Keep The Money In The Family: Refinance A Student Loan With A Wealthy Relative

After earning his MBA from the City University of New York's Baruch College in 2009, Sanket Mehta was left with $60,000 in student loans. Mehta's wife, Sheetal Chavan, carried even pricier debt: She had a $20,000 loan with a 14% interest rate from Bangalore-based Canara Bank. Determined to lower the couple's student-debt interest costs, Mehta approached a well-off cousin who works in finance in the US and had cash sitting on the sidelines. Mehta makes payments automatically from his bank account. In 10 months he has paid down nearly $15,000 of the $40,000 loan.