Student Loan Repayment Question

whimpo1991

Hi,
Should I be overpaying on my student loans? I have been out of university for around 6 years now and I am paying about £150 each month out of my pay for my tuition fees.

Is it true after 15 years of paying they are scrapped?

I would like to know how to go about this, as if this is not true I need to pay more so I pay less in the long run.

Ta,
Sunny

Ed-1

whimpo1991 wrote: »

Hi,
Should I be overpaying on my student loans? I have been out of university for around 6 years now and I am paying about £150 each month out of my pay for my tuition fees.

Is it true after 15 years of paying they are scrapped?

I would like to know how to go about this, as if this is not true I need to pay more so I pay less in the long run.

Ta,
Sunny

You took the loans without reading the terms and conditions which you had to agree to?

Loans taken for courses starting from September 2012 onwards are currently due for write off on 6th April 30 years after the 6th April following leaving the course.

https://media.slc.co.uk/sfe/1920/ft/sfe_terms_and_conditions_guide_1920_o.pdf

MalMonroe

Ed-1's response is totally patronising and unnecessary. My guess is that he/she didn't go to Uni. I did - and I haven't repaid anything and now I don't have to because although I graduated in 2003, I reached retirement age before I started earning the relevant amount. (So not 30 years at all). Martin's advice about student loans is to not panic or rush to repay them. There are many factors to consider, such as : If your course started before 1 September 2012, or you have a loan from the student finance agencies in Northern Ireland or Scotland, you’ll have a Plan 1 loan that you’ll pay back when you earn over £18,935 a year, £1,533 a month or £354 a week.

If you began your course after 1 September 2012 in England or Wales, you’ll have a Plan 2 loan. You’ll begin paying off your student loan when you earn over £25,725 a year, £2,144 a month or £495 a week.

If you have been paying £150 per month for six years but you haven't been earning the relevant amounts, you actually may be due a refund. Read what Martin has to say then make your mind up. Personally I'd rather pay less than more but as I said, I don't have to now.

Martin says this : https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loans-repay/

Ed-1

MalMonroe wrote: »

Ed-1's response is totally patronising and unnecessary. My guess is that he/she didn't go to Uni. I did - and I haven't repaid anything and now I don't have to because although I graduated in 2003, I reached retirement age before I started earning the relevant amount. (So not 30 years at all). Martin's advice about student loans is to not panic or rush to repay them. There are many factors to consider, such as : If your course started before 1 September 2012, or you have a loan from the student finance agencies in Northern Ireland or Scotland, you’ll have a Plan 1 loan that you’ll pay back when you earn over £18,935 a year, £1,533 a month or £354 a week.

If you began your course after 1 September 2012 in England or Wales, you’ll have a Plan 2 loan. You’ll begin paying off your student loan when you earn over £25,725 a year, £2,144 a month or £495 a week.

If you have been paying £150 per month for six years but you haven't been earning the relevant amounts, you actually may be due a refund. Read what Martin has to say then make your mind up. Personally I'd rather pay less than more but as I said, I don't have to now.

Martin says this : https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loans-repay/

Yes I have been to uni and have both plan 1 and 2 loans.

That's why I know that you are required to have read and agreed to the Guide to Terms and Conditions when you take out the loans, so there's no excuse for not knowing the terms as they are at the point of taking the loans out.

As the terms may be amended from time to time, what's more excusable is not knowing they've changed.

Having reread the OP, I agree that the OP probably has post-2006 loans which are plan 1 loans with a 25 year write off. The rest of the plan 1 loans are written off at age 65 if taken before 2006. The only change to these loan terms since the OP started their course is probably the uprating of the £15k threshold and the scrapping of repayment holidays.

Plan 1 loan terms are now effectively fixed and unlikely to change as the government have sold half of them and so have no incentive to change the terms of these loans.

Plan 2 loan terms are still very much up for debate however. The architect of plan 2 loans, the former unis minister David Willetts, is still calling for the repayment threshold to be lowered for this scheme (having previously called for it to be frozen at £21k):



https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/uks-young-people-are-losing-out-baby-boomers-tuition-fees-are-not-problem



https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/sustainable-university-funding-david-willetts-next-steps