Should I refinance

Is it a private college and so private college fees? If so free fees doesn't apply, but if not then college courses have free fees, provided it's your first time. eg if you already did a degree then you can't do another degree and qualify for free fees again, if you did year 1 only of a degree then want to go back and do a different degree then you would pay year 1 fees and the rest would be free, and so on. It's worth ringing your local authority grants dept to ask about what might be available to you.
 


Thanks fizzelina,

I did a 2 year Higher Certificate in DKIT, so don't know if i'd qualify will check it out though.
 
I think you're missing the point, I can't afford to save at the moment because i'm paying so much back. I doubt I will qualify for a grant, I have a good job that pays well.
Grant might be the wrong word but i am referring to a tax refund that you can sometimes get when you pay college fees. Cant remember the ins and out of this
 
If you have made enquiries about a cu loan do you have the necessary collateral saved in the cu already and if so why not use this to pay your college fees etc
 
If you have made enquiries about a cu loan do you have the necessary collateral saved in the cu already and if so why not use this to pay your college fees etc

Then there is the problem of walking out the Credit Union door with a lovely new loan cheque in your hand. Do you have the will power to lodge all of it against your old borrowings?
 
No sorry I should have been more specific this is for 10k as part of the money I owe is interest free so it wouldn't make sense to pay that off with a new loan.

What do you mean interest free? Is this a credit card debt? You mention you have a good salary and that you want to live a little. Can you not do more to pay off the debt and then live a little? I'm all for education but you'd have to clarify why in a good job you ran up debts and be sure that you won't end up getting in a worse mess by doing what you propose to do. You are doing well on getting down the 21K debt to 13K. What is the interest rate you are paying on this, what interest rate would the credit union loan be at? Do you have any savings? Would your employer part fund your education.
 
I'm due to get a few thousand back from shares in a couple of years, which would clear this anyways.
Are you due to receive shares or are you anticipating appreciation in the capital value of some shares you currently hold? It sounds like you might be in possession of a crystal ball. Either that or I'm making a massive and incorrect leap of deduction.
 


My company is one of the lucky few that the recession hasn't touched, it's strived and continuing to do so, my shared have tripled in price already so i'm not worried about them.
 


It's not monies borrowed from a financial institution it's for other reasons which i'd prefer not to get in to. I ran up debt because I bought a car was stupid with my credit card, the cost of a wedding in Greece, some medical expenses. I've a totally different attitude and appreciation for money than what I did when I ran up this debt. My employer wants to keep me doing what i'm doing i've discussed doing courses but it's not viable at the moment.

The interest rates are as follows:

Car - 8.9;%
Credit Union - 9.43%
AIB - 9.5%
 
My company is one of the lucky few that the recession hasn't touched, it's strived and continuing to do so, my shared have tripled in price already so i'm not worried about them.
Unless you have crystal ball you have no way of knowing what your shares will be worth if and when you sell them. Past performance is not a guide for future performance, the value of your investment may go up or down, etc. etc.
 
Unless you have crystal ball you have no way of knowing what your shares will be worth if and when you sell them. Past performance is not a guide for future performance, the value of your investment may go up or down, etc. etc.

Based on company performance I don't see them going down, and even if they do go down i'll still get a few grand out of it.
 
Im a bit confused by the thread, but in summary OP, you have a 13K loan to run for 2 more years, and you want to take out a different loan to clear (most) of it - the new loan to run over 5 years?

And the main reasons for this are - costing too much to finance the loan monthly, and you want to go back to college.

If I were you - I wouldnt refinance the loan. Id pay it off, THEN go back to college.
 

I think life is too short to spend another 2 years in a job you're not mad about just to clear debt in a shorter period of time.
 
Well then - it seems your mind is made up and you dont want to listen to any advice on here. Good luck with it.
 
As others have said, you appear to have your mind made up before asking the question, so go ahead and take out the 5 year loan.

Best of luck