Mary has been forced to put her house up for sale after she ended up owing a massive $83 000 on a $15 000 loan. Mary cox, 49, borrowed the money in 2003 to pay for her father's funeral and to buy a new fridge for her home. But she could not meet the cost of the loan and 17 years later, the amount she owed had grown to $83 000

a) Based on original loan of $15 000, calculate the monthly repayments to be repaid over 5 years. Assume an interest rate of 25% p.a. Andrea can afford to pay $600 per month into the loan, and she has been able to negotiate a new interest rate of 8% p.a.

b) How long would it take Andrea to repay the loan?

c) If she cannot afford to increase her current repayments, and is unable to negotiate a better interest rate, recommend a strategy to reduce the total length of time to repay the loan? Based on this strategy, how much interest would she save?