay for truck driving school.
Trucking School Scholarships: Tips and Tricks
While there aren't many scholarships for trucking school specifically, you might be able to find one for a vocational or career training program. The best way to find these is to search online for terms like "truck driving school scholarships," "trade school scholarships," “career training scholarships,” or "vocational school scholarships." Adding in your state or county name to each might also narrow down the results.
You might qualify for certain scholarships if you're from a certain background or affinity group. These could include, but aren't limited to, women, veterans, people of certain religions, immigrants, parents, and nontraditional students (those who are at least a few years above the typical school age).
Casting a wide net gives you the best chance to get a scholarship. If you believe you qualify for one, apply! We advise writing any essay or short answer responses in a Word document so you can use a spelling and grammar check and won’t lose your answers if the online form glitches. Save those answers for later, too, as many scholarship applications ask similar questions. You can adjust your existing responses as needed rather than rewriting them over and over.
Some applications now require a video rather than an essay or short answer response. This usually doesn't need to be anything fancy (though be sure to follow the instructions and watch any available examples!). However, you might want to invest in a decent microphone if your device makes it hard to hear after recording.
How do scholarships work to pay tuition at Southwest Truck Driver Training? If you win one, you simply need to let us know you have one and bring any required documentation to facilitate payment from your winnings.
Trucking Employer Tuition Reimbursement
Some trucking companies offer tuition reimbursement for new hires. With reimbursement, you still need to pay for truck driving school up front, but your employer may repay you for your schooling after you've worked for them for a set amount of time. Tuition reimbursement is frequently done via small payments added to paychecks—meaning you should expect to work for the company at least until you're totally repaid or forfeit the remainder of your reimbursement payments.
If you have a loan, you must continue making payments as required, even if your reimbursement hasn't begun. Additionally, tuition reimbursement may not cover interest, just your initial loan amount, so be really clear on the terms before you commit to a plan.
If tuition reimbursement is important to you, mention this to our Admissions team when you ask about funding options.