Student loan cleared

[Deleted User]

Woooo, decided to phone the SLC this morning to find out the outstanding balance on my loan.. turns out it was only 800 quid last year (as of April). They couldn't tell me what I actually owed but since I've been putting in at ₤84.50 for the last 9 months and ₤65/month for the 3 months before that (adds up to ₤955) I think they actually owe me money.

Hurrah, student loan cleared! Now if I could just afford to get on the property ladder...

jitsuguy

Nice one mate - I haven't started paying mine back yet but soon will!

fran_from_willesden

Well done. I'm too scared to ring up and find out how much mine is...I haven't had a statement for quite a while. I think mine is in the region of £14k. Hopefully like jitsuguy I'll be too old to pay it off in 40 years!

HGLTsuperstar

If they do owe you. push them for interest on it as they'll take their time to pay up, in fact will probably hang out until end of tax year, so nearly a full 12 months. Go for 5% gross minimum!

jamminjamaica

well done! i havent even started paying mine and i graduated in 2000

Goldilox

I only graduated last year with £13,360 loan - I am making voluntary payments of £50 a week now (even though I am under the threshold) as I want to get rid of it asap and not be paying as much in interest each year. At about £35 interest charged per month, those people who haven't started making payment for years after finishing their degree aren't actually getting away with anything. They are on average owing £360 per year more than what they were originally given.

Student Loans Company is now also exempt from Bancrupcy law - see their site https://www.slc.co.uk and you will only get it paid off if you never earn over £15,000 before retirement age or if you become severely disabled.

Esoog

Student Loans Company is now also exempt from Bancrupcy law - see their site https://www.slc.co.uk and you will only get it paid off if you never earn over £15,000 before retirement age or if you become severely disabled

!!!!!!! There goes my grand plan!

ericthekidstoner

slc haven't been very helpful for me and a colleague i know

good work on clearing yr loan. however, it's rather cheap debt so I also know people who have been defering it for the past few years which enabled them to get on the property ladder - they also had to save hard too of course

[Deleted User]

The next plan is the property ladder, I've managed to save up 12K in 3 years since graduating, to go towards a deposit on a house (Not having a car or holidays sucks, but it saves lots). Would have been a lot easier if I'd lived at home, wish i'd had that option, but it's certainly do-able.

I do wonder if people do the maths when deferring. If you've got a 12K loan and it's gaining interest at 3.2% you pay 384 pounds of interest in your first year, 396 in your second year. Now, imagine you're repaying it at 84 pounds a month (like I was). Your 2 year deferal just cost you at least 9 months of extra repayments. This might be even longer if you're earning less. If you're on about 20K you'll be paying 65 pounds a month back.. so your 2 year deferal would have added 1 more year onto your repayments.

Cummulative interest sucks, even if it's "only 3.2%". I wonder what the average TOTAL repayments is for student loans.. not what the debt is straight after graduation.

David_Brent

Hi was just wondering what happens after graduation in terms of paying my student loan back as I start a new job next week earning just under 17,500 per year, so I take it that they will want to be paid back a bit each month now im in employment, or do I have to inform them of my employement etc myself?

[Deleted User]

David, my loan didn't start getting repayed until April (i started work in january). Your student loan will come directly out of your pay each month. Your employeer deducts it and passes it to the inland revinue. the IR then pass it to the student loans company once a year.

If you don't have it deducted in your first month, don't worry. If you want, put 50 pounds away and save it. In your 2nd month, if you're still not paying your student loan, contact your accounts department. It is their role to tell the inland revinue about your employment, not you. Sometimes they need a push. Failing that, as your human resource department to contact them. Put that 50 pounds in the bank again.

Eventually you'll start paying your loan back. At your salary it'll be at around 55 pounds a month. You can see what your take home pay would be here:
http://www.i-resign.com/uk/financialcentre/tax_calculator.asp

You can contact the SLC company and send them that money you saved away in your first few months. They've got more info on how to contact them on their website.