The con of the Student Loan

p1tse

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Yes, but who in general?

just the system
so those who don't earn £15k don't pay
while those who do and above do

i know a few older ones will probably have their written off

p1tse

digsby202 wrote: »

Daughter is at Cambridge, in her 2nd year, when she graduates she will owe approx £18,000.00 for the 3 years. When you consider she is at one of the top universities in the world I consider this a steal. It is still a struggle for her and us and she could not have done it without the student loan.

On graduating she hopes to go to America to do a years post grad, the figures they are quoting at Harvard, Columbia, Berkeley are huge, something in the range of £30,000.00 plus for a year. There is no way she could consider it without funding or scholarships, but you have to prove you can pay before you apply then apply for funding once you are accepted.

When I think of the quality of education she is receiving a student loan of £18,000.00 is a bargain. I know friends with three children at Uni in America and its costing them as much as buying a house.

Love D

i'm not 100% sure
but if she ends up in US working, she won't have to pay back the UK one

Helix

p1tse wrote: »

i'm not 100% sure
but if she ends up in US working, she won't have to pay back the UK one

You have to declare what you are earning if you work abroad so you can make student loan payments when you need to. If you were ever to come back to the UK in the future without making any loan payments if you needed to you would be in trouble.

EmmaC1982

I graduated a few years back with about 12k of loan. I've not received one statement from them - I had to request a balance from them.

Surely this is illegal if you lend money you should be clear what people owe. I don't even know the interest rate!

I think loans are needed but should be regulated better

loofer

I come from a Low Income family so I was lucky in the fact that the LEA pays anything upto the full amount of the fees - which they did for me.

I took out the maximum loan each year, however I popped it straight into a savings account with intention of accruing the commercial interest over 3-4 years then paying back the capital and student interest.

I lived at home with parents - again lucky beacuse I had 4 universities about 10 miles away. Parents never charged me rent or any other form of contribution. I just paid for my own travelling costs/meals/clothing etc.

This was funded by part time jobs. Manchester is quite good when looking for pt work, especially call centres @ £7+/hr and it's evening work.

For several of my uni years I held down 2 part time jobs (where in one 9 month period I worked 33hrs per week religiously whilst still a full time student).

I graduated 2 years ago, have decent paid job. A very big contribution for me getting the grad job (and going to the final round of several other blue chip grad jobs) was my previous work experience - nothing more than call centre and retail jobs but it's about how all that can be applied in your grad job.

I appreciate that my personal situation helped in that my fees were paid for by LEA, I lived at home with parents - rent free with a selection of unis at my doorstep.

The most important point is you can alleviate the overall debt by working whilst you study. You can also control that debt by the way you spend.

Ofcourse I understand that certain costs are inevitable and quite high for what they are. Also that working whilst studying is not possible for everyone - childcare etc.

P.S I never did pay my student loan back. Seeing sat in my bacnk a/c over the last 6 years has just made me think it's my own savings. Couldn't bear paying it back. Prefer to pay the £100+ per month from salary - then I know I've got my net income for anything else/other commitments.

Think of Loans as investment rather than cost- except like any investment, it may work out well or not in the end - but you've got to make that investment work for you.

The_One_Who

p1tse wrote: »

i'm not 100% sure
but if she ends up in US working, she won't have to pay back the UK one

Eh? You still have to pay it back even if you move abroad, I'm sure.

Sol00

The_One_Who wrote: »

Eh? You still have to pay it back even if you move abroad, I'm sure.

That's correct. If you move abroad you MUST tell the SLC otherwise they'll add charges to your account to trace your whereabouts.

mateyface

Student loans are fantastic and really good value and i totally agree with tuition fees as the government grant and bursaries from unis benefit the poorest people.

I'm going to Imperial next year my parents have a very low income.
I will take the maximum possible student loan £ 5215 (london - £1250 of grant)
Get a government grant of £2835
Get a support bursary of £3300
Possibly an IOP bursary of £1000

so that's £11350 to £12350 to live on (without even working) per year

£6135 to £7135 of which i'll never have to pay back

So i'm being paid £2990 to £3990 per year to get a fantastic education and have the time of my life plus borrowing a huge and effectively interest free sum of money which i only have to pay back in very small amounts.

Yeah i'm being conned sooooo badly!

turborichard

Look on the bright side a student loan gives you almost three thousand tries at the lottery.

farso

Out of interest, does anyone know what happens if, once i graduate, i leave the country, how the student loan company plan on getting any money off you? Or is this a good little way to get a good few thousand for free?