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What's the point of this site?
To request the generosity of as many people as I can with the hope of paying off my student loan debt as quickly as possible.
Why so much?
For most of my undergraduate time I had neither a car nor a job so I ended up taking out as much as I could in loans to pay for everything from tuition, room & board, and books as well as the other incidentals that came around from time to time like shampoo, toothpaste and other general living expenses.
I should mention that I wasn’t completely on my own. I was very fortunate to receive some help from my family which helped but was only able to keep the debt from getting a bit higher.
Why didn't you just consolidate your loans?
I did... unfortunately you can't lock in interest rates on private loans.
One thing I wasn't quite aware of in all of this was that there are two general
kinds of student loans, federal loans such as Perkins, Stafford, PLUS loans are insured by
the Federal Government and have different rules attached to them... one of them
is that you are able to consolidate and lock in a low interest rate for the life
of your loan... which I did with loan #2 which starting at $19,158.61 at 2.875%.
The other kind of loans, are private, and are not unlike a personal loan you might
take out from a bank using just your good name with no collateral as there would
be with a home purchase. The rates on these loans are free to rise and fall along
with the Federal Reserves adjustments, and since having to begin to repay my student
loans in June of 2004, interest rates have risen over 3%.
What do I get out of donating?
My eternal gratitude, the knowledge that you helped someone out, and your name forever
(so long as this site exists) listed on my Donor List.
What can I do to help?
Visit the How to Help page for many answers.
Do you have any ideas I haven't thought of? I'd love to hear them!
Why should I help?
For any reason you want. You might remember having a pile of student loan yourself,
or just want the pleasure of helping out a guy like me.
Why do you expect to get out of this?
I really don’t expect anything, however I hope that I will be able to elicit the
generosity of those who visit this site.
Where do donations go?
Minus fees charged by PayPal and the Amazon honor system, all money taken in as
a result of this site will be applied to my student loan debt, and if/when one
day it is eliminated, I will remove all donation links from this site, I will say a big thank you and keep this site around as a
tribute to the generosity of those who helped me achieve being student loan debt free.
Is my donation tax deductible?
Probably not. I'd ask a tax expert or lawyer rather than me this question
as I am neither.
If you take in enough per month from this site, will you stop paying
your loans yourself?
No! Regardless of the generosity of others I will continue to pay as much as I can
on my student loans until the day they are paid off. Currently I am working on
a Masters program (that is being paid for by my employer) and as a result of this
full time student status my loans have gone into deferment. I could choose not to
pay them during this time... however they would just keep accruing interest, and
I want them gone as soon as possible. And no amount of donations will cause that
to change.
How often will you pay any money gained from this site?
To save time and fees, by the between the 10th and 15th of every month, whenever
I have more $50 available through donations or referrals I will add it to my regular
monthly payment or write an additional check for the month.
Why doesn't the donations amount, added to the current debt equal the
starting amount?
The difference is because of my regular monthly payments which have gone on since June of 2004 and will continue until the loans are paid off.
How long will you continue this?
Until the day I have paid off the last of my student loans. Afterwards, I will remove
all payment options and leave this site up as a tribute to those who helped.
How accurate is the current debt image?
The script that generates the image is given the exact amount of debt from time to time and in between calculates the current amounts based on the date and interest rates. As a separate calculation it is accurate to within a few dollars, but not exact.
What is running this site?
This site is based on ASP.NET and was written in C# against the 2.0 .NET Framework with Visual Studio 2005 and hosted from an IIS6 server by crystaltech.com.
I have another question
By all means, contact me and I'll be happy to answer it and if necessary I'll update
the FAQ.
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