Should I Pay Off My Student Loan? 2008/09 article discussion

melancholly

1) have you included the interest you will have accumuated in 2002/2003 when you made no payments? i don't know the interest rate for that year but just looking at it that might explain the difference?

HelenFS

melancholly wrote: »

1) have you included the interest you will have accumuated in 2002/2003 when you made no payments? i don't know the interest rate for that year but just looking at it that might explain the difference?

I'd not thought of that thankyou. How would that work then? I don't know why I just thought that no interest was charged until the first payment in the following April of starting work. When will I be charged interest from do you think? Graduation? Starting work? (I'm a teacher so my first payment was in September '02).

I'll go explore the SLC!

Thanks for your help.

Chris2685

You get charged interest from the second you take the loan. So it is gaining interest from your first year at uni (assuming you took a loan in your first year)

fatcat21_2

I have deffered my student loan as I do not earn enough and am in receipt of benefits.
I have just received a statement from them and have been charged £280.73 in admin charges and they also say that there are over £700 of payments overdue.
Are they allowed to charge so much for admin, at this rate I will never make any headway in paying this off.
Thanks for any advice you can offer.

Oldernotwiser

fatcat21 wrote: »

I have deffered my student loan as I do not earn enough and am in receipt of benefits.
I have just received a statement from them and have been charged £280.73 in admin charges and they also say that there are over £700 of payments overdue.
Are they allowed to charge so much for admin, at this rate I will never make any headway in paying this off.
Thanks for any advice you can offer.

I don't know whether they're allowed to but they do. You need to arrange a separate payment plan for the overdue amounts and charges because you can't defer them in the same way you can with your normal repayments. I've always deferred, but one year I forgot to send in the forms for several months and ended up in the same position as you, which is how I know.

fatcat21_2

I have already doen that and never missed a payment, from what I can work out the admin charges are being added by the company I pay the arrears too. They have charged me more in admin than my payments have been for a year.

Oldernotwiser

fatcat21 wrote: »

I have already doen that and never missed a payment, from what I can work out the admin charges are being added by the company I pay the arrears too. They have charged me more in admin than my payments have been for a year.

When i tcomes to arrears they have a pretty free hand on charges, just like if you go over your limit, or default, on a credit card.

Umski

Hello folks,

First post here as something got me thinking about Student Loans. I've been paying off my loan since 2002 now and had my statement a few months ago. Now from what I understand, the Inland Revenue gets my payment every month, yet the SLC only receives the details at the end of the tax year and then lumps the interest for the previosu year on top. So my point is, we're being charged interest on the outstanding balance per year, whilst the taxman sits on our payments every month :mad: how is that fair? My monthly payment is quite significant (over £200) and even more if I get a bonus - I reckon my balance should be going down monthly, not yearly. Seems a bit of a con to me

Lokolo

Indeed but its still the cheapest money you're going to get (unless its free of course!), so it was still worth it in the end.

Its like the fact the interest rate is based on CPI instead of RPI, silly billy government.

Can't wait to see what happens if inflation goes negative for March next year.

sally2489

Hi.
I've just been lurking on these boards, and only now got the courage to post an opinion.
I am in my 2nd year year of a Social work degree. I borrowed the £3070 tuition fee loan in my 1st year, and £2000 of the maintenance loan to help with day-to-day costs. I recently went onto the website, and found i now owe over
£5215!!!! :eek:
This is LOADS of money for me!!!
I also got the £4200 social work bursary, but used up all but £2000 on driving costs (Lessons, tests, car. etc)
This year, i chose not to get any loan out, but have applied for the grant, and the social work bursary!
I hate having debt, so would you recommend i use my bursary and grant to pay of part of last years loan, and this years loan, and borrow the rest of the money from family. At least, they won't charge me any interest, even if it is less than normal loans! :think: