Masters / Career Development Loans

catrin.eira

I'm starting my masters course in September, but obviously can't get a loan from the SLC. What sort of things should I be thinking about asking the banks and does anyone have any they recommend?

MusicalLawyer

Where and what are you going to study?

You should look on their website about funding options, as many offer scholarships, and bursaries etc.
Here is some info on scholarships - http://www.postgrad.com/editorial/uk_financial_aid/

You MAY be able to get a Career Development Loan, but that's only for up to £10,000. I know that you can get them for some courses.

Failing that you could get a Graduate Loan - though you won't get much of a repayment holiday.

Or you could just work whilst doing your masters and pay in instalments (it's what a couple of people at work are doing)

dizzyrascal

The Career Development Loan will need repaying as soon as you complete the course so you would be looking at a repayment figure of about approx £250 per month if you borrow the whole £10,000. You need to think of it like an ordinary bank loan.
If you decide to self-fund you can ask your university when the payments are due so you might be able to spread the costs over the year.
In other words, if they allow you to pay the fees in 3 instalments (and your fees are say £4,500 as an example) then you will have to pay 3 instalments of £1,500 in October, February and May. It depends on your university but they may ask for 2 instalments based on the 2 semester start dates.
This won't cover your living costs but it might help your long term budgeting if you do have to self-fund.
When you sign up to your TPG course you will be agreeing to pay the fees. Also, if you do take the CDL you need to be confident that you will have the income to start the repayments when the course finishes.

catrin.eira

Studying a taught masters at Cardiff Uni, unfortunately with no relevant scholarships or bursaries, and as it's full time I have no chance of working whilst I study - or at least not enough to pay my loan.

Dunroamin

catrin.eira wrote: »

Studying a taught masters at Cardiff Uni, unfortunately with no relevant scholarships or bursaries, and as it's full time I have no chance of working whilst I study - or at least not enough to pay my loan.

You don't make any repayments on a CDL until after your course is finished.

itsybitsygoth

Just thought I'd chime in that if you don't get a job straight away after finishing your course you can apply to defer your repayments for a maximum of 17 months as long as you're claiming benefits

MusicalLawyer

itsybitsygoth wrote: »

Just thought I'd chime in that if you don't get a job straight away after finishing your course you can apply to defer your repayments for a maximum of 17 months as long as you're claiming benefits

Is this the case for all banks that do the CDL?

David333

Does anyone know how easy it is to get a Career Development Loan?

I applied for a credit card a couple of weeks ago and got rejected. I don't have any debts although I do have quite a few credit cards in my wallet so I wondered if it was that available credit which was the problem.

Anyway, I am beginning a Masters in September so a Career Development Loan would be very helpful! Do they give them to anybody?!

dizzyrascal

David333 wrote: »

Does anyone know how easy it is to get a Career Development Loan?

I applied for a credit card a couple of weeks ago and got rejected. I don't have any debts although I do have quite a few credit cards in my wallet so I wondered if it was that available credit which was the problem.

Anyway, I am beginning a Masters in September so a Career Development Loan would be very helpful! Do they give them to anybody?!

It is a bank loan although the checks are not as strict as a normal bank loan but if you have just been rejected for credit that might affect the outcome. The only way to find out is to try for one.
Many applicants do get turned down, something that the universities won't tell you.
How were you going to fund the course before you found out about the CDL?

itsybitsygoth

MusicalLawyer wrote: »

Is this the case for all banks that do the CDL?

As far as I am aware yes, I'm not sure if there's any/much difference between how to apply for a deferment but I'm pretty certain that both Co-op and Barclays follow the same guidelines since they are both governed by the Skills Funding Agency.

David333 wrote: »

Does anyone know how easy it is to get a Career Development Loan?

Anyway, I am beginning a Masters in September so a Career Development Loan would be very helpful! Do they give them to anybody?!

With regard to applying for one, I had a fair bit of debt when I applied for mine- student overdraft, credit card, second overdraft but I was accepted. There is a lot more lenience from the banks with regard to CDL applications because they are covered by an indemnity. In other words, if you don't pay your loan and it defaults the banks claim the money back from the government. It's pretty much win-win for them so they are more inclined to offer you credit.

The main reasons for declining applications are usually to do with the training provider not being registered with the SFA or customers failing to read the info before applying. Things like you can only apply for 80% of your course fees (though there are exceptions to this) tends to be skipped over, people apply for the full amount and then the application gets rejected because the numbers don't add up. If you have adverse information on your credit file, its usually an automatic decline as well.

dizzyrascal

itsybitsygoth wrote: »

With regard to applying for one, I had a fair bit of debt when I applied for mine- student overdraft, credit card, second overdraft but I was accepted. There is a lot more lenience from the banks with regard to CDL applications because they are covered by an indemnity. In other words, if you don't pay your loan and it defaults the banks claim the money back from the government. It's pretty much win-win for them so they are more inclined to offer you credit.

The main reasons for declining applications are usually to do with the training provider not being registered with the SFA or customers failing to read the info before applying. Things like you can only apply for 80% of your course fees (though there are exceptions to this) tends to be skipped over, people apply for the full amount and then the application gets rejected because the numbers don't add up. If you have adverse information on your credit file, its usually an automatic decline as well.

I'm told that they are a lot stricter with their criteria now and are following general bank guidelines. They do a proper credit check now which they didn't before. They just checked for address etc.

Although you may have had a lot of debts, as long as you were paying them your credit file would look ok. If you had been turned down for credit as david333 has then this might throw up a problem on the check. Also any late payments, overdraft issues etc. would not help
You can only apply for a CDL 6 weeks before the course starts so as long as the 6 months before applying looked reasonable then you might pass the check