Private Student Loans Drowning Me, Active Duty Military

[Anonymous]

Hey folks, I'm a 27 year old registered nurse. My story is stupid, I just didn't do my research and applied for too many of the bad loans. First I went to a private university for a graphic design degree, then I went back to the same university for an accelerated degree in Nursing. The catch was that my parents made too much and my expected family contribution was super high, but they refused to contribute. I know, I'm entitled to nothing from them, and I don't blame them. That, compounded with the accelerated program's rules of no working while in the program had me taking out large amounts of loans. All private, of course. 

Since I was young and applying for the loans on my own (with my new bride) our rates continually climbed with each new loan. The bottom line is that we ended up with about $150k in loans, which grew about $30k in interest during both degrees (of course I wasn't paying the interest during school). 

As a means to combat the loans, I got a second job as a nurse and tried paying aggressively on the loans. That was super stressful, but it worked a little. When that wasn't doing enough, I joined the US Air Force and took their $60k of student loan payments to come on for 6 years as a RN. 

I now have $93k with Sallie Mae with the following interest rates: ($40+ at 9.75%, $40+ at 9.65%, and the rest at 6%)

I also have a $25k Chase at 3.25%, Wells Fargo $11k at 6.5%, NES $5k at 3%, AES $27000 at 7.3% among a few others. So, Sallie Mae is the big culprit here. 

As you can see, that's a crap ton of loans, with a ton of monthly payments attached. I just calculated my income (remember, military, so it's not impressive) at $3716, whereas my monthly debt is 4057 ($875 rent, and $1600 for loans). My actual debt without the loans is a little over $2000. So the bottom line is, I can pay loans, just not this amount. I have applied for military deferment of my one little federal loan, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. I am trying to apply for every other type of deferment and special pay plan I can, but that is only delaying the inevetible. 

Do you guys have any advice? I am trying to lower my rent, (although if I go much lower, I will be venturing into the bad part of town), We cancelled any and all luxuries (cable tv, phone internet, eating out, drinking, etc). I am also going to start moonlighting as a nurse (once I get my license transferred to my new state). I'm also doing freelance graphic design jobs on the side. A recent TransUnion score was 655 for me, which actually surprises me, I thought I was in the 700s easy.

We have no credit card debt, we drive a 2003 Jeep Liberty (paid off) and a 1999 Jeep Wrangler (almost paid off). I drive about 7-10 minutes to work, and we cook all our own meals. 

Sorry for the super long post, I just wanted to be thorough. Please don't just flame me. I know I screwed up in the beginning and I own that entirely. I'm just trying to set my kids up for doing things right.

Thanks in advance,

LT

[Tazman81]

Hi LT..  I can feel your pain.  Okay, so here is the question that you have to ask yourself.  Are you trying to pay off these loans as fast as possible, or do you mind paying more in interest if it means a lower monthly payment.  If you are going the route of trying to get them paid off as fast as you can, then I recommend keep doing what you are doing, and start using the snowball effect.  In your case, I would hit the smallest loans first (no matter what the interst rate it)..  This way you can see some progress.  Then take that amount and apply it to your next loan, and so on.  This way you are able to "see" some accomplishment.

Even with doing the above, I would see if the loans offer any type of decreased interest rate if you sign up for automatic payments.  You may want to see if Sallie Mae is willing to do a loan consolidation of at least all of your current student loans with them to see if you can get a lower interest rate.  This would certainly help.

Check out the below link and see if you may qualify for an enlistment or re-enlistment service to assist in paying off your student loans.  Check with your family services office to see if they can offer you any more advice with regard to the below.  Best of luck, and if I think of something else, I will post again.

http://www.military.com/Resources/ResourcesContent/0,13964,44245--,00.html

[crunching_numbers]

First welcome to the boards.

Please be assured that you will not find any flaming or attacks here.  We are a supportive community, and you will get good advice and benefit from the combined experience and knowledge of the members.

Have you looked into a loan consolidation?

[Anonymous]

I forgot to mention that. I recently applied for a wells Fargo private loan consolidation and was turned down for having too high debt to income ratio. Well no duh, that's why I was applying to begin with. I'm honestly at the point where I feel my best chance is filing for bankruptcy with an undue hardship motion. I'll never be able to afford these payments and there is no end in sight. It's sad because if, by some miracle I'm the lucky guy who actually wins that case, I will be ruining a fine credit score. But it'll be worth having a life again. I know that's a tough subject.

[Anonymous]

I have a little bit of an update. When the US gov paid my $60k ($20k was to me, which ended up being $15k after taxes, $40k to loans, which after taxed was under $30k), they sent $28,800 to Sallie Mae. Well, when I submitted my debt to the AF, I told them two loans that I wanted them to pay on, and I purposely left out the other 5 so that the highest interest loans with the highest balance would get paid down. Well, I found last night that they actually spread the payment across all the loans and did nothing more than make no principle due for 2+ years. 

So, I called Sallie Mae today and asked them to take all that money back, and apply it instead to the highest balance/interest loan. So, after doing that, my payments were lowered from $954/mo to $703/mo. I think the next step is to pay off my car, freeing up the mots money. From that, we'll then put all the free money (only a couple bucks at this point) plus any extra from design+nursing toward the lowest balance. Then as we pay off each we'll redirect the freed up funds to the next lowest. So, we'll be going with the snowball effect, I guess. Let's hope we don't get bogged down...

[Anonymous]

Lowest balance of the loans or credit card debt? I recto end that in either case, focusing on the ones with the highest APR first will be most beneficial to you, so you can bring down the overall interest you are being charged. You may also want to consider consumer credit counseling found through the NFCC. They can put you on a debt management program that makes your credit card payments manageable and makes it so they are one payment. This actually worked for me, but it took years. Good luck! I am happy to hear the loans are slightly less suffocating than before

[IOBA]

Danegerous - I am for the snowballing effect.  It feels like you are making progress when you have one less payment to make each month!   Definitely take that payment and start applying it all towards the next smallest debt.   You will see progress!

I made an excel sheet, super big font, had the loans, the cc debt, etc on it, and did a spreadsheet.

Creditor, Payment Amount, Interest Rate, Total Owed, Goal Date for pay off.   I posted it on the fridge and EVERYONE saw it.  Lol - they never saw the bottom line which had the total right there in bold, (something to the tune of $485k) but they did see multiple student loans, a few cc's, and the goal date for pay off.  I stuck to my budget.   Every extra penny went on the small balance!  If I made an extra payment before the next payday, I hand wrote an update on the chart.  The chart was updated every payday, after I paid bills.

I was mortified, and so was the family, at having the debt posted where everyone could see it on the fridge.   And in our house (this was back when we lived in a house) everyone went into the kitchen several times a visit.

Bottomline - the chart helped everyone see the big picture.   It helped the immediately family remember that we really needed to focus on the debt pay off.   

Today, those debts are gone.  We still live very similiarly - but in a much smaller place, and still no extras (I am using the neighbors internet).

Message to you - hang in there!  Make a chart, make a budget, post it, and stick to it.  EVERY extra penny goes on the debt.  (At times, I made 20+ PRINCIPAL payments in a month.)

[Student_Loans_Kill]

chaper 7 IMHO. Student loans debt is a horrible situation and you are not protected by the Government. They can inflate payments, garnish and put Leins on real property.

[Anonymous]

Have you looked into the 2003 Civil Relief Act? You may qualify, ck it out at http://www.justice.gov/usao/az/rights/Servicemembers_Civil_Relief_Act.pdf