Do you consider your student loan a 'debt' debt?

Ames

I don't count it as I'm never likely to be in a position to be able to pay it back.

Dex

Hi,
I don't know to be honest if I do or not, I don't even know how much is left on it!
I pay about £80 p/month from wages and I have moved about four times since I received my last statement, I have tried writing to my LEA but with no success, anyone any ideas who I can contact to get a statement?

I believe they only release one a year at april?

I don't know if I worry about it too much as mortgage companies don't see it as a debt! )

Dex

mogwai

Hmm I wasn't sure whether to try and pay this off once I have paid off my other debts...

Its annoying, it being there so I might just make some regular overpayments - it will still take me absolutely years to pay off though!

mogwai

Dex wrote: »

Hi,
I have tried writing to my LEA but with no success, anyone any ideas who I can contact to get a statement?

The student loans have made statements available online now, which is why I've suddenly been thinking about it! lol

SLC online

Just found these
[url="http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/student-loans-repay']Student Loans Article[/url]
and
Discussion thread

Hmm maybe I will just stick with the min payments and otherwise ignore it and not consider it a debt to be paid asap! Better to save and use that money for other things instead of taking out more expensive debts later on.

I still don't understand how the min repayment vs interest a month works though. If the min repayment is less than the interest charged, does that mean the amount outstanding will just keep increasing until I am 65?? :eek:

k993802

keep increasing? in short, yes.

e.g. if you pay £9/month and the interest on your loan is £13/month - your outstanding balance will be increasing every month.

as you earn more, the same percentage of your salary will be taken as a repayment, but the value of that percentage, obviously, will increase. (This is for the loans that were made with the terms similar to 'Every £1 over £15k (?) you earn, will be taxed at 10% (?) as a loan repayment'...

...i think the current loan interest rate is over 4% and with todays interest rate drop, many bank accounts won't be paying more than that to savers - but no doubt, if you're on here, you'll know there are other savings accounts that are paying 6-7% interest...

Richard_Cocks

I found my recent end of year statement. Despite working for 10 months of the year my total debt had increased last year.

It's still a rate that's lower than you can get in savings and so it's better to save to avoid borrowing more later.

The SLC rate this year is lower too, at 3.8% vs 4.8% last year. (It's inflation (RPI) linked, last year's RPI was bizarrely high).

TDQO

I'm maxing out my loan and don't consider it a debt, mainly because I'm in the mining industry and so will be spending the majority of my adult life overseas...if I'm lucky I'll never have to pay it back!