Student loans are toxic! Avoid at all costs!

ericctheking

Please view the Erudio student loans thread to see how getting a student loan is like being conned.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4923210
You are signing away your future if you take one of these toxic loans.
Be very careful!

agrinnall

So how do you suggest that students fund their time at university? Sell a few unwanted body parts? Sex trade? Drug mule during their gap year?

ericctheking

There used to be these things called grants and university was free. It was a perfect system.
Now vice-chancellors of universities are on six figure salaries for doing the same work they did before.
Same product but much more expensive!
And if you must have student loans how about not selling them onto organised crime like debt collectors? Is that not too much to ask?

jackieblack

ericctheking wrote: »

There used to be these things called grants and university was free. It was a perfect system.

But not everyone was eligible for a grant and I know several people who felt unable go to Uni because their parents earned too much for them to get a grant but the parents weren't prepared to support them financially.
I also know at least one person who deferred going to Uni for 2 or 3 years to be able to be classed as 'financially independent' of his parents and be eligible for a full grant.
Hardly a perfect system :rotfl:

Voyager2002

ericctheking wrote: »

There used to be these things called grants and university was free. It was a perfect system.
Now vice-chancellors of universities are on six figure salaries for doing the same work they did before.
Same product but much more expensive!
And if you must have student loans how about not selling them onto organised crime like debt collectors? Is that not too much to ask?

In terms of public policy, I agree completely.

In terms of what an individual should do if they want an education or a future, your comment is not terribly helpful.

Personally, I think that the original student loan system, as it was presented to us, was fair and reasonable. While I see the force of arguments for providing a free education for all, the fact is that when this is publicly funded you end up with the relatively poorer members of society paying for a benefit that disproportionately goes to the most privileged.

I do agree that the behaviour of Erudio is absolutely outrageous, and of course those in power need to take a good deal of responsibility for what is happening.

ericctheking

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Personally, I think that the original student loan system, as it was presented to us, was fair and reasonable.

I do agree that the behaviour of Erudio is absolutely outrageous, and of course those in power need to take a good deal of responsibility for what is happening.

This is a point I can agree with.
The problem is the loans were miss-sold as soon as Erudio became involved.
A pressing issue is the plan to sell of the entire current loan book and all future student loans to these types!
Now loans are in the tens of thousands and people need to think if they want to be beholden to loan sharks for that amount and have no chance of ever buying their own home in the future.
There needs to be a promise that the loans will can not and will never be sold off as until then taking a student loan is a very risky thing to do for any prospective student!

Voyager2002

ericctheking wrote: »

This is a point I can agree with.
The problem is the loans were miss-sold as soon as Erudio became involved.
A pressing issue is the plan to sell of the entire current loan book and all future student loans to these types!
Now loans are in the tens of thousands and people need to think if they want to be beholden to loan sharks for that amount and have no chance of ever buying their own home in the future.
There needs to be a promise that the loans will can not and will never be sold off as until then taking a student loan is a very risky thing to do for any prospective student!

The vast majority of graduates will have a student loan, so the impact of such loans being reported on credit files will not be all that great: if mortgage lenders refuse to lend to such people, they will not have any customers!

So I think that the message to all prospective students and their families is to raise this as an issue in the coming election, and demand that the people in power keep their promises and reign back Erudio and such companies. However, most young people are likely to be far better off if they complete their education (whether by taking out a student loan or going to a university in mainland Europe, where education is effectively free) than if they simply look for work after leaving school.

pinkteapot

ericctheking wrote: »

Please view the Erudio student loans thread to see how getting a student loan is like being conned.
You are signing away your future if you take one of these toxic loans.
Be very careful!

Link to the thread?

ericctheking

pinkteapot wrote: »

Link to the thread?

Here;

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4923210

It is very long because there are many problems people are having from being miss-sold a government loan!

Double_V

This is why I love Scandinavia.
Education is free all the way up to Phd.
Sweden and Denmark being on top.
I did my bachelors from there.
Now the master course I want is only offered in England. (one of its kind course).

agarnett

Yes I think part of the problem is that we are taught almost no social skills other than dog eat dog.

We hate paying tax. Scandinavians are often proud to pay tax - they know that it is used well for the good of all. Brits have a love of kicking fellow Brits when they are down when life's rugs are pulled from under. Scandinavians don't let the rugs get pulled. Their welfare systems are generally more scaffold strength to support lives, not a bunch of haphazardly placed used cardboard boxes to fall into or to crawl away into when you've lost your job or suffered some other setback.

Brits generally don't like other people to live as well as we think we do, except if they are mates, but even then there has to be a pecking order. We certainly are not easily prepared to contribute to a community pot of any description for the common good. We just know what's good for #1.

We make our individual livings or our killings and we're all right Jack. Many of us are so ignorant that we term higher education as a luxury, especially if it's other peoples kids.

Naturally with such a national mentality we are bottom of the class in most things requiring teamwork other than banking or soldiering, and even the latter is a bloody cluster fVck half the time - see tv pics of a bunch of our boys panicking in Afghanistan alongside a bunch of socially mature calm-heads from Scandinavian forces and it can be embarrassing to watch. Out national football teams are often much the same disaster area - volatile as hell and held together by a patchwork of hopeless threads between major egos.

Our universities are overpriced and overrated - by us and by unsuspecting hopeful East Asians, who if they did but know it, could probably teach us a thing or two.