Advance on Student Loan

XEO25

Hi all, wondering if anyone can help me out...

Me and my girlfriend are both going into our 3rd year at uni this september and we've picked a nice flat to live in. It's not cheap, but it's very close to the university and cheaper than halls.

The only problem is, we have to move out of our current accomodation at the end of August, so we need to move into our new flat then.

Of course, we don't get our student loans until October 1st.

We need to pay a months rent and a half as the deposit which is £900, then the months rent for September, so we need £1500 to move in. Moving in with parents isn't an option unfortunetly.

Does anyone know anywhere where we can get an advance on our student loans, obviously signing some sort of contract which would enable the lender to take the £1500 straight out of our accounts on October 1st?

We both hold Barclays Student accounts, but the best they could offer was an overdraft facility which we are both at our maximum anyway.

Any advice would be great - thanks

Lokolo

No it can't be done. Sorry!

melancholly

are you working over the summer? if you're still at uni can you volunteer in psychology studies - some pay up to £40 a time. that can get you maybe £150 each maximum.
can you sell on ebay/amazon/bootsales?

have you spoken to the landlord? assuming they've rented to students before, they may be flexible and only ask for the deposit after your loan (but equally, they might not be prepared to do that).

Lokolo

Also overdraft?

Do you have a studet interest free one? You could obviously dip into that and wait until you get your loan in.

XEO25

melancholly wrote: »

are you working over the summer? if you're still at uni can you volunteer in psychology studies - some pay up to £40 a time. that can get you maybe £150 each maximum.
can you sell on ebay/amazon/bootsales?

have you spoken to the landlord? assuming they've rented to students before, they may be flexible and only ask for the deposit after your loan (but equally, they might not be prepared to do that).

Thanks for the advice, we've pretty much sold everything that isn't stuck down lol.

I agree if we speak to the landlord, we would be able to come to some sort of deal, but the estate agents won't give us his details. They obviously want their cut right away.

Edit: my girlfriend has a part time job at a supermakret, but theres no overtime what so ever so it's only £200 a month, which has to go on current expenses eg bills. I've just lost my job as the company went under, currently looking for work, but there isn't anything which doesn't require me to drive (have no car and live in the sticks right now)

XEO25

Lokolo wrote: »

Also overdraft?

Do you have a studet interest free one? You could obviously dip into that and wait until you get your loan in.

We're already at the maximum of our O/D.

Thanks anyway

tootiefrooties

this is why budgets are so useful planning ahead means that more often than not you can prevent shortfalls like this, which can be a nightmare with the timing of student loans - they think you only exist in term time and slip into some kind of non-eating, non-bill-paying coma for 4 months over summer.

So firstly, sit down with a spreadsheet and spend several boring hours making a budget which considers how much money you get, and most importantly when, and of course what goes out and when - so that you both have plenty of time to plan for future problems by putting aside £50 each from wages every month to supplement loans, rather than desperately trying to find several thousand with only weeks to spare.

Once you've done this, look at getting a low interest loan to tide you over in the short term. If your OH is still working, they should be able to borrow around £1000 but you should massively prioritise finding work yourself. You don't want OH feeling the burden in terms of working and taking out a loan for your shared home, as they may begin to feel resentful.

The only other thing I can suggest is if you hold out on the flat for a few weeks, and see if any generous friends in a large student house will let you have the sofa until you can sort out your own place once the money has come through.

Whatever you do though, don't take the money out on a credit card. You'll be paying for it (physically and metaphorically) for a very long time!

Good luck

lilysgarden

You should actually be able to get an advance on your student loans, but the next installment would still be on the same date, which I think is January. Contact the SLC and ask. I know you can definately get them for courses where you have to start a practice placement before the other students start back.

Lokolo

Yeh you can get them in advance if your course starts earlier or whatever but not otherwise that I know of.

Ytaya

Be a little creative, look to get a little bit of money from a few sources.

Your uni will have some sort of Access Fund available. There's the official government one, and there are also uni-based ones (I think ours is called the chancellor's fund or something). They can sometimes make short-term loans.

Could your parents (or your partner's parents) loan you a bit of money short-term?

You could also try opening another student account and using the overdraft, but that's a bit risky for a couple of reasons. One - you might not get access to the overdraft in time. Two - technically, you're only supposed to have one student account at a time and banks do reserve the right to shut the account and demand full repayment of your overdraft at any time. But for a short-term fix, it might be do-able.