Mis-sold my student loan!

greyster

tinkerbell84 wrote: »

Just shows how little value there is in degrees these days.

My OH has an IT degree from a northern uni. He's never earned less than 30k, and never less than 50k in London.

I don't have a degree, but I was earning more than 25k by the time I was 20, and now earn significantly more than that (I'm 27). My sister doesn't have a degree either, and earns similar to me.

I work in recruitment, and the number of unemployable graduates is amazing. The education system in this country is a joke.

If he went from his early 20s to a 30k job in the north, he is lucky. Most grad schemes are paying mid 20s in and around the UK.

I assume he did a stint down in London but after getting some experience in the north (can't be working two jobs in two places) hence why you said 50k. Nobody except the financial elite walk into a 50k job after uni at the age of 21 with no experience.

I work in an international telecoms org and I see the odd person who has rose through the ranks and is the same level/age as me, without a degree earning as much as me. Quite frankly I take my hat off to them... they've avoided my 20k student debt from doing a BSc (hons) and a masters.

However the elitest in me does feel like what the papers say which is a degree can earn x amount more than without over a life time.

Latest figures from PricewaterhouseCoopers show that the average university graduate earns £160,000 more between the ages of 21 and 60 than someone with A-levels alone.

My point is that these comparisons should not be made in the first ten years of when you left uni long after that. Only then you can look back and say this degree has helped me by this much. Who cares if you earn the same as someone without a degree now - it's all about your future.

Going back to the OP point and others who feel let down by their degree, finding a job and being in debt. It may be years before you realise how much a degree has helped you. There are always exceptions (art degrees :beer: :P), you'll find people doing jobs not requiring a degree and getting no where but the truth of the matter is it's fact that statistically a degree gets you more money.

Let's not argue with the facts and lets not take the SLC to court for offering the cheapest form of loan in the country. It could be worse we could have a conservative government who last time I checked wanted to remove SLC.

Sol00

I don't think you can be mis-sold a student loan tbh. It's not as though SLC actively approach people on the street to take their loans, they give them to eligible students who request them.

tinkerbell84

greyster wrote: »

If he went from his early 20s to a 30k job in the north, he is lucky. Most grad schemes are paying mid 20s in and around the UK.

I assume he did a stint down in London but after getting some experience in the north (can't be working two jobs in two places) hence why you said 50k. Nobody except the financial elite walk into a 50k job after uni at the age of 21 with no experience.

Without giving his entire work history, he left the northern uni for a job in Wales (not a grad scheme) on 30k. After 2 years he worked in the midlands for about 45k for about 18 months and then set up a company contracting in London (and still is) for significantly more than 50k a year. One year he took 5 months off to travel and still brought in 50k.

He has more work than he needs and works bloody hard. His reputation preceeds him. He now owns 2 businesses. He would be unlikely to be where he is at his age without his degree - which again he worked hard for. He has to continually train in new things, and keep up to date with foundation things too. It's hard work.

On the other hand, I work hard (but my hours are more reasonable) and earn very good money. Someone with a degree would not earn more than me in this role, and with 3 years more management experience, I've actually beaten several graduates to jobs in the past.

Horseygirl82_2

Ouch! So with the minimum payment I am not even paying it off?

I thought it was the whole point of it being a manageble loan etc??????

Hestia

mizzbiz wrote: »

I don't think you can sue for misselling but I think you should be able to.

How many 18yr old school leavers supposed to be able to understand compound interest. I'm furious that i'm paying interest on the interest on my student loan, I certainly didn't undertsand this and the 'salesperson' never pointed it out to me.

Compound interest is a basic concept that was taught at GCSE maths level - a pass in which was a prerequisite to acceptance onto a degree level course - well it was when I went to Uni (1996)!

Therefore, compound interest should be a concept with which most 18 year olds are familiar!

melancholly

Horseygirl82 wrote: »

Ouch! So with the minimum payment I am not even paying it off?

I thought it was the whole point of it being a manageble loan etc??????

i don't think you understand the idea behind the 'minimum payment' - that is entirely dependent on the amount you earn; it's not a set figure.

this is a really really important part of the loan - i really suggest that you either find your paperwork from when you took it out, or if that is not easy to get hold of, spend some time online (just google 'student loan repayments').

i despair at posts like this - it shows how little many students understand about the terms of borrowing this huge amount of money.