Living Cost Student Loans

SarahGold44

I am about to start University and have applied for the fees student loan. I don't know if I should take the living costs student loan. My dad is helping me out monthly and I also work and my mum is paying my accommodation. Should I still take the loan even though I don't need it? If I do am how do I pay this back? Is it through my salary when I start earning over £21k? At what percentage will I be paying back and does it work the same way as the fees loan, 30 years and then that's it?

toberemembered

I'm in a similar position. As far as I can tell it adds to the tuition fee loan and works the same way, i.e 30 years, starting at 6.6% interest, start paying 9% on earnings over £21000 paye/£15000 self employed.

This page had some useful ways of looking at it
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/should-i-get-student-loan

The impression I get is that its better to take the loan and put your existing savings and subsequent earnings in a high interest account while at uni. This way you can always pay it off with your savings at the end if you feel this makes sense and if you decide not to you will be much better off financially coming out of uni than if you hadn't taken it.

It also seems to depend on the kind of wages you can expect for a graduate job in your field.

Hope this has helped!

atypical

You're being offered £10k or so:
1) You might never repay any of it or any interest.
2) You might have to repay only a part of it.
3) You might have to repay all of it and interest, but if it looks like that's going to happen you can repay the money and only pay X years worth of interest.

The combined probability of the first two seems more likely than the third option. No commercial provider would offer such attractive terms.