Help With Student Loans - HERE!

silvercar

Egreen19 wrote: »

Hi, I dropped out of uni last year after being there for a month and not enjoying it. However I have been told by student finance i am to pay the majority of the loan back now. However I don’t earn over the certain amount of money each year to pay it off as usual students would. I am currently doing as they advised but I am still not sure whether or not this is correct!

They calculate how much of the loan you shouldn't have received and ask for that bit back.

So if you received a loan in September, that would be to cover you being a student until the next payment would have been made in January. If you then drop out in October, they will ask for the portion that should have supported you in November and December to be returned. The amount that you were entitled to you keep and will repay as and when you earn enough to trigger repayments.

The_Jakel

Hi, I am currently looking into bank accounts ready for uni. My parents were very well prepared for me going to uni and have saved up a total of £11000 in an account that was recently transferred to me, they have made clear that this represents all the financial support they can provide. I also have almost £3000 in my own savings from a part time job. I therefore want to maximize the interest I get payed on the money during my course, as with my maintenance loan I should only end up losing around £4500 per year, and that being without working part time somewhere near my uni.
I have been doing my own research into the best ways to do this however I am aware that not many students are in the fortunate situation I am and therefore there is little advice available. So far I have come up with a few ideas that I would like to run by the people on this forum for guidance.

1) Overdraft "stoozing" - I could still apply for a student bank account with a large overdraft and then move this money to a savings account to earn interest on it.

2) Loads of current accounts - alot of current accounts are offering 3% interest on up to around £2000, eg Santander 123 student, TSB classic plus, Tesco Bank. I could open accounts with each of them and move money between them to keep their paying in requirements happy. I have checked several sources which claim there is nothing illegal about this, although opening multiple student current accounts can be against terms and conditions.

3) Help to Buy ISA - So I have heard mixed things about this, some people seem to think ISAs aren't worth it whilst some recommend them. The Help to Buy ISA I have been looking at has a 2% interest rate and claims to have instant access withdrawals which seems fine to me?

4) LendingCrowd - I found out that you can use this site to lend your money to many different parties at once, reducing the risk of a missed repayment. They advertise a rate of 6-8% interest and when I tested it with a smaller amount of money for a couple of months the results were pretty much the same. I could put most of the money in an account on here and then withdraw a third of it each year to leave as much earning interest as possible. (I am aware this is a higher risk method)

If anyone knows anything I might have missed or has any advice I would be very grateful.

Savvy_Sue

Your timing's pretty good: the latest Martin Lewis Money Show covered Help to Buy ISAs, and it should still be available on the ITV catchup service.

As for the stoozing and the current accounts, these can work well if you're more organised than most of the teenagers I've ever known. :-) But watch out for the student overdraft thing: Martin does an article on what each bank is offering every year, still a bit early for it this year, but you'll find that if a bank is offering 'up to' £X overdraft, not everyone will get £X and in some cases it will be a lot lower.

And probably best not to apply for multiple student accounts - in some cases they won't let you keep it open unless your student loan payment goes in. Nothing to stop you having multiple 'normal' current accounts, but do your research carefully: some of them require at least two DDs as well as minimum paying in requirements.

There's a whole heap of articles about banking and saving here, and that also includes ISAs.

I think my advice would be to start small and see how you get on. Santander's interest rates aren't as good as they were, but have the advantage that you can keep up to £20,000 there, whereas the others are much lower. Set up standing orders to keep the money cycling round, but don't lose track of it, ie log in regularly.

No advice on lendingcrowd, but I believe other sites are available.

Essellpee

I've got a Certificate of Higher Education and I'm now going to Uni to do a
full 3 year degree will I be eligible for 3 years of student loans?

silvercar

if you want to be a verified expert, you need to approach the forum team to get verified. You then would be expected to post answers in threads and not by private messages.

On the other hand, you could have a signature stating your expertise. In which case it would be helpful to point out that MSE doesn't verify a user's status. Lots of mortgage brokers do this and point out that their status isn't verified in their signature.

As it is I'm uncomfortable with a new poster requesting private messages. The forum works best when people can respond to queries. It also means others with similar queries can read the responses.

A_Star

I'm currently studying a post graduate masters part time. I don't need to take an additional loan but does anyone know if I can pause my existing loan repayments until I've finished my Masters? I am still earning over the threshold so I'm assuming it won't be possible.

[Deleted User]

A_Star wrote: »

I'm currently studying a post graduate masters part time. I don't need to take an additional loan but does anyone know if I can pause my existing loan repayments until I've finished my Masters? I am still earning over the threshold so I'm assuming it won't be possible.

Not possible if you will still be earning over the limit to pay. My hubby has been paying his loan the whole time he’s been studying for his masters.

Mrs_Arcanum

Wondering why Student Finance are asking for Financial evidence for 15/16 when this was sent last year? Or have they failed to update the letter to reflect the new year?

Savvy_Sue

Mrs_Arcanum wrote: »

Wondering why Student Finance are asking for Financial evidence for 15/16 when this was sent last year? Or have they failed to update the letter to reflect the new year?

Well, anything's possible. I presume you'll contact them and let us know if / when they reply???

DotCapel

Hi, I'm a current student and was wondering how do I make voluntary repayments to my student loan (above what I will be doing automatically upon earning over £25,000/year)