A bit of a vent..

MusicalLawyer

I'm just having a bit of a rant here really, as I find it best to get things off my chest.

I'm almost finished paying off my debts (around £850 left). I was SO silly in 2010 when I lost my job and was on JSA and was about 21. Ended up with FOUR defaults in Sept, Oct, Nov and Dec of 2010! Though they're the only defaults on my credit file now.

I got in to University in 2011 studying Law, and now have a good part time job. I want so much to become a solicitor. I have to complete a Legal Practice Course in 2013 - going to do it part time over 2 years so I can work full time whilst doing it. The only thing is that the fee's are extortionate - £13,600 for 2012! They were £12,500 in 2011, so am assume they'll be approx £14,700 for my year - eek!

I have a savings plan, whereby I'm aiming to save £2,000 myself (£100 every 4 weeks). I'm also getting a lump sum in October 2012 of £3000. So I will have £5,000 saved up. This is going in to my new savings account which has 2.75% annual interest rate. So I have no idea how much I will have with interest added.

I will most probably need to get a Career Development Loan, however I really don't think I'll be accepted in August 2013, when I have 4 defaults hanging over my head! Even though I only need about £6,000 and I have a student account with the bank I would go with - Barclays.

I am going to try so hard to ask the lenders to remove the defaults, as it is going to be affecting my whole future career. I have changed since my borrowing in 2010 and won't be taking any credit out in the future from now on, bar a mortgage in around 10 years time!

I come from a single parent, working class family. My mother is on ESA benefit currently as she has cancer - clearly not from a wealthy family! I can't get most of the grants / bursaries out there as none of them seem to be for White, British students.

There are firms out there who sponsor students, however this is if they take up a training contract with the firm. I am not going to be starting one of these until at least 2015, and can not start applying for those until around Nov 2013 - by then it'l be too late! Plus these sponsorships are SO hard to get, as most students apply for these firms.

I am getting so disheartened with this as I see no way being able to pay these fee's and therefore being able to work within the career I want most

Poosmate

Is a Cereer Development Loan the same as a Student Loan? If not, could you get a Student Loan? And don't you have to start paying it back once you are working and on £21k plus?

Sorry I don't really know anything about education funding.

Poo

MusicalLawyer

A Student Loan is only for first time degree's - which is what I currently get now, whilst I'm studying for my Law degree.

The course I am going to be doing is a professional course at Postgraduate level, and is self funded.
The Career Development Loan is paid straight to my place of study for the fee's, but the government pay the interest on the loan whilst I am studying. I then start to make payments a month after I finish my professional course.

It is a little like a personal loan in a way, just with the government paying the interest whilst I study, and then I make the repayments when the course finishes.

elaine12022

Is it being a solicitor that you want or to work in the law? Are there other options? (eg legal executive course). Is it worth having getting into so much debt for when there's no guarantee of a decent job at the end of it? (I'm not clear from your post whether you have a legal related job or not).

Are the fees you quote for the whole course or for a year? It doies sound an awful lot :eek:

MusicalLawyer

The fee's stated are for the whole course, which is either 1 year full time or 2 years part time.

I want to be a Solicitor.
I currently work in Sainsbury's whilst studying for my Law degree.

My plan is to find a full time office job within a law firm after my degree. Although I will be applying for any full time office work. There are plenty of those jobs around as I live very close to London and have excellent transport links.

The payments on the loan would be around £130 per month, which I will be able to afford in full time employment after my professional course finishes.

I am currently volunteering for a Law Centre, doing admin work for them. It also doubles up as work experience too. I have 2 work experience placements lined up which will greatly assist me in getting a job in a law firm. As lots of students that are going in to Law don't try to get work experience.

J4mes

Is there any chance of paying for the course over the duration of the course?? £14k over 2 years doesn't seem as bad, would you be keeping your P/T job?

chevalier

What about deferring for a year, so that you have more saved up? Is that an option.
chev

MusicalLawyer

The course does have a payment plan, speed out over 8 payments.
The repayments are something in the region of £3k, £2k, £2k, £2k, £1k, £1, £1k, £1k - this is spread over the 2 years but the repayments are something like 2 months apart. (This is based on the 2012 fee's)

I will have saved money for the next 20 months for the first 2 payments, which would be due in the August and October. The next payments are due in the Feb and April, and just would not be able to save £4k in that time frame.

I suppose I could see about paying a higher first payment of the £5,000 I would have saved up, and then see if they would allow smaller payments for the next 7.

I currently only work part time as I'm in Uni still however I've recently started selling something on eBay which gets a small income of about £50pm. So anything from that will go in to the savings for this also.

I will be looking for full time employment when my degree ends - April 2013 - be that in Office work, or changing my current contract to full time.

It is possible to study the course in 2 parts. As the course consists of 2 stages. The first stage is still £8,000 on it's own though.

wannabee_in_credit

My sister is a PhD student in Psychology. I don't know if it might be worth you looking into, but her university has a grant/fund available to help with fee payment. She's into her 3rd year of her PhD (part time) and has managed to get the grant every year and not paid fees at all. She also does a bit of VL work in her department to top up the finances.
So it might be worth speaking to your course provider. There's loads available that people don't often find out about.

MusicalLawyer

I've researched the Law career I want and I've found an alternative route - ILEX Graduate Fast Track Course.

The course fee's are only £2k for 2012 - and I'll be saving more than double that anyway so I can more than afford it, and it means I won't have any debt!

It also means I'll get to go in to employment sooner, though will have to work for a few years before I will be qualified - but at least I'll be working and earning!

beadgirl87

Well done on finding that other route, it sounds very promising and I hope you do well.
I was going to post about the Career Development Loans as I have expereince of them. When I applied I was £1800 overdrawn and had £1000 on my credit card, having just completed my third year of uni, they gave the loan I needed of £7500 this was in 2009. Also I had various friends, also not in the best financial situations who got the loans fine. I don't know about defaults though. Also it never showed up on my experian credit file, but I did not check equifax, so it may be on there.
the biggest issue is that the repayments start 1 month after your course ends, so you have to move very quickly to be able to start paying it back.