Tuition Fees

billy187_2

Just been thinking about this and thought it may be a better idea to ring them up and instead apply for the tuition fee loan and not get the maintenance loan ive applied for? that way the tuition fees will get directly paid wereas il still have the mainenance grant? what do you think?

and yeh i know about the bursaries, have looked into and looks like i should get a £1000.

Masomnia

If I were you I would take as the tuition fee loan. You don't pay back any more than you borrow in real terms ie. the loan just goes up with inflation. So why not? It isn't worth struggling I don't think.

If you think you can manage without the maintenance loan then perhaps not... but why not take it out? If you don't need it, you can put it in an ISA and earn 6.5% interest, while paying back around 4%. That way you have a foundation of savings for the future, meaning you wouldn't need a commercial loan.

bestpud

billy187 wrote: »

Just been thinking about this and thought it may be a better idea to ring them up and instead apply for the tuition fee loan and not get the maintenance loan ive applied for? that way the tuition fees will get directly paid wereas il still have the mainenance grant? what do you think?

and yeh i know about the bursaries, have looked into and looks like i should get a £1000.

Can you apply for the maintenance grant without applying for the loan? You may want to check before you do anything. If you can, the yes, I can see the sense in doing that if you really don't want to take out the full loans.

ONW has a point too - are you not going to help your parents out at all?

Your other option is to apply for all the loans and grant, so you won't have the problem of paying your fees up front but then place the grants in a high interest account. If you want to, you can pay the fee loan off at the end of each year, or the end of your degree, and pocket the difference in interest.

Alternatively, if you needed the money, you'd have it. Plus, if anything drastic happened (I hope not, but you just don't know what is around the corner!) you would also be able to apply for the uni access fund - you can't do that unless you have received the full student support available to you.