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Student loan for the under 17s

Zarma
Zarma Posts: 11 Forumite
Hiya,

I am the father of 12-year old twins and up until this year, my wife & I have been able to support the cost of our children's private education straight out of our salary every month without having to borrow. Unfortunately, in order to help with their cash flow, the school has decided to impose a 3% charge on families paying by monthly standing orders in order to encourage people to pay the school fees upfront or join a school fee plan (with Premium Credit Ltd behind it) who only charges 2.75%. The idea being that the company pays the school up front and the agreement is then between the company and us with the added benefit to repay monthly.

I have been reading a lot of threads and good advice about student loans but have found little about pre-university loans and I was wondering whether there is an alternative means of borrowing out there cheaper than 2.75%.

Any suggestions would be very welcome. :o

Comments

  • DCFC79
    DCFC79 Posts: 40,614 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Duplicate thread posted 12 minutes later here
  • Zarma
    Zarma Posts: 11 Forumite
    Ooops, apologies. I was not sure whether the first one worked and was a tad cheesed off I had to retype it all again. I don't suppose there is an easy way to remove it?
  • DCFC79
    DCFC79 Posts: 40,614 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    There isnt (well you cant yourself), just let it die off. You would have seen it on page 1 with the thread title in bold and blue signifying a new thread.
  • Zarma wrote: »
    Hiya,

    I am the father of 12-year old twins and up until this year, my wife & I have been able to support the cost of our children's private education straight out of our salary every month without having to borrow. Unfortunately, in order to help with their cash flow, the school has decided to impose a 3% charge on families paying by monthly standing orders in order to encourage people to pay the school fees upfront or join a school fee plan (with Premium Credit Ltd behind it) who only charges 2.75%. The idea being that the company pays the school up front and the agreement is then between the company and us with the added benefit to repay monthly.

    I have been reading a lot of threads and good advice about student loans but have found little about pre-university loans and I was wondering whether there is an alternative means of borrowing out there cheaper than 2.75%.

    Any suggestions would be very welcome. :o

    So, you want a loan for probably around £20k, to be paid back in less than a year at less than 2.75% APR? Good luck with that!

    As someone suggested on your other thread, can you pay on 0% for purchases credit card. If you can, make sure they don't add a surcharge, which could be up to 5%.

    I know you want the best for your kids, but if the extra £500-600 that the interest will cost you (on £20k?) puts you over the edge of affordability, then maybe you should re-think sending your kids to that particular school...

    Also, I assume that this will be a charge placed every year? Is there anyway that you can save some extra this year to allow payment of at least one of the fees in full upfront next year? Or maybe for the year after that? You would only need to save up extra until you can afford a payment upfront, then you can save during the year for the next. As they are 12, I assume they will be at that school for the next 4 years, maybe 6.
    Santander Loan [STRIKE]£3003[/STRIKE] £2100
    AA Credit Card [STRIKE]£3148[/STRIKE] £2676
    Natwest OD [STRIKE]£1500[/STRIKE] £1370
    Cahoot OD [STRIKE]£1000 [/STRIKE]£650
    Capital One Card [STRIKE]£641[/STRIKE] £400
    Total [STRIKE](Jan 12)[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]£9546 [/STRIKE] £7196 (Now)
  • In school we used to get, if i remember correctly its called isa where kids with parents who are either self employed or were earning under 25k i think it was would get £30 a week. Im not sure if they stopped it because there were people in my year who had parents who were self employed business men or women who were earning over 100,000 but still their kids were getting £30 a week so if they haven't stopped it maybe look into it for your children, if the government still does it they could get £30 each, no charge to you from the time they start secondary school.

    ema was only for years 12 and 13 i.e 17 and 18 year olds and has been all but abolished
    and no kids whos parents who earned 100k(even self employed)got a penny
  • If you have to borrow for this year's school fees, how will you manage next year? Or am I missing something?
  • Zarma
    Zarma Posts: 11 Forumite
    If you have to borrow for this year's school fees, how will you manage next year? Or am I missing something?

    We can afford to pay the school fees by the end of the school year, we just cannot pay all the funds at once. We usually finish paying in August. Comes September and we start from scratch again.
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