[Oz]

Seriously man, I agree with others who are telling you to get a beater for $1000 instead of the loan/expensive insurance option. You'll bounce back much quicker financially if you just get a shitter for a few months.

In addition to your Cisco certification, have you considered any other IT exams? If you know enough about the topic, it's a simple matter of read the book one day and study, take the exam the next day. Repeat a couple of times for each qualification.