Able to pay course fee's, living costs but still take loan, grant.

DannyWhoWorks

I am a student at University and I get the usual loans, grants etc. I also am lucky enough to have a little bit in savings.

I was talking to a friend who claimed I was 'stupid' for getting the loans and course fee's paid for as I was able to pay them.

Is this true? I always thought the sensible thing to do was take the loans and grants?

Thanks for any advice.

tom717

Why would it be stupid to take the grant, you don't pay that back.

As for the loan, you will never again be able to borrow on such favourable terms. Whilst the interest on your savings might not beat the interest on your loan, there is still the fact that if you've saved 10k, that's 10k less that you need to borrow for a mortgage down the line.

Lokolo

Grant is free money and I am pretty sure you can't just take the grant without the loan (although not sure if there is anything stopping you taking the loan and repaying straight away, apart from additional repayment costs)

Beachview_2

You can take the grant without the loan

Fire_Fox

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loans-tuition-fees-changes
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-finance
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loans-repay

securityguy

You'll never be able to borrow money on such favourable terms (particular the fact that the repayments are linked to your income, rather than a fixed repayment).

If you have so much money that you would never have to borrow money ever again in your life, and plan to buy cars, houses and whatever all for cash from your massive endowment, then a student loan might be worth avoiding. But it would be mad to spend £x000 on university fees and then later borrow £x000 more on your mortgage than you otherwise would have done, because mortgages are much less attractive and than student loans.

If your only debt is a student loan, repay it. But if you have any other debt, it's almost certainly on less favourable terms.