Keeping track of student loan repayments

former_student

I have over the past number of months started to pay off my student loan, it comes out of my monthly wage.

How do I keep track on what I have paid and how much I have left to pay?

CrispyUK

The amount you've paid should be shown on your payslips.

Student Loans Company should send you a statement every year showing you the status of your account and the outstanding balance. I think you can also ring up for your balance over the phone.

I've got a feeling the repayments are bundled together and applied once a year so they may not yet have any record of you paying anything off yet.

b33r

CrispyUK wrote: »

I've got a feeling the repayments are bundled together and applied once a year so they may not yet have any record of you paying anything off yet.

Can't confirm the other 2 bit's as I haven't started paying mine back yet but just confirming the bit above about bundling them together at the end of the year but also adding that it doesn't affect the amount of interest you are paying, the money comes off... but isn't shown to have come off... if you get me

former_student

b33r wrote: »

Can't confirm the other 2 bit's as I haven't started paying mine back yet but just confirming the bit above about bundling them together at the end of the year but also adding that it doesn't affect the amount of interest you are paying, the money comes off... but isn't shown to have come off... if you get me

Thanks for those responses, I notice the amount that is being repayed as it is stated on my payment slip however I am a little confused regarding the above statment, could you explain it please.

Thanks in advance.

b33r

Yeh, sorry, i didn't explain myself very well.

The reason I mentioned it was because there was recently one of those online government petitions to change the way it works but it was just confusion that caused it.

People thought that although you pay something monthly to student loans it wasn't actually deducted from the loan until the end of the year and so therefore you end up paying more interest. It's partly true because they don't cross off the amount untill the end of the year but its carefully calculated so that you pay no more interest. Probably best to copy you the Government response:

"The Government welcomes the opportunity this e-petition has given to clarify understandable confusion on this issue. In particular, we can re-assure the public that interest on student loans is indeed calculated daily and that great care is taken to ensure that no borrower pays too much in repayments.

The confusion arises from the fact that the Student Loan Company updates borrowers' accounts annually. This is largely because the exact details of individual repayments, collected by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs from employers who deduct the money from the salaries of staff with loans, are only received when firms send in their annual tax returns after the end of each year. Once repayment information is collected, it is sent to the SLC who issue new individual statements showing repayments and the amount outstanding.

But while borrowers' accounts are only updated annually, the SLC is careful to ensure no borrower pays any additional interest as a result of this delay. The total annual repayment received from each borrower is credited to their account as twelve equal monthly payments in the year they were made, and the interest on the remaining balance is calculated on a daily basis each month to match. We can assure you that the Government does not gain any extra income nor does any borrower pay too much interest. It is also worth adding that the interest paid on student loans reflects inflation, and is not a commercial rate of interest like those charged for bank loans."

former_student

Excellent response thanks very much for that.

Is my only option to simply wait for the annual statement from the loans company to come through with the amount on it that I have to repay?

In addition to this what is the interest rates on student loans at present?

Thanks again for all the help I have received thus far.

CrispyUK

From the student loans company site...
If you have a question about your loan account:

• General enquiries - Tel: 0870 242 2211
• Deferment enquiries - Tel: 0870 606 0704

They could probably give you a balance over the phone, but if you've only recently started repayments by salary deduction then it's unlikely they'll have any record of these yet. Hanging on for the annual statement is probably the easiest option.

The loan interest is currently 4.8% APR - you might have noticed publicity about it having doubled this year, which is true, last year it was 2.4% APR (however that was the lowest it had been for 3-4yrs). It's based on the Retail Price Index in April I believe, so it will likely change again next year.

Of course it's still lower than the market leading personal loan rates, 6.9% is probably the best rate currently going, and you can also earn more than 4.8% in a savings account so it's still a relatively cheap debt

former_student

CrispyUK wrote: »

From the student loans company site...
If you have a question about your loan account:

• General enquiries - Tel: 0870 242 2211
• Deferment enquiries - Tel: 0870 606 0704

They could probably give you a balance over the phone, but if you've only recently started repayments by salary deduction then it's unlikely they'll have any record of these yet. Hanging on for the annual statement is probably the easiest option.

The loan interest is currently 4.8% APR - you might have noticed publicity about it having doubled this year, which is true, last year it was 2.4% APR (however that was the lowest it had been for 3-4yrs). It's based on the Retail Price Index in April I believe, so it will likely change again next year.

Of course it's still lower than the market leading personal loan rates, 6.9% is probably the best rate currently going, and you can also earn more than 4.8% in a savings account so it's still a relatively cheap debt

Agreed 6.9% is much higher but it not the real figure as taxes from that have to be taken into considereation while the 4.8% is that actual rate that has to be paid back.