spinoff college loans...Am I doing something wrong

My DH went to school for 5 years and took loans out but also had scholorships and grants. His total debt is about 60k. With interest rates around 6% we are paying over $400 a month for 30 years...To those that said they have paid off quick or will, am I doing something wrong? I handled his consolidation with fed loan. We really can't afford more then his payment right now per month. How did everyone consolidate with such low rates?!

Message edited 2/14/2013 7:06:03 AM.

Re: spinoff college loans...Am I doing something wrong

Unfortunately, the "minimum" interest rates for certain loans went up to 6%. My brother has graduate school loans and that is the lowest we could go. It is also based on the type of loan your husband has.

Re: spinoff college loans...Am I doing something wrong

Re: spinoff college loans...Am I doing something wrong

omg thats a high interest rate- if you own a home maybe look into refinancing and see if you could roll the loan into it? It would be the same time period but the interest would be almost 1/2 of what you are paying now

we locked in with dh's years ago at 3% and because we pay the min, its taking forever, I keep trying to pay more but it just never seems to happen

spinoff college loans...Am I doing something wrong

It took me 13 years to pay mine off (they deferred automatically for 3 years while I went to get my MBA) but, my interest rate was a lot lower - I didn't pay them off quicker because for the last couple of years, the interest was less than 2%.

I think a lot has to do with the size and the timing.

Re: spinoff college loans...Am I doing something wrong

my loan is about $30K at 4.7% for 20 years. I'm paying $138 a month.

spinoff college loans...Am I doing something wrong

It has to do with timing. I graduated in 05 and the rates were extremely low then. My rate was 2.6 but with on time payments I was able to get it to 1.6% when I consolidated. I would check to see if you can qualify for an on time interest rate deduction. It can be up to one percent. I also used my entire salary to pay off loans and lived on dh's salary. It was all about pinching pennies.

eta: I have paid off over 80k and still have a ways to go. Unless I pay the loan off early, I will have SL until my 5 year old is in college. The only way I was able to succeed and pay off so much was living like a college student - I maxed my 401k and then the rest of my salary we paid to my SL I would get paid and then write a check to the SL the next day. Make sure that when you write a check that they are not advancing your due date but rather applying it to the principle. I had to stay on top of them. I would call them all the time because they would continually misapply the extra payments. For over two years we did not travel, we did not eat out, we did not buy new clothing, we did not go to the movies, we had no extras in our lives at all. Any extra money we received went to pay off the SL. My private loan rates started at 5.5% when I graduated and quickly started to rise. By the time I wrote my last extra payment the rates on the private loans were set to rise to almost 14%. I really felt there was no way out of a loan like that unless I quickly paid it off. At the height of my loan payments they were well over $1000 a month. It was almost equal to a second mortgage. We just focused on getting by with almost nothing and it was hard but at the end of the day I feel so much less stress now than when I had the huge amount hanging over my head. At this point since the interest is low I don't mind the payments as much. Sure I would love them to be gone, but they are manageable.

Message edited 2/14/2013 4:44:03 PM.

Re: spinoff college loans...Am I doing something wrong

I consolidated a while ago so maybe the rates aren't as good now. When I finished my Masters degree in 2003 I consolidated what was left of our undergrad loans with my grad loan. The total owed was a little over $50K. I believe we're paying over 25 years (I am now 10 years in) and we pay $253/month. Our interest rate at consolidation was only 3.5%.

Re: spinoff college loans...Am I doing something wrong

I'm with you -- My rate is 8.25% -- because I consolidated back in '00 no bank or lender will re-finance it unless I make it a personal loan.

Re: spinoff college loans...Am I doing something wrong

Don't feel bad; I think I am in a similar boat.

I owe a ton in student loans, and could probably pay them off quicker, however, we are realistic and have been using that money to put towards other things that we need right now.

Going to a private school for social work, is probably the dumbest thing I've done in my life.

I don't regret getting my Master's but I should have gone about it differently.

Oh well. Now I have a wise lesson for DS when he's ready to go to college.

spinoff college loans...Am I doing something wrong

Yup - DH is in the same boat... I tell him to relax... I know it's not easy but there isn't much to do at the moment about it.

Re: spinoff college loans...Am I doing something wrong

I'm at 2.5%.

I consolidated with ACS. They are now taken over by Resurgent Capital Services.

Re: spinoff college loans...Am I doing something wrong

I'm in a similar situation I consolidated at 6% too.
I was just thinking yesterday about how this totally sucks. I didn't even owe THAT much since I went to a state school for both undergrad and grad, but the interest is just killing me.

Re: spinoff college loans...Am I doing something wrong

We consolidated before the min rate went up (we are currently at 2.375).

ACS offers discounts for doing auto-payments and also for paying on time for a certain amount of months. I think that took a full percentage point if not more off what our rate was. Look into plans like that.

Re: spinoff college loans...Am I doing something wrong

You could even look into a home equity loan or something and use the money to pay off the higher rate school loan.

I paid off my loans in 1 year but was at a much lower rate and had much lower debt to start with. I also lived at home and just poured my whole paycheck into it until it was done.

Are you able to pay at all more then the minimum? Even just sending an extra $33 each month would mean 1 extra payment per year. It would cut years off the loan if you were able to do this.

Another option - when you get a raise, bonus, tax refund, etc. put it into this loan. Since you are a high interest rate, it's better to put the money here then somewhere else that is lower (example paying your mortgage early if it's lower %).

EDITED to add: Not sure if this is helpful but it's all about perspective. There was a time when double digit interest rates were the norm (80's, etc.). We are being super spoiled with these super low rates over the last few years but they are actually historically really low. Sometimes thinking of it like this helps with the "I got screwed for being a year late" thoughts (I'm in that boat on my home purchase price :) )

Message edited 2/14/2013 5:59:13 PM.

Re: spinoff college loans...Am I doing something wrong