paying off student loans

baliobo

My daughter is in her first year at university and has taken a loan for fees and maintenance as she was working too hard for her A levels last year to really worry about other options.

I am now trying to decide whether she should continue to take the full loan for the rest of her course - I believe you get a chance to re-apply every year. She is studying for a 4 year masters with hopefully good salary prospects and it may be in her interests for me to pay some of it upfront or for her to pay it off early.

What I can't work out from the govt web site is how you can pay off the loan in advance of the 30 year salary deduction. There seems to be no option for this if your loan was taken after 2012. Does anyone know whether it is possible and how you do it. Do I have to phone student finance and find out?

Advice please

Thanks

curiosity101

I can't help you regarding early payments but this website may be of use:

http://www.studentloanrepayment.co.uk/portal/page?_pageid=93,3866794&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

However if she has only just started then once she's finished she will be repaying under Plan 2. That is:

9% on any gross earnings over £21,000

So for example, if I were on plan 2 then of my £22,000pa pay I would be paying back £7.50 per month to student loans.
This is only my personal opinion but the idea of always paying back such a small percentage of my income (9% of anything over 21k) really doesn't worry me...

My advice would be to take the full loan and focus on university and living now, not the very small percentage she will be paying back in the future and/or balancing university with working a lot of hours in a part time job. I know plenty of people who worked through uni, but not a 'livable' amount, it was only a supplementary income.