[stephngregg]

Adoption Loans -- Did you get one?

If you got a loan to pay for expenses for your adoption:

-- Who did you use?
-- How much did you borrow?
-- Is a loan specifically for adoption?
-- How long is your repayment term?

[pwnort64]

I looked into an adoption loan, I think with MNBA, but the interest was a little higher than I wanted to pay (maybe 8%).

I was also looking into doing a home equity loan. But since we have only been in our house for a couple of years and they wouldn't let me borrow the full equity that we had in the house, I couldn't get the amount I needed. The interest rate they offered wasn't that appealing either.

I ended up borrowing against my 401k. I was able to borrow as much as I needed. The interest on this loan is 5%, but the interest goes back to my account. So, in essence, I am paying myself interest to borrow my own money. I borrowed for a term of 5 years and they automatically withdraw my payment from my paycheck.

In the end, that ended up being my best option.

[amyandjoshua]

401k? you mean life insurance?

[ll_bay]

Hi

The first time we got a line-of-credit loan through MBNA, which meant we had up to 20,000 but only spent what we needed. They used to have a very favorable rate for adoption loans but I don't think they're as good as they used to be. We have monthly payments, but also pay off big lumps when our tax refunds come back each year. We paid for travel with credit cards then re-paid them upon our return, in part also with the line of credit.

This time we used a little of the line-of-credit and some savings we'd managed to amass, and then borrowed the rest from our 403b retirement accounts. We will have our tax refund before we travel and will set aside enough of that to cover the cost of the trip. It was actually an early withdrawal rather than a loan in our case; we are going to re-fund our retirement funds by opening IRAs and/or increasing our contributions out of each paycheck.

For loans, you also might try your local banks and credit unions. Try e-loan.com too. You never know what they might come up with.
HTH

[ll_bay]

I should have said that we repaid our credit cards with our tax refund, NOT with our line of credit. Duh!

[Linny]

We've adopted several times...but for our last two, we borrowed money. In the first, we re-financed our home. This was a good move anyway, because we got a much better interest rate and borrowed enough for the adoption and then some.
For the latest adoption, we initially went through Discover loans...which had a program for unsecured loans at the time. We were able to get only one bank to even consider an adoption loan (we live in a small area)....but they wanted collateral.
We went with Discover for a period of seven years; but after the first two, we were able to get the money from a relative for a better rate, and combined it with a loan we had 'out there' too.
For our next adoption, we aren't planning to borrow....but we are also adopting domestically and know that our budget will be limited.

Sincerely,

Linny

[JuliaSherman]

I've heard that there are banks that offer interest only personal loans (non-mortgage related) for 24 to 36 months. This would be a great way to finance our adoption until we got our tax credit.

If anyone knows of such a bank, could you please PM me with the info.

Thanks