Voluntary Repayments or ISA payments?

archangel82

I left Uni in 2003 without graduating. I have been paying off £5 a week as a voluntary repayment for a few years now but this barely seems to have made a dent in the £5000 I borrowed. I have recently changed employer and earn over £15,000 but no one from SLC has contacted me and there are no deductions from my payslips. After looking on this site I am debating on cancelling my voluntary repyments and putting the money into an ISA instead with a view to saving money up to pay it off later.What does anyone think??

archangel82

I thought this was going to be a no-brainer and i'd be swamped with replies saying to go for the ISA option, appears I was wrong! I'll have to do some further investigation work on my own I guess.:eek:

CLAPTON

it is your responsibility to ensure that the slc repayment are made appropriately... you should have informed your new employer that you owed a student loan.. check with them.

archangel82

Thanks for your reply, I informed my employer about my student loan when i accepted the position 8 months ago and thought this would be automatically set up. When the deuctions didnt appear I thought there may just be a delay and thats why I was considering stopping the voluntary repayments to make some extra money from what I was paying them in the interim. Would you recommend trying my employer again first or SLC. I work in the public sector and would have thought they would have followed whatever the procedure is. Do you think it's possible that there has just been a delay making the deductions?

chris_topher97

I would stop the voluntary payments, and keep it in an ISA

As this clearly explains why - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/student-loans-repay

As for the SLC not taking payment, you should contact them about your earnings so that the correct payments are taken from your wages.

Northern_girl_2

If it's been 8 months it won't just be a delay. Your employer needs to tell them to take the money so someone in personnel must have forgotten to tick the right box!

They didn't automatically take mine when I changed jobs either and I had to remind someone in HR to do it. That would be the best place to ask/remind.

Oh, and yes, if you have any cash for overpayments it would be best to stick it in an ISA. It's a better rate of interest and the cash is readily available if you need it in an emergency or for a deposit on a house.