Monday, June 23, 2008

I Found My Student Loan!

So you'd think if you owed someone over $28,000 they would make it pretty easy to get in touch with them, correct? Well, alas, that is not the case. About a year ago, I was hounded relentlessly from my Private Student Loan lender. They called my parent's house, they called me, so on and so forth. Until finally, Dad decided to allow them automatic access to his account. It was something we had talked about while I was still in college and I knew he had committed himself to help me pay off this loan.

Ever since the automatic payments were set up, they have ceased all contact, only sending me a receipt of interest paid for my taxes (sent WAY after I had already filed BTW, but I already deducted the maximum $2,500 for this anyway). Part of my July Goals (which I'm thinking about early) was going to be "Find Private Loan Lender."

But, alas, I have found them. See, the Lender and the Guarantor all have different names from the original Loan Company I got this loan from, making it hard to figure out. And while there is a free lookup at the Department of Education for any federally insured student loans, the same does not exist in the murky Private Loan industry.

It was frustrating to see that despite a YEAR of Dad making a $303 monthly payment, my Principal Balance has only gone down about $1k. So....as soon as I can swing it, I am going to devote all extra cash towards making additional payments to this lender.

But first, I need to:

1. Pay off all short-term debt (Boyfriend, Friend C; maybe Utilities even though I reached a Settlement Agreement with them).
2. Pay off Capital One (This is almost a Short Term Debt as I only owe about $400 on it).
3. Build Emergency Fund

But hopefully I can start making regular payments to this loan on top of Dad's monthly contribution.

4 comments:

pennypincher said...

You are VERY lucky that your Dad is helping you pay off this loan. $303 a month is a pretty hefty chunk of change.

Sallie's Niece said...

You're right and I don't take it for granted either. I have been so lucky that at least one of my loans has been paid on a regular basis for the past year while I screwed up my finances in every other way possible. But as soon as I can I am going to start sending money towards the principal of this loan so I can knock it out faster.

Jim ~ mydebtblog.com said...

I'm not sure you are able to claim the interest paid (1098-E) on a student loan your dad is paying on your behalf. Even at $303 a month depending on the rate, I'm sure a good chunk of that was interest paid. While it seems like a good thing that your dad is covering this loan for you, it would suck to have the IRS come after you for a simple tax deduction you weren't allowed to take. On the other hand if you're paying beyond $2500 a year in interest for the deduction, this won’t make any difference. Student loans are depressing and I've been paying on mine for 3 years now and the balances have gone down a few grand.

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