Should I Pay My Student Loan

dreavi

Blobby8 wrote: »

Three years, that sounds like s/he doesnt want to pay, morally, having had the product it should be paid for in the manner agreed.



And just who is going to pick up the tab if the money isnt repaid?

Magic money again is it ?

As Clapton said "chavs and benefits cheats all".

OP (I assume) is benefitting from their education, their lack of morals is not surprising.

True but the manner agreed is to inform your HR department and then the SLC takes ten% of everything over £15,000. he has done that and they havent done anything.

Sure he can try again but lumping him in with benefit cheats seems a step too far. Regardless of his student loan, he is working which means paying taxes, so the taxpayers are hardly going to make a loss on him.

The SLC are notoriously crap at admin, but they will get him everntually.

Stuart_W

k984942 wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice all.

I do earn over 15k a year so I definitely should be paying back my student loan. However, I have to admit that I am really in no hurry to pay it back as I'm still fairly junior in my career and I'm not keen on taking the monthly hit on my pay. I'm sure my salary will increase faster than the loan will inflate so I would rather pay it off later when my income is better.

The Student Loans Company are extremely slow - so if an address change has also taken place, this will further add to their inability to do their job properly. They take ages, and every time I've attempted to contact them it just got me nowhere or just took ages to sort basic stuff out. I remember getting a letter confirming change of address, and 9 months later they wrote to my old address. Three months after that they wrote to my parents' address, which I'd moved out of 6 years earlier. Brilliant! ( :wall:)

I'd carry on exactly as you are - one month in the next year or so a deduction will suddenly appear. When my wife and I applied for our mortgage five years ago, our student loans made no difference to the amount we could borrow (have no idea if this is usual or the case now). We've overpaid our mortgage as a preference to repaying our student loans. This fits with Martin's advice.

pjcox2005

I went out for a really nice meal last night, asked for the bill but waiter forgot as he was distracted by another customer, figure I did everything I possibly could so I walked out with out paying....that's fine isn't it?

antonia1

k984942 wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice all.

I do earn over 15k a year so I definitely should be paying back my student loan. However, I have to admit that I am really in no hurry to pay it back as I'm still fairly junior in my career and I'm not keen on taking the monthly hit on my pay. I'm sure my salary will increase faster than the loan will inflate so I would rather pay it off later when my income is better.

I have moved house so perhaps the student loans people have been writing to me. I thought about calling them to find out whats what but I worried that that would start the ball rolling on me repaying! Essentially I'm enjoying the holiday from repaying but am worried that this might come back to bite me!

Please note that there are hundreds of thousands of recent graduates starting their career AND paying off their student loans, because that is what we agreed to do when we took the loan. The SLC didn't automatically start taking my repayments, so I called HR, HMRC and SLC and they started the next month. I could have done with the extra £80 per month, but paying it off as agreed was they right thing to do.

To all other posters, please don't assume that all young people try to shirk their responsibilities!

telboyo

Of course it is- Also if he is unable to repeat the EXACT words you used when you ordered the food you don't need to pay. Regardless of the fact that you enjoyed the meal and had no complaint at the time of eating- now the time to pay has arrived just say you were mis-sold the the grind of black pepper from the big wooden grinder and the whole bill will be written off.

On a more serious note it is much better to pay off the student loan when you are younger and earning less because as you get older and earn more there is a tendency to have more important outgoings such mortgages children etc. Not just beer x-box games and mobile phones.
The reality of life is that you get the most "pocket" money whilst you are a student.

dave82_2

A word of warning on this from personal experiance.

I started a new job afer a period of self employment where they forgot to apply the code for my first 3 months even though I told payroll several times. They said my last P45 didn't have that box ticked.

After three months they started taking payments. I tought great it was nice to have a 3 month holiday.

I then came to fill out my tax return which I do as I have been self employeed and guess what they made me pay the 3 months missed! You can't lie about elagability to be repaying student loans on a tax return.

So be warned if you are ever asked to fill out a tax return or tax employment history they may ask you to repay the amount missed.

Another thing to consider is that you will be paying interest on the 3 years missed and altough at the moment that is next to nothing which makes it a good time to be paying it off!

It does sound like you have tried to put this right but I think you might need to chase the SLC and HRMC rather than your HR department as they just tick a box once they are told to.

dave82_2

"No back dating is possible" this is not true! I filled out a tax return and HRMC took the months I had missed even though the tax return was for full time employment. I just transfered what was on my P60 onto my tax return I hadn't done any self employed work in that tax year.

From my 2007/08 tax return

Fiddlestick

k984942 wrote: »

After graudating I got a job and student loan repayments were taken from my salary. When I changed jobs I informed my new HR department about my loan but no deductions have been taken even though I earn over the threshold.

The responsibility to ensure that the deductions take place is yours.

Get back onto the HR department.

Should I be contacting them to find out what's going on or am I looking a gift horse in the mouth here and should keep my mouth shut!

Well I guess you could keep your mouth shut, but the interest is still going to be accruing and the money is still going to be owed...

I'm a bit worried about being fined etc but I heard somewhere that since I told my employer I should be repaying the loan (I have this in writing), they will pursue the outstanding payments from them.

Absolutely not.

You must tell the employer that the repayments are due yes, but it's YOUR responsibility to ensure that they actually make the deductions and if they don't it is YOU that gets fined and YOU that will be asked to make all the repayments in one go.

Get it sorted out pronto.

k984942

Thanks for all the replies everyone. I should have known we'd have one or two who'd take my question as being a way to get out of what I owe. Let me make it clear - I borrowed and spent the money so I do owe it back. I am in no way trying to get away with never paying it, but simply trying to differ the payment until I'm more financially able to afford it. Those getting on their high horse about me somehow robbing the tax payer would do well to remember that every month I don't pay the tax payer is earning more interest than they would be if I was!

Apples2

k984942 wrote: »

but simply trying to differ the payment until I'm more financially able to afford it.

I can absolutely categorically assure you that every single pay rise you ever receive will not be enough to make you think, "I'll give up this pay rise and repay my Student Loan".

I acknowledge your sentiment, but at what Salary are you going to decide to repay it?

telboyo got it right in his reply, you will NEVER have more free money in your pocket than you have right now, as time goes by, your commitments increase leaving you with less each time you go up the ladder.