In serious debt and starting University - Advice needed!

[Deleted User]

the only thing i can add is are you sure the bursary is paid in one lot in january,my dd is returning to uni in sept and hers will be £500 oct £500 jan

Martin660

woodbine wrote: »

the only thing i can add is are you sure the bursary is paid in one lot in january,my dd is returning to uni in sept and hers will be £500 oct £500 jan

Hey Thanks for the reply,

I've just double checked this to make sure I wasn't mis-understanding anything and it seems like it's definitely January (and even then I'm not sure if it's the full amount or not)

You don’t need to apply for the
Cardiff University Bursary
Your eligibility will be determined through the statutory means
test conducted by your UK student funding body to determine
qualification for state grants and loans, so you won’t need to
apply for a Cardiff University Bursary separately3. Confirmation
of the bursary is sent prior to the first payment at the end of
January 2016.

It would have been really useful if it was in September as that's the time when the majority of things need to be bought ready! :P

Another thing which slightly irked me was that the Uni has a scholarship scheme available for A level students who get AAA and those students get a £3000 scholarship, but because I did the Access to Higher Education Diploma I'm not entitled to this (despite getting all distinctions somehow!) :P

One thing that is keeping me going through all of this is that I've been able to rediscover my passion for learning again and I feel like I've been given another chance at life I guess! The access course has been absolutely amazing and for the first time ever I felt comfortable and was able to make friends and stuff, hopefully setting me up really well to start uni next month! I feel lucky to get the chance to experience all of this!

gettingtheresometime

In anticipation of you moving to Cardiff I would look to contact the various theatres (new theatre, WMC, St Davids Hall) to see if they have any vacancies for front of house staff

Jon_B_2

You haven't really had any helpful advice yet. I think we need to place into context that you will have a woeful income and you are currently servicing £2k+ of presumably high interest debt.

I really don't know what to suggest as it seems help from parents is not an option if they are highly indebted themselves, but having been to uni a while back I cannot see this ending without you being further saddled with debt.

It's all well and good saying you'll get a part time job, but uni isn't like school - there is a lot of work outside of lectures and seminars. Although people so get through uni with a part time job, it does make it more difficult to succeed.

Like I said I don't know what to suggest - what I do know is that going into student life with substantial real debt is not a good place to be.

Dobbibill

Martin660 wrote: »

Hey everyone

My current financial commitments are:

Sunny Loan - £300 (due to be payed in September)
Wonga Loan - £200 (due to be payed next week)
Quickquid and Lending Stream loans all recently payed off

Well done on paying off Quickquid and Lending Stream.

Are you able to meet this commitment next week for Wonga?

Aqua Credit Card - £800 (hit limit)
TSB Credit Card - £1250 (hit limit)
Vanquis Credit Card (New- got purely for buying stuff for Uni) - £220

What are you minimum payments for these?

£2492 in September
£1000 Bursary in January
£2492 in January
£2492 in April

My rent for student accommodation will be:

1 £1,606.06 21/10/2015
2 £1,606.06 20/01/2016
3 £1,606.05 20/04/2016

So from that, I can work out that I will be left with £886 of my student finance for the first term after paying rent.

Just working with approximate figures.......you have roughly 15 weeks between each SF payment which is about £59 pw (£255pcm). Out of this you need to pay bills/minimum payments.

Sorry to state the obvious but you need a job.

Get 2 accounts as suggested, bills and spending money. Put all SF in bills account and set up a SO to send money to you spending account weekly or monthly to live off after your bills are accounted for.

From work get any wages paid into your spending account and then make overpayments when you can to make inroads to your debt.

Your budget is going to be tight. Look at applying for jobs now. Evenings and weekends you will have free, you can top up your availability when you know your uni timetable but you need to get some hours to start with.

HTH

Martin660

Dobbibill wrote: »

Well done on paying off Quickquid and Lending Stream.

Are you able to meet this commitment next week for Wonga?




What are you minimum payments for these?



Just working with approximate figures.......you have roughly 15 weeks between each SF payment which is about £59 pw (£255pcm). Out of this you need to pay bills/minimum payments.

Sorry to state the obvious but you need a job.

Get 2 accounts as suggested, bills and spending money. Put all SF in bills account and set up a SO to send money to you spending account weekly or monthly to live off after your bills are accounted for.

From work get any wages paid into your spending account and then make overpayments when you can to make inroads to your debt.

Your budget is going to be tight. Look at applying for jobs now. Evenings and weekends you will have free, you can top up your availability when you know your uni timetable but you need to get some hours to start with.

HTH

Thanks I was super happy to finish paying off quickquid and lending stream! It felt like it was two less passwords to have to remember haha!

Wonga should be fine as half of it was for my mum and she gets paid next week, and I'm doing some hours in my brothers shop next week too

Minimum payment seems to vary each month, the TSB one is normally around £35 -40, the Aqua one was £20 and I'm not sure about Vanquis yet as that's new.


Completely agree that I need a job, and to be honest I would like one, so I'm going to get onto that tomorrow


My original plan for Uni was to sell my car, which would have been worth around £1500 before I crashed into the deer and dented and cracked the front bumper/side wing :P Now, because I've managed to get a super cheap insurance deal because of my NUS card (£17 a month with endsleigh), I've decided to take my car to Uni with me and use it when I want to come home etc as a) It works out cheaper than train fairs and b) My town doesn't have a train station and my family can't drive, so it just makes it easier all round :P I think I would miss driving too much!


I think it's going to be tough and there will be sacrifices I have to make along the way such as not going out very much with the others, but I think that in some ways I can use the student finance funding to better my current finances, for example the bursary in January will be really useful to help pay some of my big credit card off I think.

Dobbibill

I bet you were happy, you will feel that happy and more when you pay off your other debts too.

Paying Wonga will be one less debt to take with you, which is a definite positive. Well done, that debt will be binned with Lending Stream and Quickquid :T

Based on the figures thus far, you will be looking at having approx £150 pcm, just over £34 pw, to live on and fuel and maintain your car.

Lots of shops, theatres as suggested above and call centres in Cardiff for jobs, ideal for students so go for it, early bird catches the worm and all that.

Don't rely on your bursary, look on that as a bonus when it arrives. You need to get a plan in place well before that arrives. Once the plan is in place it will become routine.

Just to add, all the best with your studies. :T

DB

[Deleted User]

Martin660 wrote: »

Sunny Loan - £300 (due to be payed in September)


Thanks for any advice or tips, or any similar experiences people may have had

Martin

Can't see this mentioned unless you're paying early to save on interest?


As a previous borrower of this loan company - can you see if you can extend your payment plan? it makes no difference if you have a 1 month or 6 month loan as they can do repayment over 6 months and whilst I've never have to rely on this - remember they do offer;

https://sunny.co.uk/our-loan-pricing
Transfer fees Always £0.00
Other fees Always £0.00
Late fees Always £0.00


It may be your only saving grace over a credit card as that will likely charge you late fee's and over limits if you were to fall behind.. something that doesn't get said often enough, it really pays to know how to manage credit when it's a must over paying of the supposed evil.


Be careful with Vanquis & co - do not be fooled some of the c/c's are just as worse than a "payday loan" so it may be best to keep one of the short term loans for as long as possible so you are refused credit if you ever feel tempted again, this is just my view.

Dalradian

Tip 1 before buying books for study remember most uni libraries should be able to lend textbooks electronically. Since most text books i bought ended up not being used, getting them electronically means you can find out which ones are useful, and then you can always buy them second hand.
Tip 2 since your evening meals are paid for, don't spend money on coffee shops and bottled water. Make soup for lunch and freeze it, since you are so close to uni you don't need to use the canteen

Martin660

Deleted%20User wrote: »

Can't see this mentioned unless you're paying early to save on interest?


As a previous borrower of this loan company - can you see if you can extend your payment plan? it makes no difference if you have a 1 month or 6 month loan as they can do repayment over 6 months and whilst I've never have to rely on this - remember they do offer;


Transfer fees Always £0.00
Other fees Always £0.00
Late fees Always £0.00


It may be your only saving grace over a credit card as that will likely charge you late fee's and over limits if you were to fall behind.. something that doesn't get said often enough, it really pays to know how to manage credit when it's a must over paying of the supposed evil.


Be careful with Vanquis & co - do not be fooled some of the c/c's are just as worse than a "payday loan" so it may be best to keep one of the short term loans for as long as possible so you are refused credit if you ever feel tempted again, this is just my view.

I think I've already extended it as much as it will allow haha! It was a lot bigger to begin with and I've been paying bits off each month. There's currently two months of £150 due but I was hoping to pay it all off in September once I get student finance so that's another company done with :P

Dalradian wrote: »

Tip 1 before buying books for study remember most uni libraries should be able to lend textbooks electronically. Since most text books i bought ended up not being used, getting them electronically means you can find out which ones are useful, and then you can always buy them second hand.
Tip 2 since your evening meals are paid for, don't spend money on coffee shops and bottled water. Make soup for lunch and freeze it, since you are so close to uni you don't need to use the canteen

Yeah good idea I did that with college, never bought any books and instead just relied on the library for my sources of information

I hate coffee and water so the 2nd part sounds easy! :P That's a good idea about the soup