Residency & Relocation Loan

[SO22]

Was recently informed of your site via a colleague and just a glance at some of the advice offered makes me wish I had visited years ago.  Just recently finished 7 yrs of training, missed the boat on PSLF which was a terrible oversight in retrospect, so I refinanced through SoFi for a total of $450k.  They wouldn't refinance a Sallie Mae Residency & Relocation Loan that has a principle balance of $26k at 13%.  Trying to pay off as much as possible as fast as possible but focusing on the $40k in credit card debt first.  Are there other options that will refinance the Residency & Relocation loan (Link Capital also said they don't refinance those) or should I just focus efforts on paying that individual one down as soon as possible?

[MochaDoc]

SO22 wrote:

They wouldn’t refinance a Sallie Mae Residency & Relocation Loan that has a principle balance of $26k at 13%.

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refinance through a credit union?

[DMFA]

SO22 wrote:

Was recently informed of your site via a colleague and just a glance at some of the advice offered makes me wish I had visited years ago.  Just recently finished 7 yrs of training, missed the boat on PSLF which was a terrible oversight in retrospect, so I refinanced through SoFi for a total of $450k.  They wouldn’t refinance a Sallie Mae Residency & Relocation Loan that has a principle balance of $26k at 13%.  Trying to pay off as much as possible as fast as possible but focusing on the $40k in credit card debt first.  Are there other options that will refinance the Residency & Relocation loan (Link Capital also said they don’t refinance those) or should I just focus efforts on paying that individual one down as soon as possible?

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Yikes.

Here's hoping those 7 years are going to result in a p big income.  On that $26,000 at 13%, say you're able to pay $2,500/mo; after 11 mo you'll have paid $1,732.67 in interest with $232.67 left to knock it out.  That's not the worst amount lost to finance charges that ever existed, but sure, it's a lot.

Did you ask to refinance it as a personal loan, or only to try to roll it in with your student loans?  I'm not much of one to play hot potato with debt, but in the worst case, could you get a personal loan to cover it?  SoFi has 3-year for as low as 5.49% fixed.

In order to buy time, can you get any 0% balance transfers credit cards? Here are several on NerdWallet, CreditKarma, and Forbes.  Note that this often costs a fixed 3% fee; that's way better than credit card APRs on their ridiculous amortization schedules.

[SO22]

credit union won't for student loan purposes, but will look in to the personal loan option.  i think that might be my best bet for a lower interest rate.

[Peds]

Beg borrow and steal from family?

[MochaDoc]

SO22 wrote:

credit union won’t for student loan purposes, but will look in to the personal loan option.  i think that might be my best bet for a lower interest rate.

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I'm confused. Do you have two outstanding loans (student loans, relocation loan) or three (student loans, relocation loan, personal loan)?

[hightower]

DMFA wrote:

SO22 wrote:

Was recently informed of your site via a colleague and just a glance at some of the advice offered makes me wish I had visited years ago.  Just recently finished 7 yrs of training, missed the boat on PSLF which was a terrible oversight in retrospect, so I refinanced through SoFi for a total of $450k.  They wouldn’t refinance a Sallie Mae Residency & Relocation Loan that has a principle balance of $26k at 13%.  Trying to pay off as much as possible as fast as possible but focusing on the $40k in credit card debt first.  Are there other options that will refinance the Residency & Relocation loan (Link Capital also said they don’t refinance those) or should I just focus efforts on paying that individual one down as soon as possible?

Click to expand…

 

In order to buy time, can you get any 0% balance transfers credit cards? Here are several on NerdWallet, CreditKarma, and Forbes.  Note that this often costs a fixed 3% fee; that’s way better than credit card APRs on their ridiculous amortization schedules.

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I second this suggestion.  For this sort of ridiculous rate loan you should definitely apply for a zero interest credit card offer.  Citi has one that offers 21 months interest free.  Chase also offers 18 months interest free on some of their cards.  That would give you more than enough time to pay it off with a 1 time finance charge of usually 3%.

Sallie Mae offers a "residency and relocation loan?"  That seems like predatory lending to me.  Completely ridiculous they even offer that.  Regardless, hopefully you'll steer clear of debt from now on.  476k is gonna hurt a little, even if you're going into a high paying field.

[Zaphod]

hightower wrote:

DMFA wrote:

SO22 wrote:

Was recently informed of your site via a colleague and just a glance at some of the advice offered makes me wish I had visited years ago.  Just recently finished 7 yrs of training, missed the boat on PSLF which was a terrible oversight in retrospect, so I refinanced through SoFi for a total of $450k.  They wouldn’t refinance a Sallie Mae Residency & Relocation Loan that has a principle balance of $26k at 13%.  Trying to pay off as much as possible as fast as possible but focusing on the $40k in credit card debt first.  Are there other options that will refinance the Residency & Relocation loan (Link Capital also said they don’t refinance those) or should I just focus efforts on paying that individual one down as soon as possible?

Click to expand…

 

In order to buy time, can you get any 0% balance transfers credit cards? Here are several on NerdWallet, CreditKarma, and Forbes.  Note that this often costs a fixed 3% fee; that’s way better than credit card APRs on their ridiculous amortization schedules.

Click to expand…

I second this suggestion.  For this sort of ridiculous rate loan you should definitely apply for a zero interest credit card offer.  Citi has one that offers 21 months interest free.  Chase also offers 18 months interest free on some of their cards.  That would give you more than enough time to pay it off with a 1 time finance charge of usually 3%.

Sallie Mae offers a “residency and relocation loan?”  That seems like predatory lending to me.  Completely ridiculous they even offer that.  Regardless, hopefully you’ll steer clear of debt from now on.  476k is gonna hurt a little, even if you’re going into a high paying field.

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Sometimes those loans are needed. Theres a huge burden on students having to pay for all this travel and relocation for themselves. If you're interviewing for a competitive specialty with few programs, that really adds up. That loan balance is definitely going to hurt unless a very high paying specialty.

[SO22]

For clarification I presently have 2 loans - the refinanced student loans through SoFi and the residency/relocation loan.  Unfortunately at the time I was interviewing in a competitive specialty and we were looking to move to a different region with our first child on the way.  So it was tough to minimize travel expenses as the interview dates were limited so basically each one required a flight, etc.  As my wife had a relatively low-paying job in a high cost of living area and was barely supporting us, we didn't have much choice at the time as our credit history was limited.  Fortunately now I'm in a relatively high paying specialty and we're in a low cost of living area so I think we'll be able to make a dent in the debt pretty quickly.  I've just made so many missteps along the way, trying to find the quickest, smartest way out from under.

[Hatton]

Good Luck to you.  There is a thread here about Official Student Loan payoff thread.  It is inspirational.  Many other posters have cleared up their debt problem.

[hightower]

Well the first step is paying off your credit cards.  Don't know what the interest rates are, but likely your worst ones

Second, I would pay off that 13% loan with a zero interest credit card balance transfer or use plastiq to pay it off with a zero interest introductory credit card.  You could also try to refinance through a bank or just start throwing big chunks of money at it asap.

Once those two items are checked off, start hitting your student loans.  I like going after smallest balances first so you can eliminate entire accounts, but if it's one big refinanced loan that won't be an option.

 

It's going to be boring really.  Just focus on doing a good job at work, make big payments each month and watch the balances start to drop.  I'm in the process of getting rid of the rest of my student loans right now and it's frustratingly slow waiting every two weeks for a check to clear so I can transfer cash right to Navient.  It's an obsession watching the balances drop every two weeks.  Can't wait til I'm done so I can start transferring money to my taxable account instead of Navient!