Who would give an 18 year old a loan for £1k? (Employed part time)

notafan

If you've got some saved and your 1k short no idea what your planning to buy.

Couple of suggestions if you really do need this bit of kit...

Wait until you get your student overdraft, it'll be 0% for the time your at Uni and some at the end (upto 5/6 years in some cases).

Get a 0% credit card and put it on that.

Look for 0% for 12 months or more at some of the big retailers but repay before the interest kicks in cause its very expensive otherwise.

If your honest though is it something you need or is it more that you want it?

You can get a laptop that'll do all Uni related stuff word, internet, music etc for a couple of hundred quid. The only reason I can see you needing something else is if your on a specialist design course or something that needs some heavy graphics programme or something. If that is the case your Uni will have loads of computers available to do that sort of work so it probably isn't necessary to buy such an expensive computer just for the limited use you'd get from it (even the more practical courses still have theory). Also if its is design/tech stuff you can get a Mac for under 1K that'll do that. If your still insisting you need something that has that much spec then get a Desktop - you pay more for a laptop because the smaller the parts are the more expensive it is. Could even get a mac mini which is easy to carry about for when it needs to go home etc.

I'd be wary of spending more then then 1k on a laptop which at uni is at a greater risk of being stolen, is easily damaged and will be out of date before you start uni if you buy it now.

opinions4u

Spend nothing for a few weeks and save up for it.

charlax

Just being practical can be of help, why would you engage yourself in a situation that could be a trouble in a long run. Just buy a laptop that you can afford without having a loan..

JasX

moneyballs2 wrote: »

am starting a new job in a few weeks which pays about £140 a week

First off: Start your new job, wait 4 weeks and you'll have £560.

moneyballs2 wrote: »

I was thinking of buying a cheap one for the time being, but that works out to be much more expensive in the long run

No it doesn't, also have you factored into your 'more expensive' calculation paying extortionate interest charges on a 1k commercial rates loan, risks of being lumbered with it should you lose your job or suffer some other financial mishap, also how it will impact your uni lifestyle going INTO uni with debt

moneyballs2 wrote: »

I have some money saved up, but am short about £1k

.

you are substantially overbudgeting, worst case stat small and selectively upgrade/add non-critical bits as you go, also yu say your old PC has 'died' ? depending on exactly how old it was (presumably not that old if you cannot live without the processing power of a £1k machine) is there much of it that can be re-used?

So things to budget for IMMEDIATELY:

Processor to suit your needs
Motherboard
SOME ram but not necessarily and excessive amount (4-8GB max)

OPTIONAL items you may need depending on what you can re-use from your dead machine:

Case
PSU
Hard drive
Optical drive
floppy drive
Graphics card (if on a budged go with a £20 basic one for now and save up for the high end £300 one, you'll then have a spare/test one).
Windows License (cut price student edition?)

Things to defer for now and add later as/when you can afford them

Sound Card.
More ram
Blu-ray / other OTT optical drive
new monitor
new keyboard/mouse
further hard drives
webcam / printer / other fancy non-essential peripherials

Places to check out other than the 'usual' component websites (ie Amazon, ebuyer, scan etc) :

http://www.novatech.co.uk-usually has reasonable offers on 'bare bones' bundles of stuff in the 'essential/immediately' needed category

Finally if you really know nothing about a computer and need one bought/put together for you:

http://www.dinopc.com/ (buy on a credit card for s75 protection, or have someone do that for you


Final final point only sensible lace to look for a loan for an 18yo ---> ask your parents

alexlyne

Last year my computer died. I replaced the mainboard,processor and ram. Spent £200 and got a 2.5Ghz quad core amd, am3 mobo (with usb3 and sata6) and 4gb of ram.

If you need more, another £50 will get a graphics card (you only need more if you're a gamer), £150 for a 128gb SSD which will improve speed, and £60 for a decent PSU, which is generally the cause of PC failures.

The other bits (case, optical drive, HDDs) can be salavaged from your old rig.

So top whack, spend £450.

And, ask your course administrator what's required as a home PC. If they tell you you need a clear case with blue neon lights, water cooled processor and glowing cables, then ask yourself if it's the right course!


Oh and as for the original question... getting into debt before university is a VERY BAD IDEA! As someone who's been there (uni, not in debt), you don't earn an awful lot whilst at uni. Oh, and because of that you'll be unlikely to get a loan. It's what the student loan is for.

birkee

Other posts have said it. Don't help people dig themselves into financial holes.

Mojisola

star-fire wrote: »

For 1k stay away from a PC and get yourself a medium range apple mac.

And use your student discount and get an even better deal.

Clive_Woody

Get a cheap computer and spend the rest on beer :beer:


Students these days really have got their priorities mixed up.

You do not go to university to spend the entire time in lectures or stuck in your room playing computer games!!!

Student life is all about beer, parties, women, curry, experiencing new things (not necessarily in that order) all fitted in around the occasional lecture and bit of course work, if you are doing this properly you will have no time to play Ultimate War Doom Part XXV on your super wizzy computer

drbesty

Aria.co.uk do finance on computer bits if you spend over £300, I know you could get an awesome rig for under £1000 these days, maybe not the best use of your cash but I'm not going to judge