Student Accommodation payments

Kim_13

If they are in university managed accommodation, savings can often be made when they move into house shares in later years.

Are the children in a position to share a 2 bed house together? This may be cheaper for you as it would be in both their interests to be careful about the utilities they use, since they know the predicament you are in. If both had to share with other students, you may be worse off as bills often get equally split between housemates, with some even leaving another to cover their share (as each bill can only be in one name.)

jimjames

Vizla wrote: »

As for using the overdraft facility we can't see how that teaches them not to get into debt in the future. But maybe that's because we don't use one.
We'll get there. It's been a learning curve all round and we appreciate the comments.

I'm not sure how it's teaching them to not get into debt if you're putting the money on a credit card because you can't afford it. Overdraft or credit card, it's still all debt. I'm all for helping kids at university - mine will be going within the next few years - but I certainly wouldn't put my own situation in jeopardy as a result.

You mention that you had some unexpected bills, what happens if other similar ones crop up or mortgage rates rise. We'd had boiler replacement at over £2k, car repairs costing similar amounts as well as dishwasher breaking this year, without any emergency funds we'd have been stuffed.
There are some excellent ideas already posted that are worth looking into but I'd definitely avoid racking up debt as a result.

missbiggles1

Vizla wrote: »

Hi
I'm new to this so not sure if this is the right place to post this thread but hoping so.
We have two children who have started university this year. Their student loans do not cover the accommodation costs and so we have opted to pay their rental and they can then use their loan to live off.
However like many people we don't actually have the funds in the bank to pay and are currently having to put the payments on a credit card and pay as much as we can afford off each month.
So my questions are:
Is there anyone else in this position and how do they manage?
We are considering transferring the payment to an interest free card but as the rental is paid in three quarterly instalments, is this the right thing to do? If it is when is the right time to do it etc?
Our children are looking for jobs to help boost their loans and if they do get a job it may be that we have to ask them to contribute but I doubt they'll earn enough to be able to do so.
My husband works full time and I work part time. We have a mortgage and no other debt and most months there is very little left over and certainly not enough to fund two students rentals amounting to around £7,000 in total!!
Any advice would be appreciated in how we can manage this in the long term.

Perhaps you could look at working full time rather than part time if money's so tight.

xylophone

As for using the overdraft facility we can't see how that teaches them not to get into debt in the future. But maybe that's because we don't use one.

You use a credit card - that's debt.

You said that your children are sensible. They need to learn to manage debt sensibly.

In their circumstances, ( and yours) it can be sensible to use an interest free overdraft.

It can form part of your discussion.