Forbearance
It finally happened. My student loans found me. As of last week I finally got all my bills for all my students loans. I was expecting 112 monthly payments of around $275 (at the max.) Oh no, no, no, no. Boy, was I foolish. The total of my monthly payment was over $500 -- way out of my budget.
So, I figured I need to consolidate my loans. The thing about consolidating is that you pay more over time, but get a lower monthly payment. Right now I have 6 loans with interest between 2.4 and 7%. I am consolidating with the Department of Education and based on the calculator, it looks like I will get 4.2% interest with 220 monthly payments of around $240. That fits in my budget -- but I will end up paying an additional $18,000 in the long run.
Oh, and as my loans are consolidating, I don't need to make any payments because I put them all into forbearance. It does feel good to finally get this all taken care of. At least now I know I can make the payments and not worry about defaulting.
January 13th, 2010 - 22:55
YIKES!! I’m dreading when Casey is done with school and we have to start paying for it….
January 19th, 2010 - 16:23
ugh………student loans…..miss you!