Raleigh-Durham

[CrazyJ]

Hey all, I'm seriously considering ATP and it looks like the wife and I might be movinf to RD NC.
Has anyone flown with ATP out of RD? And another thing, has anyone at ATP already have their bachelor's degree and had student loans for college? I have student loans from college and would have to tack on more on my Key loan to go to ATP. Anyone in the same boat as me?

[FLflyer]

Yup, same boat. I have a Bachelor's degree and LOTS of student loan debt from there, (went to a pricey private university, if I could do it again I'd have stayed in state and gone to a state university, but that's another story) and I got the approval for the ATP loan with no problem.

[Adamallica]

I went to a private University as well, so I've got some nice debt....Key didn't approve me, but Sallie Mae did. Makes since, though, because on paper it looks like there's no way I could afford all the payments....But, I'm selling my house (and making a large profit due to the absolutely insane housing market in CA right now) so once escrow closes I'll be able to pay off a lot of the loans. That was the only way I was able to afford to go to ATP.

[aloft]

The financial rule of thumb regarding debt is "pay off your most expensive debt first", be it credit cards, car loans, whatever. Consolidate your student loans and use the proceeds from your house to pay for your flight trainging. Student loan consolidation rates right now are much lower than what you'll pay Sallie Mae or KeyBank, and can be set up to be "income sensitive", meaning your payments will be a lot lower while you're scraping by on CFI/1st yr regional pay. Can't do that with other types of loans!

[Adamallica]

Very true...I'm actually planning on keeping about half of the loan I'm getting with Sallie Mae....I'm going to pay off all my credit cards, original financing for my PPL (19% interest on 7000 bucks!), and money I owe some family....all in all, even with the new 20000 dollar loan, I'll cut my monthly payments by two-thirds!