Teacher training - should I pay the fees or get a loan?

HillBilly

Forgive me if this has already been addressed somewhere, I've had a look but can't find anything.......

I am starting teacher training in September, so just a one year course...... but most online calculators don't give an option to select a one year course.
I'm trying to decide whether to get a loan to pay the course fees or pay them myself (I have the money to pay them without borrowing). I'm not applying for any other loans as I will get a bursary to cover living costs.
As it is only a one year course, with fees of £9250, I would like to know if I am likely to pay the loan off before I retire....... if I am then I would think I would be financially better off to pay the fees up front and save myself the interest payments.



I've had a play with "Mogley's" calculator which tells me I will pay the loan off in 8 years at a total cost of £11735. Given that I have more than 8 years left to work, by paying the fees upfront I would save myself the £2485 interest payments........ right?

It would be a great help to help me make an informed decision about this.

Thanks in advance

Ed-1

HillBilly wrote: »

Forgive me if this has already been addressed somewhere, I've had a look but can't find anything.......

I am starting teacher training in September, so just a one year course...... but most online calculators don't give an option to select a one year course.
I'm trying to decide whether to get a loan to pay the course fees or pay them myself (I have the money to pay them without borrowing). I'm not applying for any other loans as I will get a bursary to cover living costs.
As it is only a one year course, with fees of £9250, I would like to know if I am likely to pay the loan off before I retire....... if I am then I would think I would be financially better off to pay the fees up front and save myself the interest payments.



I've had a play with "Mogley's" calculator which tells me I will pay the loan off in 8 years at a total cost of £11735. Given that I have more than 8 years left to work, by paying the fees upfront I would save myself the £2485 interest payments........ right?

It would be a great help to help me make an informed decision about this.

Thanks in advance

But do you have other student loans in addition? It's no good singling out that one. All of them get amalgamated into one big balance, with contributions at 9% over £21,000 (unless you've loans from pre-2012 when that threshold's £17,775 and rising each year...) and remaining balances are written off after 30(ish) years depending on when you took the loan.

If you don't think you'll repay what you started with, you're not going to repay the PGCE loan either, so taking the maximum is getting more free money.

HillBilly

I am student loan free at the moment Ed.
I got my degree through the open university when fees were much less than they are now and so I paid for each course as I did it.


The only debt I have is my mortgage....... and I'm throwing as much money at that each month as I can afford.


I've done some back of an envelope calculations and I am more and more convinced that I shouldn't take the loan.


But I am open to reasonable arguments which convince me otherwise!

GothicStirling

If you pay the 9k yourself, how are you able to support yourself if something catastrophic happens (you or your partner loses their job? Interest rates go up? Your boiler (or other household issue) dies on you?

HillBilly

Thanks for your concern GothicStirling..........but
1. I don't have a partner
2. I have more than £9250 in savings, so will still have a cushion should something unforeseen happen
3. I will be getting a £25000 tax free bursary for training, so that will cover my living costs (it's more than my current salary)
4. The only debt I have is my mortgage which is fixed until after I finish training, so that covers the interest rate rise concern

HillBilly

Well if 288 of you have read this thread and no one can think of a reason why paying the fees myself won't work out cheaper in the long run........ I think that's what I'll do!

jones_guitar

HillBilly, get a student loan. What PGCE is it? The reason is, you might be disappointed and it might not be for you. Having done a PGCE, I would never pay to complete one personally, due to the fact is it stressful - alot of paper work and some universities do fail trainees.

jones_guitar

cjonesguitar wrote: »

HillBilly, get a student loan. What PGCE is it? The reason is, you might be disappointed and it might not be for you. Having done a PGCE, I would never pay to complete one personally, due to the fact is it stressful - alot of paper work and some universities do fail trainees.

Also, I do not want to put you off as you may love it - but the money is quite poor and work hours are long for a new teacher. I actually have decided that I do not want to be a mainstream teacher in a state school (after attending a PGCE last year). These little things mean that the loan is abit like your insurance policy just in case you decide otherwise.

I would say though also, that my university was a really poor teacher training provider.