Average student debt?

vaporate

dmg24 wrote: »

New style loans are not written off after twenty five years.

They do get written off if you take the loan from 2006. I'm not sure from 2009 however.

And if for some mis-guided reason it's not, it wont make much difference as the loan will never be repaid at the asking rate of paying it back.

atypical

You mean old style loans aren't written off after 25 years:
First loan in or after 2006/07 = 25 year write off
First loan in or before 2005/06 = aged 65 write off

Student Loans Company

vaporate

atypical wrote: »

You mean old style loans aren't written off after 25 years:
First loan in or after 2006/07 = 25 year write off
First loan in or before 2005/06 = aged 65 write off

Student Loans Company

Thank you for clarifying it for me.

atypical

My post was a reply to dmg24, you beat me to it

vaporate

I do find it pointless that the gov charge students for it all. Noone is going to pay their full loan back at a rate between 30 to 60 pound sper month. Barely covers interest.

neas

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Remove £1000 per annum for food and you get £16,500 of unnecessary expenditure.

What a load of rubbish, 16,500 uneccessary expenditure? oO

I did a 4 year course and only used my loan for 3k of living expenses (ACCOMODATION... something which most DFW dont need to pay as they in council housing... students dont get free accomodation you know) per year. I worked my !!! off for my degree and 16 hours a week for 4 years...

With this i managed to get 6k saved in an isa and 12k of debt.

Don't forget these fag packet calculations:

Student Accomodation Cost per year (£3k)
Student Tuition Fee costs per year (£3k)
Food (£1k minimum!)

If they didnt have any life thats still £7k per year. I'd hardly call tuition fees and acoomodation costs unnesseary. These are the main driving factors why university students are NOW facing 22k+ debt instead of 12k debt when tuition fees were £1k fixed a year.

Then when you factor in the following facts:

1. While you are studying your debt is accruing at the rate of RPI (we are lucky atm as this is set at 0% for this year) BUT on my 2nd and 3rd years this was at 3.8% and 4.8% !. so on average your debt goes up by about 4% per year as well.

2. You have to earn over 15k to start paying it back and then its 9%... 4% interest on 20,000 is £800 per year. In order to pay back £800 per year just to break even... you need to earn approx £27k... which most graduates won't do for the first few years.

So what do we have? That 21K will grow by about 2k for the 3 years of study and 3 years after study... if they are lucky to get a good job (picked a good degree).... then it will slice down their earning potential by 9% every time they get a pay rise. Its worth it though as you got a good job.



Im sorry for rant but it sounded ludicrous comparing a DFW board person... who on £4k a year can't be paying the type of rent i'm paying (500 quid per month for a 2 bed private rented flat!)... and prob gets council tax, rent subsidised.

Most of student loan debt is for their digs and tuition fees (approx 80% of it).. the other bit helps then get their beans and their overdrafts help them have a social life. Its pretty hard to spend 3k overdraft on 1.50 pints at a student union (yep you'd need to drink 2000 pints.. or go out 330 times ... 100 times a year).

Absinthe_Fairy

Got to agree with neas here. My student debt of around £12,000 (I was under the old-style loan system, luckily) was all spent on accommodation. Basically my loan covered rent and that was it. The money from my part-time job covered absolutely everything else - bills, food, clothes and nights out, etc.

Now, when students have to take out tuition fee loans, that's an extra £9,000 for a three year course, so of course they're going to come out with debts of over £20,000. It's pretty much unavoidable unless you have rich parents (or are a mature student with savings).

Lokolo

Neas. what absoluste cobs wallop!

My accomondation was £2200.

1) The reason most students get into such debt is because they don't get jobs! I earnt £2000 in the summer, which almost pays for my accomodnation. I also had a job xmas which gave me another £500, and if I had a job during term time I would have earnt even more. This in itself would have paid for most things.

2) 4% on average!? Laughable. Have you looked the interest rate now!?

3) You complain about council tax being subsidised for DFWs? Students get it free!

4) DFW is £4k for numerous people, not just 1 person. A student spending X amount when £4k can be for 2 people.

5) £1.50 pints. Because pints are £1.50 all week? Wow, in your own little world there. I would spend £30-40 on a night out. There are things called taxis, cheesey chips/kebabs plus takeaways! I know plenty of students who waste their money on these! They are uncessary spends.

6) Then theres going home, a lot of students go home. They don't need to, another unessasry spend.

---

Students can easily have their debts cut in half if they planned everything. I plan everything and I am on top of the world. Half my housemates last year maxed out their overdrafts. Bare in mind, we got the same loans, paid same for accomondation. I get financial help from family (which is a lot), but that doesn't mean I'm not frugal.

Now that I am working (and not getting financial help!), but I am still a student, one of my housemates is £2k into his overdraft still (been working for 3 months now, of which we got a £2k joining bonus!), because all he does is spend. I've managed to save almost £3000 so far since starting to work.

If students understood work and debt, they might do more to stop themselves.

Absinthe_Fairy

Lokolo wrote: »

Neas. what absoluste cobs wallop!

My accomondation was £2200.

1) The reason most students get into such debt is because they don't get jobs!

I get financial help from family (which is a lot), but that doesn't mean I'm not frugal.

£2200 for accommodation - wow, where did you go to uni? Mine was nowhere near that cheap!

As neab and I pointed out, it's perfectly possible to accumulate large amounts of debt (especially under the new system) for fees and accommodation.

I had jobs - worked full-time in the summer before uni, then part-time all the way through second and third years. I didn't even go home in the holidays, because I was working instead. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have just got into more debt. I would have had to drop out of uni.

Also, not everyone has parental support. My parents bought loads of stuff for me starting uni (bedding, kitchen stuff, etc.) but during my course could only afford to give me the odd tenner when they came to visit (which was two or three times a year).

I'd like to know how my debt could have been avoided!

I guess it's the same for a lot of students.

Lokolo

Absinthe_Fairy wrote: »

£2200 for accommodation - wow, where did you go to uni? Mine was nowhere near that cheap!

As neab and I pointed out, it's perfectly possible to accumulate large amounts of debt (especially under the new system) for fees and accommodation.

I had jobs - worked full-time in the summer before uni, then part-time all the way through second and third years. I didn't even go home in the holidays, because I was working instead. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have just got into more debt. I would have had to drop out of uni.

Also, not everyone has parental support. My parents bought loads of stuff for me starting uni (bedding, kitchen stuff, etc.) but during my course could only afford to give me the odd tenner when they came to visit (which was two or three times a year).

I'd like to know how my debt could have been avoided!

I guess it's the same for a lot of students.

Haha yes I quite lucky in that respect. I lived in Stafford, which is very cheap!

But my friend in Soton pays around double mine :eek::eek: and my ex OH is paying £7500 for accomondation in London.

I'm not saying I'm not lucky, but I know a lot of people out there who do spend an awful lot on crap which is why I can see how the averages are very high. But I do think a LOT of people can cut down.

In my house (there are 5 of us), I am the only one who keeps a record of what I spend. My friend (the one in soton), also does the same, and he also gets financial help from his parents (he gets a lot more than me too), and is being asked by his other housemates for him to help them control their spending(!!!!) as they had maxed out their overdrafts and are coming back for their final year, still in overdraft! Its crazy.

Not saying that its easy to come out of uni debt free, but its not impossible.