15% Interest!!!!!

[kstater]

My university has an all -expense paid loan program that is forgiven if you do primary care. I took the loan during my 1st and 2nd year 100% sure I would do primary care. Now I fell in love with OB and have to pay back this loan money. The big catch is that it has 15% interest from the time I signed!! Does anyone know of a source to get a big lump sum (approx $72,000) at a lower interest rate? I am currently an MS3 and will be getting federal loan money for my last 2 years.

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[kstater]

please help!!! any ideas out there?

 

[mpp]

Some suggestions:

You may be able to find a private lender that will lend you some money (although I doubt $72,000 in one lump sum) so start asking private banks.

See if anyone in your family can help you...perhaps a second mortgage or something.

Go into family medicine with an emphasis on OB.

 

[Soup]

My university has an all -expense paid loan program that is forgiven if you do primary care. I took the loan during my 1st and 2nd year 100% sure I would do primary care. Now I fell in love with OB and have to pay back this loan money. The big catch is that it has 15% interest from the time I signed!! Does anyone know of a source to get a big lump sum (approx $72,000) at a lower interest rate? I am currently an MS3 and will be getting federal loan money for my last 2 years.

Perhaps looking at this from a different angle will ease the stress. It probably seems like a big mistake to have taken the primary care loan since you have to pay it back at 15%, but look at what the alternative would have been. If you had decided on primary care and the primary care loan didn't exist, you would have to pay back federal loan money at approximately 5% (allow me a few percent either way -- this figure is close enough to make my point). Now that you have decided not to do primary care, you will pay 10% more (15%-5% = 10% more) for the borrowed money, however, the difference in your income as a specialist, compared to primary care, should be more than large enough to offset the 10% difference. Plus, now you get practice what you want. On the other hand, if you had (or still do) go into primary care, the advantage of the primary care loan is tremendous -- too good to have passed up. In a perfect world you would have been able to predict your future in a crystal ball and could have choosen the most appropriate financial aid. The world isn't perfect and you made the best decision given your information. When you get right down to it the difference in payments will be less than $10K/yr. This is not chicken feed but when you compare it to how much more you can make as an OB/GYN, it seems like an affordable price to pay for happiness and job satisfaction. Good Luck. I am curious to hear what anyone else has to say.

 

[Soup]

My university has an all -expense paid loan program that is forgiven if you do primary care. I took the loan during my 1st and 2nd year 100% sure I would do primary care. Now I fell in love with OB and have to pay back this loan money. The big catch is that it has 15% interest from the time I signed!! Does anyone know of a source to get a big lump sum (approx $72,000) at a lower interest rate? I am currently an MS3 and will be getting federal loan money for my last 2 years.

Why wouldn't a consolidation company pay off the loan (including any penalties) and then give you a better rate going into the future?

 

[jhug]

OB is part of primary care...
According to the government Family Med, Peds, OB/GYN, IM, and Psych all fall under primary care...

 

[Geronimo]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure OB is considered primary care in almost every corner of the Universe, maybe just not yours. Wierd?!? You may need to check on that again. Perhaps they meant generalist (excluding OB).

Who knows!?!

 

[Geronimo]

Yeah, check again. I thought OB is part of Primary Care, in most circles of the Universe anyway.

 

[kstater]

Believe me, I've looked. In the universe called Kansas Ob/gyn is considered a surgical specialty. My luck-

 

[jhug]

kstater...
that may be a good defense...assuming it isn't said somewhere in the loan application that ob is specifically NOT pc...
You could show the university that they are numbered among the very, very few who do not look at OB/GYN as primary care...

 

[kstater]

the loan specifically identifies only specific areas as acceptable: peds, ER, family, and internal med. The state of Kansas actually made this loan program and all changes must go through state congress. They make the requirements and hand out the money. There has been talk for many years now about adding gen surgery and ob/gyn, but I will not hold my breath for these changes to occur in my last year and a half of schooling. I definitely feel it is best to get out now and try to find some way to get that interest down through other sources. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Soup]

the loan specifically identifies only specific areas as acceptable: peds, ER, family, and internal med. The state of Kansas actually made this loan program and all changes must go through state congress. They make the requirements and hand out the money. There has been talk for many years now about adding gen surgery and ob/gyn, but I will not hold my breath for these changes to occur in my last year and a half of schooling. I definitely feel it is best to get out now and try to find some way to get that interest down through other sources. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Kstater--
Surely your not the first one to sign up for the loan program and then change their mind. Have you heard (officially or unofficially) what others done -- has everyone else before you just bitten the bullet and paid the 15%? I'm seriously considering taking this loan but worry about my "worse case scenario." Also, have you made any more decisions about what you're going to do?

 

[OSUdoc08]

My university has an all -expense paid loan program that is forgiven if you do primary care. I took the loan during my 1st and 2nd year 100% sure I would do primary care. Now I fell in love with OB and have to pay back this loan money. The big catch is that it has 15% interest from the time I signed!! Does anyone know of a source to get a big lump sum (approx $72,000) at a lower interest rate? I am currently an MS3 and will be getting federal loan money for my last 2 years.

I also understand the loan (if it is the same as at my school) to be required to be paid back in a very short amount of time. Did they tell you how long you have to pay it back?

OB/GYN is considered a surgical subspecialty in Texas and Oklahoma. I don't know how things apply to your state, but for primary care:

Texas = IM, FM, Peds
Oklahoma = EM, IM, FM, Peds

 

[KatieJune]

hey is your primary care loan from the federal government or is it a different loan?

 

[kstater]

It's actually from the state of kansas so it is considered private. This is making it that much more difficult to find a lender to consolidate it with my federal money.

 

[Soup]

It's actually from the state of kansas so it is considered private. This is making it that much more difficult to find a lender to consolidate it with my federal money.

What exactly are consolidation complanies telling you? Why is a private loan more difficult to consolidate? Have you found any other options?