Advice for a Student please.

bucketshop

I am a student going in to my final year in a few weeks. I have run up credit card debts of about £3000 and have an interest free overdraft of £2100.
I want to try and reduce my debt but the interest is quite high on my cards. I have been thinking about getting an unsecured flexible loan to pay my credit cards off, I've had a look online and think I can afford the payments for a three year £3000 loan. A loan to pay off my overdraft is too much for me to pay per month.
As I'm in final year, I don't want a part-time job this year, so I can concentrate on my studies so I will be living on about £300 per month with no rent, bill etc (as I live with my parents) except my mobile phone bill. My plan is to pay the fixed amount per month until I graduate and get a job, then I can pay more hopefully and clear it faster.

Can anyone offer me advice on whether this seems the best option?

P.S Hopefully this is in the right section!

Donna

trying-very-trying

Are you at the limit on the overdraft?

bucketshop

Yes, and it's only interst free til I graduate in June/July.

Mad_old_tory

Do your parents buy food for you as well? If they do, what are you spending £300 a month on? Cut down on the socialising (this will help with your studying as well!!) and I'm sure you can reduce your monthly outgoings. I'm going into my final year as well and I can understand why you don't want to work, but this means you have to make the most of your situation re no rent and try and cut your debts down now. Do you get a student loan?

kittykirsty

bucketshop: I'm not sure about the loan idea, is there any other way you can pay off your cards? Could you ask family for help, and set up a payment plan to pay them back?

Also, there are plenty of bank accounts out there that will give you a year or even 2 after you graduate still at interest free. Martin's got articles on them: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/graduate-bank-accounts
and
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/Student-bank-account
Not sure if you'd get as much of an overdraft as you do now, but it's worth looking in to.

kittykirsty

And BTW, hi! :hello: :hello: and welcome to MSE, we're all a friendly lot so post as many questions as you need to. Also check out some of the other forums for freebies, and discount vouchers to cut down any spending that you do!

Lavendyr

You may have trouble even getting a loan if you have an income of only £300 per month.

Can you ask your parents to lend you the money and pay them back instead?

bucketshop

Thanks guys for all the replies

My parents buy food for me, and pay for my travel into uni (they're very good to me!)
The £300 per month is from my student loan, and although I can try and cut down on outgoings, I'm in a long term relationship and my boyfriend lives in England, so some of my money will be going on visiting him, the rest goes on seeing my friends, and food etc at uni.

Thank you KittyKirsty for the links, I'll check them out now.

I don't really want to ask my parents for the money. I'd rather ask my mum to apply for a loan for me, and I'd pay it each month, if I was rejected.

betti911

Why don't you consider the idea of a part time job again? I had one in my final year of law and it was okay. I was only contracted for 8 hrs a week but I increased it as and when required. My sister also did flexable bar work for an agency in her final yr which meant she could choose when she worked and when she didn't. Maybe that's worth considering.
Re a loan have you considered how you would make the repayments to it on your budget?

bucketshop

I don't want a part-time job as I get really stressed about exams, and I'm panicking about final year already. Also as my boyfriend lives in England and I live in Scotland I need weekends free for us to visit each other.
I looked at a £3000 loan wwhere the payments were about £75 a month, which I can afford.
I want to try and decrease some of the debt this year, rather than paying minimum payments til I get a full-time job.

chloebelle

Hi, if you are a student with no part-time job, I would be very surprised if you get a loan. I am a student who earns £240 a month, a was turned down by 4 companies. Mum hadto get one of my behalf, and eventually my bank lent me a small amount at high interest.

I would advise a job, I worked during my final year but third year degree students tend to have a lot less classes so I was able to cope. Even 1 afternoon a week would help, combine this with ebaying, daily clicks etc.... and you should be able to save enough to clear the cards.

Why not transfer the balances to 0% interest cards to give yourself time to get sorted?