[kittyhawk]

Hello...

Finally I got my approval with SM and the school is willing to customize a letter for me.

Are/have any of you paid on the interest as you go? (and/or interest plus principle) I was going to defer everything until after as I figure with me not working, everything that we can have coming in per month will be useful, but my husband thinks that we would be MUCH better off to pay at least the interest only option. The amount is 15,000 if that gives a better idea. I don't want to be strapped to this loan forever...he has in his head that we can pay it off in about 4 years, 2 if we're really diligent but I don't see how it's possible.

TIA

[Megsd]

I'd probably look at your budget and see what you can manage. In the long run you'll probably be better off paying something on the loan the whole time, but if you end up having to use loan money to pay the loan, that kind of defeats the purpose of it, doesn't it?

Paying interest as I go isn't an option for me because I have no income at all. If I had a job (or a husband with a job) I would probably consider it, though, if we could afford to do so.

[Kundera]

I got a personal loan from SM last summer. I had to begin paying the interest on my loan about 3 months after I received it. When I tried to get them to defer or reduce the payments, they refused. In my opinion, SM is a difficult company to get accurate information from; they kept confusing my stafford loans with my personal loan. One person would tell me that I could defer my loan, while another would tell me that I had absolutely no flexibility on a personal loan. Make sure you get ALL the details about forberance, deferments, etc... before you agree to anything. GOOD LUCK!

[Lisa CCU RN]

What personal loan did you get? I thought SM only did stafford loans and private school loans. All of these have a deferral option.

[kittyhawk]

I have the SM tuition answer loan.

there is a deferred option...you can either defer everything, pay interest imm, or pay interest and principle imm.

You are right that you can't get straight answers from them!!! All I want to know is a ballpark figure for monthly payments on the interest and they tell me they can't tell me, it will be sent to me. They insist that upon seeing the figure if it's too much I can then defer but I'm not sure to believe them!

We're thinking if it's 90.00/100.00 a month but in the end is saving say 20,000 off the total of the loan then that's a no-brainer. If it's only saving a few thousand though (and thereby making it a bit rougher to not have the extra money per mo) we may be better off just deferring it all. DH can pick up extra income, side jobs to make it up and he said that it would be worth it to save 20K but since he puts family first, he's not really happy with work, work, work all the time if you know what I mean.

Anybody with any sort of round about figures that paid on the interest while in school?

TIA

[werlp]

In my software (I am an accountant), with an interest rate of 9.39% which it says on sallie mae website, interest would be about $120 a month.
Hope this helps a little.
I know it is probably too late, but I don't like sallie mae (I have student loans through them for prior degree). My nursing school recommends Wachovia. There are no fees or anything. It is worth looking into.