Last week to consolidate student loans

[SMOE]

Okay, I just got the shocker of the month. I just checked my Sallie Mae STUDENT LOANS, of which I have two dispursments. One is currently at 12.5% and the other is at 13%. That should be against the law! At least Key Bank is only at 8.3%. The solution my finacial advisor gave me was to use a credit card that gives you 0% interest for 12 months, figure out how much you can afford to pay for the next 12 months (more than the min) and put it all on the 0% interest card. This way you are eating away at the interest faster, thus saving money. Anyone else have any fancy tricks?

I mean geesh, my non flight training student loans are in the 5% ball park. What is it about being a pilot that makes us targets for getting screwed all the time.

At least you can still write off the interest on your tax return as its still a student loan. Using a credit card does zip...

I'm currently at war with Sallie Mae and hope they all burn in Hell. My original interest rate was 4.0%. As of last week it was 9.75%.
Last month they sent me a consolidation offer for my private student loans with a locked in interest rate; but when I called they said too bad, so sad, those are career training loans and are excluded from the offer.
Last week I get an announcement of the increased interest rate/new payment schedule. Perhaps someone smarter than me can explain how increasing interest rates allows them to LOWER the monthly payment?

So now, my min payment is $177 over a period of forever. However, I pay $600 per month ever since my 2nd year pay kicked in. Its painful financially but I'll have the damn thing paid off next year and will screw Sallie Mae out of lots of interest $.

 

[Way2Broke]

Dang. My private salliemae loans are @ 8.0% right now, and my federal loans through sallie mae are locked in @ 2.875%. 36 ontime payments chops 1.0% off the federal loans! I have a third loan through citizens bank (I think) which is at 9.0%.

As far as houses being cheaper than school, well, the bank can take your house away. They can't really sell your diploma.

Have you checked the interest rate this month? It went up on the 1st of the month! I wish I could pay 600/mo but between college and flight training my schooling cost in the 100k ball park, and I didn't even go to a Aeronautical college. My school did not even have a flight club. Oh well, it motivates me to work a little harder I guess. Anyone else doing the CC 0% interest thing to save money in the long haul?

 

[Lazy8]

My Key Bank loan just went into repayment this month. I'm sitting at 7.3% variable. It's like paying for apartment rent. I called Keybank about consolidation. They are !@#holes. They have set intrest rates for consolidation and if you chose to consolidate you no longer have the right to put your loan in forbearance or defer for ANY reason. Also, changing my loan repayment from 15 years to 30 years only changes my minimum monthly payment by $10 because the intrest rate skyrockets with the longer term.

I'm going to look into a private consildation with Nelnet later this week. They're one of the few places where you can do that. That's who I consolidated my federal loans with. So far so good.

The bottom line for any new pilots reading this: DO NOT TAKE OUT PRIVATE LOANS FOR FLYING. There are no good lenders anymore.

g

 

[Lazy8]

Anyone else doing the CC 0% interest thing to save money in the long haul?

The whole 0% credit card thing doesn't sound like a good idea. For one thing... With debt like 'we' have how much of a credit line do you think you'll really get? Also, if you miss a payment you're going to get a default rate of 20%-30%. I don't know, it just seems to me the best thing to do is elimante as much revolving debt as possible not apply for more of it.

g

 

[smellthejeta]

Have you checked the interest rate this month? It went up on the 1st of the month! I wish I could pay 600/mo but between college and flight training my schooling cost in the 100k ball park, and I didn't even go to a Aeronautical college. My school did not even have a flight club. Oh well, it motivates me to work a little harder I guess. Anyone else doing the CC 0% interest thing to save money in the long haul?

I checked it when I posted. All of my loans originated between 1998 and 2002. Going back to Riddle freed up some cash flow -- company pays for most of my classes, and I get a reprieve from my loan payments. The cool thing with graduate work is that one class is enough to keep you from paying your loans.