Second Student Loan or Not?

Dave_PGCE

I am about to start a PGCE in September and I am currently applying for funding. I have the option to apply for both a maintenence loan and tutition fee loan. These will total around about £7000 which will then go on top of the £12000 of student loan debt that i have from my original degree. My question is whether i should get these loans and end up paying money back for a lot longer or try and get by without it by working, borrowing money off parents etc.

Does anyone know if your student loan debt has any affect on your credit rating and ability to get a morgage/loan in later life?

Thanks

Sol00

No, it isn't recorded on the CRAs files.

hazel09

This article is about my son's 28k debt. He studied for three years in uni and got £13000 of debt with Student Loan Co. He further studied for a post graduate course for one year taking Loan form the high Street lender. This loan covered his day-to-day living expenses and the Post Graduate Course fee altogether £15600.

During this time I myself lost the job due to medical reason. Continuing living and renting an adequate house was not an ideal option at that time and the family life was degraded. We moved into a tiny flat. This has had an impact of my young children. My eldest son who was 21 years and had just come out of uni was badly affected by our family circumstances. He did not do well at the post graduate course and unfortunately failed his exams. Through out his study, his lecturers noticed my son was not happy at all with his study.

After that miserable year (2006) in September07, He was offered a job with very low pay. However, he accepted and continuing with his profession till day.

My son has £28000 debt and he is paying a large sum every month. He lives with me. The money is tight and there is no way he could get himself debt free for the next 7 years with his current job pay.

My question:
Can he challenge the Student loan Co and the high street lender for the post graduate course loan under the Unenforceable Credit Agreements (act 1974)?

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

A very anxious mum! Hazel

anotherpaul_2

Dave_PGCE wrote: »

Does anyone know if your student loan debt has any affect on your credit rating and ability to get a morgage/loan in later life?

Personally, I would take as many student loans as I could get - the terms are excellent.

The only affect your credit rating if you default on them, at which point the SLC can have a default notice applied to your account. As long as you haven't done that, they just count as a slight reduction in salary, so have a small effect on the size of mortgage you could get.

anotherpaul_2

hazel09 wrote: »

This article is about my son's 28k debt. He studied for three years in uni and got £13000 of debt with Student Loan Co. He further studied for a post graduate course for one year taking Loan form the high Street lender. This loan covered his day-to-day living expenses and the Post Graduate Course fee altogether £15600.

Presumably, if he's on low pay, he's not paying any of the student loan back? That would be coming directly out of his salary - 9% of any pay over a minimum (which might be about £15,000 of income, but I've not checked).

So, it's just the graduate loan that's the issue?

There are many, many thread on here about (possibly) unenforceable credit agreements. I'm not an expert on those, but the question doesn't tend to get a lot of sympathy in this section of the forum. You could try the Debt Free Wannabe section of this forum - they may be more helpful.

hazel09

Hi another Paul,

Thank you for the reply to my question. My son is earning just above£17k per year and he has regular deductions from his salary for the Student Loan.

My argument is debt is a debt, no matter how you are committed to pay it back. The second worry is his PGL (post graduate loan) from the major high St Lender. That Loan is £15600 and as soon as he started earning the pay back loan commitment started (this was from Jan2008). It has about8% apr. Not sure about this APR jargon though!
Anyway, after the deductions of his SL and PGL payments, he barely has money left over to keep up with his car's maintainance, his traveling (petrol) to work and the food!
Is anyone has any idea, please let me know.

I am going to copy and paste the articles in the "Debt free Wannbe section".

Regards
Hazel

Forgot to mention his further loan(graduate loan from the high st lender). He has taken furher £8000 to buy his car for the purpose of travelling to and from work. Before he would hope in the trains to make his journeys to work. The train TKT alone would cost him£400 per month. He did not take any holiday since last five years

kindofagilr

I hope your son gets it sorted out

But personally I feel 17k is not a low wage, I myslef am only on 16500 and I have worked where I work for 10 years.

recyclingbox

Your son's student loan repayments should be about £15 per month out of his salary of about £1400pm(?) so his student loan isn't making much of a dent. Therefore he needs to concentrate all his efforts into getting rid of the other loan. The student loan will go on at this small amount (9% of any amount over 15K) as long as he is working.

If things are so tough that a single man cannot afford to service these two loans then he should get to the DFW thread for help. People there know what's what and will offer more guidance.

Any talk of getting out of credit agreements does not go down too well in these parts of MSE. However, i would be very surprised if ANY aspect of a SL is unenforceable....

Recycler

Sol00

I agree with Recycling, it's highly unlikely that the student loan will be unenforceable and to be honest, it shouldn't really take much from his salary, just 9% of anything above £15,000, so that would be £2000 or more for him.

Dave_PGCE

Does anyone know if the amount of Student loan you owe has any affect on how much you pay back per month. For example, if i owe £15000 and earn £20000 a year and my friend owe's £10000 and earns the same, £20000 will we pay the same back each month?

fiendishly

How much bursary will you get for your PGCE? That might make a big difference to whether you decide to take the loan or not.