Outlook on Student Loans?

Stroppypops

Also, just checked and I actually pay £200 pcm not £180. Averages out at £241 pcm over the year.

ShootForTheMoon

Idiophreak wrote: »

I never worried about it...but as my wages increased over the years, I *was* aware of a decent chunk of cash vanishing each month...In the end, clearing it gave me the equivalent of a 6k pay rise, which was much appreciated...so I can understand why some people want to get to that stage ASAP.

Same here - I paid off my student loan as soon as I was able to do so... I definitely saw it as part of the bigger picture, and being truly "debt free" to me meant paying it off...
I now pay the £200+ that was going towards my loan into a savings account, as I never missed it coming out of my pay...

There is no massive financial benefit to having it cleared, but for me, psychologically, it was a huge weight lifted and I am enjoying a few years of being completely debt-free before committing myself to a mortgage!

Guess it's all a matter of personal preference - OH is ignoring hers as she earns a fair bit less and payments are so negligible it makes no odds!!

thecassman86

Stroppypops wrote: »

You don't need to work it out. Just go to studentloanrepayment.co.uk enter your details and it will bring all your details up. It also has a calculator to work out where it stands. I fill in mine every month and it saves your details.

Ahh, of course, never thought about the website. Cheers, will look at that. More through interest really; not going to do much with it

FinanciallyUnsavvy

Wow - a lot of you are paying VERY hefty monthly payments! The chance of me ever earning an amount high enough to mean I'd be paying such a chunk is slim to none, but if that was the case I could certainly see the benefit in clearing it ASAP. But for the sake of my £11 a month.. naah, I'll not bother! :rotfl:

thecassman86

Perhaps when i'm totally debt free and it's my only "debt" outgoing then i'll consider making overpayments to get rid of it. But, even then, i have a mortgage which isn't going to end until long after my SL so any spare cash i have each month would be better spent on that. If i rented though and had no CC's and loans then i probably would consider over-payments to it. I certainly wouldn't pay it off with another form of credit though - i think that's a very foolish idea.

therixonator

I finished uni 2001 with 11.5k and paid the last third back in 2006 with a bonus I got that year. It made no financial sense to do this but the monthly payments had got up to £150 a month as my career was going well, and it is 9% of everything you earn over 15k, and that kept on annoying me. Bonuses, gym allowances, overtime, everything gets hit. I also had virtually no prospect of not paying it all back anyway being young and earning well so I just paid it and enjoyed the extra monthly income.

For my OH though she still has about £6k to go and when she goes part time in a few months her payments will drop to £15 a month. Me might start a family soon too and I would be the one still working so there is a chance that she'll never pay back the full amount. So for her, we're definitely not paying hers back.

So there's 2 differing scenarios and with 2 different outcomes and both make sense to me.
Paying it back with a bank loan is financial suicide though. A little Martin pixie dies each time someone does that! :A

NinjaSavingKat

I would have to say it's still debt. You owe someone else money, however small the interest it's still debt. I never overpayed mine though but would never have classed myself as debt free without it being cleared first..

bsms1147

I graduated with near £40k of student loan. The way it comes out of my wage though, I don't treat it like a normal loan (because it isn't) and I don't consider myself in debt because of it. At 1.5% interest it also makes no sense paying any more towards it than necessary as I can earn ~3% on savings.

VFR-Rider

I was "lucky" enough to be one of the higher payers. A normal month saw just shy of £500 being taken every month (I don't even want to mentioned bonus month).

Fair enough I had a high wage and had to pay it back, but in order to maintain that position my living expenses increased as well... leaving me with less disposable than I thought reasonable.

For me I would have been significantly better off being able to defer until I'd bought my house rather than renting etc. but at least it was gone quickly (iirc a bit under 4 years from graduating).

Idiophreak

NinjaSavingKat wrote: »

I would have to say it's still debt. You owe someone else money, however small the interest it's still debt. I never overpayed mine though but would never have classed myself as debt free without it being cleared first..

I'm not sure I count the student loan as debt by a normal definition. It has no fixed repayment schedule, it's got no known total amount payable, it's taken from your pay and the amount you pay in the first place is not related to how many of the facilities you use. And the more you earn, the more you pay.

All of that said, it's far more akin to an additional tax than it is a loan.