Personal loans as a student

Sleepy_student

Hi, I am very sorry for so many questions. If this is against the rules/guidance, please let me know.

I am a 21 year old student, I have a part-time job (and a full-time job in summer), where I earn around £10k altogether. All of my living costs/bills are covered by my loans/bursaries with some leftover for savings. I am a British citizen and live/study in Scotland. My mum needs a rather expensive dental procedure (25-30k), I want to help her by giving her my savings (currently only around 7k, because I recently got my licence and had other big expenses) and by taking out a personal loan as I don't think she'll be given one. Based on online soft check eligibility calculators, I could borrow 10k for 6-7 years. I don't mind the long time length because I would be able to pay it back much earlier due to my low cost of living right now.

Q1. When applying, if there is no option to select multiple, can I select employed/part-time worker instead of student? Or is there some hierarchy I have to follow?

Q2. I know loans can't be used for loans, but if my rent and bills are all covered by my bursaries, do I still have to mention them in expenses? I know for a fact that I am guaranteed to have them for the next two years as a student and they can only increase, not decrease.

Q3. I am registered at my mum's address and have been on the voter role there for a few years now, can I put that as my address? Even if I don't end up going home for the summer? If yes, do I select living with parents or renting? (Q3.2 would being registered to vote in two places, home and uni, affect this in any way?)

Q4. Could I apply jointly with my mum for a loan? I've only heard of guarantor loans, but that wouldn't help here. I have a "excellent" credit score, she has an average-good one, we earn similar amounts, but she has more expenses. She can't increase her pay due to her health. Would combining our incomes on the application be possible?

Q5. Would it possible for her to apply only, but in other income state around 1k that I'd be giving her monthly? If yes, how would that affect taxes? Could I say it's a loan? If I do, would that count as using a loan for a loan?

Q6. If anyone has any experience with dental financing, what was your experience? How easy/difficult was it to get approved?

I'm very sorry for the many questions, and thank you in advance for any and all help.

BoGoF

Going to be honest - despite what the eligibility checkers tell you I cannot see someone earning £10k being given a £10k loan.

You say 'needs' the dental treatment - is that really true and not a 'want'? Seems very high for something you are saying is essential - why isn't it covered by the NHS?

CliveOfIndia

I'd agree with both points made by the previous poster.  A 10K loan on a 10K income is being optimistic, and would be a struggle to afford even if you could get a loan.  Your "excellent" credit score means nothing, and is not even visible to a lender.

The main point that strikes me is - again as noted previously - is this dental treatment genuinely "needed".  I'd be very surprised if essential treatment is not available on the NHS (even if the patient needs to make a partial contribution).

Many private practices will offer some kind of finance package themselves.  This may be a possibility to explore, but either way it's a very large sum to be considering.  She would need to think very carefully about whether she could actually afford the loan repayments for the duration of the agreement.

Oh, and don't even think about a guarantor loan - they're a very bad idea under any circumstances.

Grumpy_chap

This loan seems unlikely.
If it becomes possible, it is probably unwise.

What is the £25k dental treatment that is required and not available on NHS?

MEM62

This is unlikely in your current position and, frankly, would not be the best idea even if you could afford it.  

Sleepy_student

To, hopefully, answer people's questions:

The treatment she needs is implants. The NHS would only give dentures, which she really, really doesn't want, but also she has significant bone loss which would continue if no structures get implanted.
If she only used what is available on the NHS, she would get dentures, the bone loss would slow but continue, and where there is bone missing already, the gums/tissue would essentially collapse because there is no underlying structure. This is something we have discussed with multiple NHS dentists and multiple specialised private dentists. It is not a decision she is taking lightly. The price is also increased by her needing zygomatic implants which is more expensive than if someone was just replacing a tooth or two. It also isn't something that all dentists do.

In terms of repaying the loan, she would not be contributing to it unless we wind up in a situation where it is legally necessary for tax purposes etc, and I expect we would be aware of that ahead of time if that was the case.
I have two years left as a student, I would be able to pay the loan back in around one year. This is why I don't mind getting relatively bad terms/rates on a multi-year loan.

Grumpy_chap

Maybe an approach is to have the NHS treatment as an interim.  It will at least slow the rate of deterioration.  Then upgrade to the implants when the financial situation allows.

BoGoF

For arguments sake, say you get the £10k loan and use your £7k savings (both crazy ideas btw), where is the remaining £8-£13k coming from to make up the difference?

Sleepy_student

I'll earn around £4k, after expenses, over the summer, and I'll be receiving a £3k advanced student loan payment at the end of September. If we still need more, then I have £2k available to spend on my credit card + overdraft. Through October and November, I'll collect another £3.5k from my pay, bursary, and student loans. After that things would slow down a bit and it'd take another 10-12 months to collect the £10k I need from the loan.

The entire treatment would involve around 5-6 appointments in 6-8 months so, it should be doable.

It's hard to explain, and I'm reluctant to go into loads of detail anyway, but my mum's situation is already pretty bad. She doesn't have much more margin left for things to continue to deteriorate, however slowly. To maintain her current state, instead of just starting now with a loan, would cost another roughly £5k over the next year. This delay would also cause an increase in treatment from things getting more complex (and if we're super unlucky then inflation as well).

CliveOfIndia

This is going to sound potentially very harsh - I realise you are wanting to do the best for your mum, and I applaud you for that.  Please take the following comments purely as an unemotional, logical assessment of the facts as I perceive them.

Sleepy_student said:

I'll earn around £4k, after expenses, over the summer, and I'll be receiving a £3k advanced student loan payment at the end of September.

You said earlier that your student loan covers your expenses.  If that's the case (which would be slightly unusual, most students need to supplement their loan with part-time work) then fair enough, the £4K could potentially be given to your mum.  But you can't include the £3K student loan element, otherwise what will you live on?

Sleepy_student said:

If we still need more, then I have £2k available to spend on my credit card + overdraft.

Please don't go down this route.  Unless the credit card is 0% for purchases and unless you can clear it in full before the promotional rate expires, you're going to end up paying huge amounts of interest.  Likewise with the overdraft - unless it's a 0% deal for students, but even then you want to tread very carefully.

Sleepy_student said:

Through October and November, I'll collect another £3.5k from my pay, bursary, and student loans.

Again, if you're giving your student loan/bursary to your mum, what will you live on?

I'll reiterate - I applaud your intentions and your morals whole-heartedly.  But realistically, I don't see how this plan can work

Sleepy_student

CliveOfIndia said:

This is going to sound potentially very harsh - I realise you are wanting to do the best for your mum, and I applaud you for that.  Please take the following comments purely as an unemotional, logical assessment of the facts as I perceive them.

Thank you, I appreciate the honesty and some outside perspective never hurts.

A note about the loans/bursaries, SAAS does the following:
Divides your total amount by 10.
Around 20/9:  give two of the 10 instalments
Every month after that: give 1of the remaining 8 instalments.

I have never had a big need for the two initial instalments, in the past, they usually went into savings.

CliveOfIndia said:

Again, if you're giving your student loan/bursary to your mum, what will you live on?

My loans cover everything because alongside my part-time job, I am also an RA which gives me university accommodation at a huge discount.
My monthly expenses are literally £120 for groceries, £10 for phone, £170 for rent, £20 for a treat.
This is not because I'm desperately saving, though I do have a written budget, it's because I don't need/want to spend on anything else. Occasionally, I'll have dinner with a friend or something like that, but I am not turning down opportunities in order to save aggressively. I just wanted to clarify that because I know it appears like that to many.

CliveOfIndia said:

I'll reiterate - I applaud your intentions and your morals whole-heartedly.  But realistically, I don't see how this plan can work

Again, I appreciate the honesty and this was sobering advice.
Unfortunately, I am still going to pay for this one way or another. The need for this dental treatment is not a new development, it's just gotten very close to the tipping point now. I have been thinking about/budgeting for this and other expensive things since I was 14 and though it would have been nice to wait until after I graduated, that no longer seems possible.

Do you by any chance know the answer to my question about selecting one status over another when applying? In my case, selecting employed instead of student? 
I've tried finding answers to this and other questions at my bank, but because practically the only thing they offer to students is a student account, they've been reluctant to even discuss borrowing with me even though I'd be borrowing elsewhere.