SLRP finished

I got a bit of a surprise when I checked my student loan balance today: my third and final SLRP payment came in early last month.

It was nice to see the Army finally got things right -- the two previous years, I had to remind them to send the payment. Though my anniversary is in late June/early July, last year I got my payment in September.

Not only this, but the tax withholding was more reasonable. My first year, it was 0% withholding, something that was a point of contention for soldiers who had big tax bills at the end of the year.

So, the next year (2010), there was a 25% withholding. That was a bit too much, I guess; I took the money from my tax return and spent it on other things besides my student loan. I wouldn't be surprised if many others did the same thing.

This time, however, the tax withholding was only 15%. That's reasonable.

The way they applied the payment also made sense. It went to principal only, and was applied pretty much across all the loans that I had consolidated. Previously, my loan company insisted on applying the payments to interest first, in violation of the program's intent.

What's funny is that my student loans aren't repaid -- the money taken out for taxes and paid to interest means I still have about 12% of my original balance to pay -- but as far as the Army is concerned I'm done.

So what's next? The Post 9/11 G.I. Bill qualification. Once I hit six years of service, I'll be able to transfer my benefits to my dependents with a four year obligation.