Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with loan

How can I investigate/remedy possibly misleading loan agreements from several years ago?

slavlin — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 17:18:19 -0800

Debt/Loan Filter: I was stupid with credit and debt when I was younger. Is there anything I can do now? More details inside. When I was in college, I did not manage my credit properly and wound up taking out a debt consolidation loan. I started out with about $8000 in debt in 1999 and due to poor choices on my part and, I believe, possibly misleading loan officers, I still have $4000 left to repay now.

I refinanced it a couple of times, which was dumb, but I suspect that the loan companies misled me about how much I was refinancing and tacked on additional charges. I don't even know if I could track down copies of those original loan documents, but is there anything that anyone could think that I could do to investigate or remedy my situation, without increasing my debt more, of course?

Refinancing a car with bad credit

rhizome — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:03:37 -0800

How can I refinance my car with my terrible credit? I have awful credit, I just had a credit card cancelled a few months ago, and even a credit union (and their downstream alternative) wouldn't extend to me. I haven't checked lately, but I imagine my FICO is in the 500s, if not lower. This is my only debt, but the interest rate is 20% (yes) and I really want to figure out how to get out from under it, just for financial sanity's sake. I am getting my credit reports now, just to make sure I don't have any identity theft accounts open or anything janky like that, but I'm pretty sure I'm clean. It just seems my bad past credit bill paying habits that bitten me here.

How can I use my law degree and still like my life?

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:47:38 -0800

I'm getting a law degree but I hate being adversarial. Any ideas for something fun to do with this degree? I know there are books about this question, but I thought some of you lovely people might have personal experiences you could share, or at least some outside-the-box ideas.

I came to law school because I wanted to be a public interest lawyer -- I like helping people. I have one year left before I graduate and sit for the bar. I have spent the last two years learning about indigent defense and working at the public defender's office. Even though I think the work public defenders do is very important, I think it makes me miserable.

I admire public interest lawyers who fight for good, but the truth is that I just hate fighting! That is hard to admit, and it took me a long time to own up to it, but it's just true. Fighting just depresses me.

If I could turn back time, I would never have gone to law school. I would have opened up an organic coffee cart near the beach, or become a dog walker or something. But now I owe $120K in student loans (and by the end of this year, I'll owe around $180K). So I sort of feel like there is no turning back...I'm going to need to get a decent-paying job just to pay off the loans, which means something in the legal field. ...Right?

(For anyone wondering how my debt could be so huge: tuition is $35K per year, and I get about $25K per year for living expenses. Cost of living in my city is pretty much as high as it gets within the US.)

How much interest for a family loan?

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:32:51 -0800

A family member loaned me money a few years ago. I would like to pay it back with interest. How much interest should I pay it back with? A few years ago, I had some financial troubles and I was too proud to ask for money. A family member recognized the difficulty I was in and wrote me a large cheque for a few thousand dollars. She told me to take it with no strings attached and just to pay it back whenever I could. She has been gracious about this and has never mentioned it since. It has taken me a few years to get back on my feet and I have been slowly saving up over the years to try and pay this amount back.

However, I would like to pay this back at its "real" value as the loan has been for a few years now and I feel it is only fair to add some interest to it. At the very least, I figure I should add some to it due to inflation and the fact that if the money had otherwise been invested, it could have grown a little bit.

Assuming the loan was for $2500, what would be a reasonable rate / amount to repay?

How can I preserve Douglas Adams' typewriter?

The Shiny Thing — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 05:51:36 -0800

How can I preserve Douglas Adams' typewriter for the ages? And more generally, how do museums handle item donations and loans? The typewriter on which Douglas Adams wrote The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy is for sale.

I'm sorely tempted to buy it (how often does something like this come up for sale?!), but a) I wouldn't have a clue how to store or preserve it; and b) an artefact like this should really be on display in a museum somewhere.

So my question is - if I bought the typewriter, how would I go about loaning it to a museum? And more generally, how do museums deal with offers of loans or donations?

(I'm actually semi-serious about this. If you have any contacts in museums who I could talk to, shoot me a MeFi-mail.)

Shall I get greedy or follow my heart?

saxamo — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:15:20 -0800

It it worth it for me to put an amount of money into an immediate fixed annuity and take out a loan to pay for tuition, or is it alright to just pay off my tuition with the money available to me. Hello, yet another question on tuition unlike those in the past. I realize the best person to speak to would be a financial planner, but I don't think the amount is enough to warrant an independent planner.

I'm currently still in college and I have 34K in CD's that will mature very shortly. I have taken out a loan last year and I want to do everything I can do to prevent doing that again. I strongly want to minimize the amount of debt I graduate with.

I am being offered an immediate fixed annuity on the 34K which will lock up the principal for five years and give me a payout on the interest every quarter. If I do this, I will undoubtedly have to take out loans for my remaining years in school. I am weary of the annuity for this reason, along with the fact that they grant high commissions.

What I would like do is to simply use this money to pay for the rest of my education. No harm in that, right? Put it in a high yield savings account and take it one year at a time. Can anyone give me a reason why this would be a bad idea or otherwise work against me?

I've been told that this is not necessarily the best way of handling my money, and that I should try and gain capital off of it while I'm in school so that I can make a down payment on an apartment or car or whatever when I graduate. I feel that a large sum upon graduation that will probably just go to my loans would not help me much.

Is there any alternative? Is it imperative that I rapidly try to accumulate more wealth on this sum of money and dive further into debt, or is it okay to spend it on my tuition with less stress upon entering the "real" world.

Upside-down car loan.

Brocktoon — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:50:50 -0800

Outrageously upside-down with a car loan. Help! The current pay-off amount for our car loan is right around $20K. We went to CarMax last night to see if we could get into a cheaper, more efficient car, however they appraised the car we have at about $8K, and as far as I know, no one would roll-over such a huge deficit. We like the car we have (aside from it's somewhat average fuel efficiency), but the monthly payments are a real killer: $550, and we're also about 2 months behind thanks to a severe income drop last year. My wife wants to do a voluntary repo, but I think that is a terrible idea, and leaves us with very few transportation options. No bank that I know will give us a re-fi, due to less then stellar credit and a general tightening of belts by lenders. Any advice?

Please help me better understand repaying my student loans.

4ster — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 11:11:05 -0800

In 1997, I started making student loan payments, five months after graduating from graduate school. Shortly there after, in a sudden moment of sheer, blinding stupidity, I consolidated my loans, reducing my monthly payment and doubling the term of my loan. I do not want to make payments for 10 more years, however, I cannot figure out how to calculate the money I would save py doubling my payments this November. Arithmetic has never been one of my strengths. I've tried plugging numbers into various online loan calculators, but the numbers don't seem right.

So here goes (I don't know if this is enough information or not:

Monthly payment: $262.51
Original principal balance: $31,298.40
Capitalized interest: $0.00
Outstanding principal balance: $14,953.18
Accrued interest: $121.18
Total amount outstanding: $15,074.36
Interest rate is 8%

What started this all was making a double-payment of $520, and discovering that $449 went to principal, when only $139 of a $265 payment went to principal.

So could someone help me understand how much money we will save by doubling all our payments starting in November, and how to figure this out in the future? If your answer is how to better use an online calculator or just a mathematical formula for figuring this out, I'd appreciate.

Having this kind of information will be great inspiration to stick with it, especially in a couple of months when I'm posting questions like, "Does anyone know some good Ramen Noodle recipees?"

Thanks.

Help with student loan

Black_Umbrella — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:17:05 -0800

I am looking for the best general student loan company. What are your experienes with specific student loan companies? So I have managed to pay for the first 4 years of my 5 year program. But now I am completely broke so I need a student loan.

I have talked to a financial officer at my school who more or less said "most are good". What I would like from the hive are some of your experiences with specific loan providers.

Perhaps you may even know the "best of the best" loan providers if you have recently spent time researching this.

My permenent address is considered to be Maryland and my school is located in New Jersey.

I already recieve federal perkins and direct loans.

Misc. Information:
I NEED the loan to cover everything...i.e.: food, housing, books, tuition, etc

I just put myself into credit card debt by flying back to my school from Australia (study abroad). Can I increase my loan to pay off this debt and consolidate it under a better APR?

Am I allowed to increase my loan by a few grand, 3K - 4K, for my own personal use during my last year? Most will be spent on drinks, concerts and the occasional weekend trip - so not exactly a school expense, just a little NECESSARY relaxation.

Money money money, Must be funny

Bakuun — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:06:31 -0800

A noobie question on credit scores! I know raising your score is partly done by reliable monthly payments on credit cards and loans - and people who are just starting out to build their scores, are often advised to get a card and begin to responsibly pay it off, to catch the notice of the reporting agencies. Would that mean that if you can pay off a large credit loan (e.g., in the realm of $2k) immediately instead of sticking to a monthly payment system, you're missing out on chances to further raise your score? Or does being able to pay off such an amount in full give you an equivalent gold star sticker? I wish this was something that didn't need asking, but my 'financial tutors' have been virtually nonexistent while growing up. D'oh!

Help me pay for nursing school

serazin — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:59:29 -0800

Scholarships for nursing students? I’m starting nursing school at a small community college. Their financial aid department bites – they have zero information about scholarships beyond the Pell Grant/Cal Grant and they won’t even talk to me about loans until August (when I’m starting school). I’ve been trying to research scholarships on my own and have found a couple, but not the dozens that I imagined when everyone told me that there was lots of help available for nursing students. I know the basics: fastweb, google, and I've looked through some askme scholarship threads, but with no help from my school financial aid department, I’m floundering a bit.

I know I’m late to apply for many awards (the program didn’t tell me I was accepted until May, a couple months after most scholarship deadlines passed) but I would love any suggestions for nursing related scholarships, grants, loan-forgiveness, etc. I’ve applied for this one: http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/nursing/scholarship/ but haven’t found others.

If it helps, I’m also an “older” student and a single parent.

Money for the American dream...

odi.et.amo — Sun, 18 May 2008 09:36:53 -0800

What's the best way to loan money to a friend? Besides the obvious answer that most will come up with of "Don't do it at all", does anyone have experience with making a personal loan (1500 US) more official?

The friend specifically suggested having some sort of documentation and interest involved in the payment process. How should I go about doing this?

And to avoid any speculation in the responses, the loan is to help cover costs associated with filing for citizenship.

Selling my car in Oklahoma, but it's registered in Texas. What do I do? The sale might happen today! Help!

jimmyhutch — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:11:43 -0800

Selling my car in Oklahoma, but it's registered in Texas. Can I get some advice on what to do here? More details inside, and this sale could happen today! I live temporarily in Oklahoma (moving back to TX as soon as we sell our house), but I am still registered in Texas with the car. I am selling the car for a little less than I owe on it, but paying the cash for the remainder of the loan to the loan company (Capital One Auto - I know, I know) isn't an issue.

I called Capital One Auto, and besides telling me repeatedly that they'll release the title to the new owner after I pay off the balance, they were extremely unhelpful.

So, how this stands is that I am selling my car for cash in Oklahoma, and the car is registered in Texas. Which state do I need to deal with in this situation? Obviously I need to let Texas know that I no longer have liability on this car (via this form) once I sell it to the guy, and then get a registered payment to the bank so that they will overnight the title.

What else am I oblivious to in this situation? Have I left out something for forgotten something that is gonna screw this up?

Thanks for your help, in advance!

Please help me sell my home!

hamster — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:01:23 -0800

My mortgage payments are overdue and I have filed paperwork for a loan modification. I just accepted an offer on the condo, and it is due to close on June 26. What is the best way to get clear with the mortgage company before closing? I am in Minnesota, have owned the property for two years. I have two mortgages on the condo and had trouble paying--so they did a modification, and told me to focus on paying that instead of my much smaller mortgage.

Now that is in trouble, but they are reviewing it. I need everything to be free and clear so it can sell. I currently owe Aurora Loan Services $1,600 and will have that amount by June 26. What should I do?

Will they allow me to pay it all off at once in June? Can I pay half now and half later? I want to know what rules I am up against before I call them to figure this out. Thanks so much for the advice--it will be a relief to get out from under payments on the mortgage.

Help about a lien!

omnipotentq — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:02:23 -0800

I'm buying a used car, and have a question about the whole title/lien thing.... First off, I did look at some previous questions, but none of them fit exactly my situation, so I really appreciate your indulgence.

I live in VA. The seller of a beautiful 2003 Mustang also lives in VA, about 2 hours away. I've seen the car, had it checked by a mechanic, want to buy it and will be going over this week to the owner's bank to purchase the car. The reason I'm going to the bank is because they still have a lien on the car, and he needs my money to pay off the lien. (I'm buying it for around $5000, if it matters.)

The owner said he talked to the customer service dept of his bank's national branch today and they said that if we do it all in the bank, then they'll give me a "transfer of ownership" document which I can then take to the VA DMV. I'm guessing that from there, I get a title from the DMV and take it back to my bank (BB&T) and then BB&T has a lien till I pay the car off.

Does this all sound right? This is the first car I've purchased, so I just feel a bit ansey about not having the physical title in my hands after I fork over that much money. It sounds right to me, but I just wanted to pick the hive mind's brain first. I'll be monitoring this thread closely today, so if you have questions, let me know. Thanks!

Money for money

chickaboo — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:28:22 -0800

Is it a good idea to take out a 401k loan to pay off unsecured credit card debt, and how do these loans work?

It's got an awesome appetite: Tyrannosaurus Debt

johnofjack — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:05:23 -0800

How do you figure out daily interest from an APR on student loans due monthly? I have about 100k USD in student loan debt, at a fixed APR of 5.75%. I wanted to work out what the monthly rate was, but my debt holder tells me that the interest is actually calculated daily, though the payments are due monthly. Then they sent me twenty pages of amortization tables, I suppose imagining that it would help me somehow. Aside from seeing that 75-80% of each month's payment goes to interest before any of it goes to principal, the tables don't help me.

I accrue and pay off a small amount of credit card debt each month, mostly in grocery bills. This is deliberate, since it's a monthly expense I'd have anyway, and paying by credit instead of debit is (I think) at least a slight help to my credit score.

I have no other debt.

I can see conceptually that paying as much extra as possible as soon as possible is best for reducing the total amount paid on this debt.

What I'd like is to work all of this out into a big spreadsheet so that I can see the actual final result of any extra payments made.

How do I do this? I feel like maybe I'm venturing into the realm of deep magic.

I've poked around in the archives here and not found another question asking this; if I've missed it, a pointer would be great.

Student Loans and FHA Debt to Income Ratio

Dr. Zira — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:35:13 -0800

Does a student loan in deferment count as debt for the purposes of figuring debt to income ratios in an FHA loan? We're looking at applying for an FHA home loan. I had a lender tell me that my student loans, currently in deferment until graduation in May, then in grace period for six months after that, would be counted against my debt to income ratio now.
The lender says that in order to not have them counted against my debt to income ratio right now, I would have to provide documentation from the student loan lender that they would be deferred from one year of closing date of the mortgage. At best, I think I could only document the current deferment and subsequent grace period (six months after I graduate). As to applying for a forbearance, I don't think I can apply for that until I'm actually in repayment and even at that most lenders, apparently, only grant forbearances for 6 months at a time. It seems weird to count this as debt now, especially since my future income from my full time job which will kick in the future won't be counted.

Is this one-year deferment doc requirement a lender-specific thing or a HUD thing?
Anybody have experience doing this?

Help me find good options to help my sister get out of debt

Chuck Cheeze — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:02:27 -0800

My sister and her husband are in serious debt. My wife and I are going to act as their financial advisors to help them get it together. Can anyone recommend any programs/products we can look into? My wife is a financial genius and helped me get out of severe debt when we met. We need to do the same for my sister, KC. KC and her husband are totally on board and have seen the light once my wife laid all their bills out on paper for them. They are prepared to change their spending habits and work hard to get turned around. However, there are some challenges.

The tally was basically this:
- they make about $150K
- they put a lot into their corporate retirement plans pre-tax
- they have 3 car loans and a 5th wheel trailer loan that total $1800/month
- they have store and major credit cards totaling about $68K

They have about 50K put away that is liquid, of which 20K is available to use for paying off debt. The rest is untouchable for their own reasons. Unfortunately.

So the 20K will be used right away to pay off all the store cards and some of the major cards. I think the best course of action for the rest of the majors is two 25K debt consolidation loans. They already have a 2nd on their house that has basically been used monthly to cover about a $1500 monthly gap between their income and bills.

I know the best course it to liquidate the other $30K and not get one of the loans, but that money is off limits, this is their choice and its final.

So I am looking for other options, or, if you have a good source for these loans, point me to it. Their local CU can give them $25K over 4 years at 13.49%. Not bad - what else is out there?

They have good credit (~680), never missed a payment, but they just have a ton of debt. I'm looking for options here that may be better than what is above.

The catalyst for this was that KC said she was going to cash in $40K of her retirement, which would be a $27K net after penalties and taxes- but obviously that is a horrible cost and way worse than even the 20%+ rates they are paying on this debt. When I heard of this I decided it was time for help. Needless to say she has no clue where to start and was relieved that I offered.

The scenario is that they aren't selling any cars, the trailer, or touching the account with $30K in it. We have to work with this situation. I would do things differently, but since this is what we have to work with, I am looking for options given these challenges.

How do I take on these financial burdens, step by step?

cowbellemoo — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 09:15:25 -0800

My crappy car was deemed totaled and I'm going to accept the payout and finance a new used car. I'd also like to move into an apartment soon. Step by step, how do I wrangle this plan into fruition? Current situation: I co-own an old Corolla with my mom and I'm listed on her insurance. I was in an accident and the at-fault driver's insurance is taking the claim. I went in for an estimate and they said they're considering it totaled and will contact me with an offer. I'd like to take the payout (guessing ~$800) and finance a reliable car for around $10k. I have good credit for my age, $4k in credit debt, $15k in student loans, no savings. I pull in about $1300 per month after stu. loan payments. I live with my mother (so no rent, but I pay utilities and groceries). I'd like to move out within a few months.

So my three financial changes are: finance new used car, move auto insurance to my own account, and eventually get a modest apartment.

My questions: Step by step, what should I plan on? How much cash I should have available, and at what point for each step? Since the car's financing is adjustable, what downpayment/monthly bill/contract length should I shoot for? How can I handle the car handover so I'm not carless at any point?

I've only recently developed the confidence to strike out on my own, and these problems are one of my biggest sources of anxiety, so any help on these points is deeply appreciated.

How to model an unusual mortgage repayment strategy in Excel?

obiwanwasabi — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:16:37 -0800

How can I model an unusual mortgage repayment strategy in, say, Excel? A recent post somewhere in blogland (Lifehacker?) suggested a strategy for paying your mortgage out early. Whenever you make an ordinary 'interest plus principal' payment, make an additional payment equal to your next payment's principal component.

I can find plenty of amortisation templates for Excel - plug in a term, frequency of payment and interest rate andit spits out the interest and principal components for all payments until the loan is paid out.

Some of the templates even allow you to schedule an additional repayment (eg, 'show me what happens if I kick in an extra $1000 a month"). However, I'm having trouble working out how to model makng an additional payment with a different value each month - as the loan amortises (?), interest payments go down and principal goes up.

Any ideas? I pay fortnightly / biweekly, if it matters. (And no, I don't want to hear about whether this makes sound financial sense. I know the opportunity costs - I just want to see the numbers.)

When will the new, higher conforming loan limit come into effect for US mortgages?

GuyZero — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 09:28:49 -0800

When will the new, higher conforming loan limit come into effect for US mortgages? Apparently the previous cap of $417K will go up based on the area's median home price. But when will lenders start making these loans? And what are the chances the bill won't pass?

Should I refinance my auto loan

mgrimm — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:07:55 -0800

Is it worth refinancing my auto loan since the Fed made a cut? My current interest rate is 3.90%, can I do better than that, and if so, where?

Lease or own, which is a better experience?

geoff. — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 10:16:49 -0800

What's the best way you've found to evaluate whether to lease or buy when financing the purchase of a car? Can I treat it as a forward or future contract? Can I negotiate the strike price? Does anyone have experiences on which worked out cheaper for them (lease, buy)? I was computing the NPV of loan, lease-to-own or lease at each interval (3, 4, 5 years) and try to find which is cheapest. Ideally I would like to have a new car at either 3 or 4 years to get rid of it before the warranty expires. Actually all NPV calculations are within the warranty as I hate owning cars past warranty.

What have been your real, empirical experiences with on whether lease, lease-to-own or a loan would be best?

How to avoid unwanted student loan deferment

mahamandarava — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 23:26:09 -0800

My student loans were put on deferment against my will -- how do I prevent this from happening in the future? I have a large federal consolidation loan from graduate school. I am now working full time and paying off my loans (automatic deductions from my bank account). This last semester I signed up for several classes at a community college. A month or so later, the U.S. Dept. of Ed sent me a notice saying my loan was put on deferment due to my part time student status.

I do not want to be put on deferment. I did not ask to be put on deferment. I want to pay off my huge debt as soon as possible! So I called up the Dept. of Ed. and asked to be taken out of deferment. The rep I spoke to did that (although my loans still went unpaid for a couple months). I then asked to not be put on deferment again without my OK. I was told that the deferment is automatic if my school reports my part time student status to them, and that if I wanted to stop this from happening in the future, I would have to tell my school not to release my student status to the Dept. of Ed.

So now I'm registering for next semester's classes and I don't want this to happen again. I went to my school today and asked them not to report my student status to the Dept. of Ed. The guy I spoke to told me there was nothing he could do, that they had to give that information if they were presented with a signed release. I don't remember ever signing a release, but who knows. I suspect either the school or the Dept. of Ed. or both is giving me inaccurate information. Googling this returns nothing -- all the sites I find talk about how to get a deferment, not how to get rid of one.