Post Grad loans

Ingela

I'm probably going back to uni in september and so unfortunately need to borrow money to do this. At the moment the best options seem to be either a career development loan or just a graduate loan for further study.

i was wondering if anyone had any specific experiences of which is best, or which banks to avoid even?

im terrified of adding to my debt, so want to make sure i do it in the most sensible way possible!

Storm

Career Development Loans don't have to be paid back until the month after you finish your course, whereas graduate loans are re-paid starting almost immediately. CDLs also are stricter I believe on the amount of interest they're allowed to charge, so I would always go for one of these.

What sort of course are you looking to do however? There are sometimes bursaries available or funding through charities etc, so it's worth checking what you can get first.

If you're studying at uni you'll be able to get a student loan too

Ingela

i cant get a student loan as its a post grad course.

It's a MA in law, its a two year conversion course, with potentially a third year for the LPC.

peb

I looked into this for the LPC; the best option was the Career Development Loan but if i remember correctly the criteria was pretty strict as to which course you could do so I do not know if the MA would be included. One word of warning however; out of 250 starters on my p/t llb 30 graduated; none got a training contract. I've gone down the FILEX route as it is more flexible and I was already working in legal -I couldn't bear spending the money on the LPC. The demand for a training contract is really high and thus try and get your contract before starting on teh course - some employers will offer sponserships. Please forgive me if I am teaching my grandmother to suck eggs but I have seen so many CVs where people have the LPC and no prospect of a firm job. Good luck with the course - like a lot of things law is fun but not necessarily well paid or exciting!

Ingela

yeh i have looked into sponsorship for the ma but its pretty few and far between. for me, its looking like the best option is to pay for the first two years whilst getting as much voluntary work experience as i can and aim for a training contract for the lpc.

Lovin_It

I took out a CDL for a MA course - I would recommend this route over a graduate loan.

For a CDL the government pays your interest while you're studying (interest free until you graduate effectively). Also, it took me 2 or 3 months to find a job after graduating, and the loan repayments only started once I was earning money (you just contact the bank and let them know you haven't started work yet). As far as I can remember, it was still interest free right up until I started work (but someone please correct me if I'm wrong, this was back in 2001/2).

However, loan repayment insurance is automatically included I think (this was Barclays) and the eventual rate might not be very competitive (9% for me at the time from memory). I would still go this route and tart money around once you start work, to keep the 0% going.

Good luck!

Lovin_It

PS Looking at your signature you have a few other debts - consolidation is a dirty word around here, but if you can confirm the CDL is 0% while you study, perhaps ask for enough to include youir interest bearing debts.

Lastly, make sure you ask for enough up-front - it might be harder to go back and ask for more half way through the course.

peb

If you are to do the courses full time I think it will take 2 years? The big firms may be prepared to offer a training contract to be taken up in 2 years time if you have a good first degree? I know people have applied for training contracts before starting the LPC part time and it worked for them. As I say good luck whatever you decide to to.

Ingela

Thanks everyone, i have been looking into this further, and the cdl maximum amount is £8k, the fees at the moment for my course are £5k over the two years, so i'm really unsure whether this would be enough for me to live on?

i think i might need to go for the graduate loan, and Natwest offer up to £25k for my kind of course. It's not the most competitive loan rate, but as has been said, i can move it around when i finally graduate (again!). the new problem is that i've just moved my main bank account away from natwest, is this likely to be a problem??