zcommodore

It's taken 19 months and a few extra payments along the way, but I finally have an unpaid loan that has reached the breakeven point.  I've had two other loans that were paid off early that I obviously got all my money back on but this is the first one that is not yet fully paid but I've received more interest on it than the balance that is still owed.

If you do the math, a loan at 29% will reach the breakeven point at around 24 months if the borrower only makes the minimum payments.  A loan at 14% reaches it at 30 months and a loan at 8% reaches it at 32 months.  In the case of this loan at 28.5%, there were a few extra payments along the way that bumped up the "breakeven" point.

I look back on this loan and I'm happy to have reached this point (as is pensioner as well, I'm sure :-) ).  I doubt I'd bid on it now for numerous reasons.  I consider myself lucky for the most part.  It does ease some of the pain of all the defaults I've had.  Still, my ROI according to the 3rd-party sites ain't all that.  I don't know how many 29% (including GL fees) AF loans at $25K that stayed current there are but I doubt there are many.

In the future, I look forward to reaching breakeven on more of my loans.  It's nice to finally reach this milestone on one for now though.