Boom Boom

Just my 2 cents... Pay off the debt which is easy to say but you need a plan... When I was getting out of the Military for that dream job, I wanted to be as close to debt free as possible just in case of unemployment. Luckily the unemployment was sort lived but early wages were not so good..

The Plan: Go to your bank or one of those type of websites and use one of their calculators--> You can put in rates, terms, etc; and then by manipulating those numbers just a bit, you can find exactly how much extra to pay to have that loan clear in a certain time frame... You would be surprised how much 25-50 dollars extra a month kills on the principle and how it reduces time..

Good Luck

FlyingChipmunk

If you pretend you cant pay your credit cards they put you on their credit counseling. Knocked my interest from low 20% to 6%. Plus if you have any late fees or other bogus charges they clear those as well. But you have to make the effort and confront them.

cfii2007

I actually put a majority of flying debt on credit cards.....not smart.

You'd be surprised when you crunch the numbers, and realize how paying a little extra toward the principle will make a HUGE difference!

mcartier713

lol so how do i do this? hehe

FlyingChipmunk

I called em (Chase Bank) up and said I was having difficulty making payments, then they referred me to their credit counselors and they set me up on a 36month program to wipe out my credit cards at the lower interest rates. They were able to include my Aopa MBNA account too. There is a service fee like 7 bucks per card but for me it was still way cheaper than the interest I was paying.

cfii2007

That's not a bad deal, if they can cut down your interest rate.

ToiletDuck

Refinance your debt all into one loan. I pay 2.9%. Have roughly 4k. I make more with cash just sitting in savings so why bother with paying it off? I also invest. If you want to know the company I go through send me a pm. If you make 24 consecutive payments with automatic deduction from your check it drops to 1.9%. I don't mess around when it comes to things like that so I went through easily over a hundred places before I found this one.

Duck

ToiletDuck

Does that not kill your credit rating when it shows a refinance?

slimjim10101

i so far have taken a $3500 subsidized loan (low interest). Might take out 1 more $3500 if i have to. in a week or so, i'm using my car as collateral(sp?) to get about $5000. i have $1000 left of the $3500. so i will have about $6000 to get my ppl. i also have a credit card with $3000 i gotta pay. I am now paying about $440 a month on that. so when thats zero'd out this summer, that same amount (the $440/month) will go toward saving up about $2000 to be my new zero in my savings account for emergency. then that ($440+/month) will go to paying toward further training. plus i'll deploy this summer and hope to save around $6000. that will pay off whats left from what i pulled from my car. plus, the military is paying 100% for my college. don't even have to dip in my g.i. bill for that until i get out. And the g.i. bill will cover 60% of the flight training from instrument and up. I have been so stressed out the past year trying to figure out how to do this. but now that i have a plan thats not borderline and have some room to breathe, i feel a lot better. after i get my 250 req. for comm., i'll find a small p/t job to do on the side of my full time job flying like skydivers or something till my enlistment is up in the airforce(got 4.5 years left).

I hate debt. once i get the certifications i want, my primary goal is to pay any loans off immediately. then on to bigger and better things. i saw somewhere in a forum that you need to look at what yuo have and think about it. if you have the best tv, car stereo, etc..., those are priorities you made in your life. i have made my priority to pay for flight training safely.

- joe.

EDIT - and I'm only 20. lol.

Dark Knight

For the love people.......
First off, keep in mind these people are not Certified Financial advisors.....
Yes interest is an issue like vagabond mentioned, but if you do the math and look at your loan notes...
which account will you actually pay more interest ?
the $7000 at 9.21% interest
or
the $22000 at 7.2%
do you see my point, people too often look at interest when they should also consider the other half of the formula....VOLUME.