Student Loans - what a joke!

dannynixon

Now then,

Just thought I would highlight how silly the whole student loan fiasco is.

I graduated from Uni last July and staretd my job in sept. Last month, I started to pay back my student loan. I earn 20k per annum so I am paying back £38 per month.

I have just recieved my annual statement from SLC and they are adding around £54 interest per month to my balance. So every month the £38 I pay puts me £16 a month further into debt, madness. I am a teacher and the pay rise structur is quite good so there will be a point in the future where I start paying more than the interest but I don't envisage that I will ever pay off my student loan unless I become stupidly rich or make extra volountry payments which I will not be doing.

I am not mad about this, it is just stupid.
Anyone else heard of this?

CLAPTON

yes indeed it is well know and often written about... clearly you are not a maths teacher.

greyster

no need to be rude clapton.

Danny - everyone is in same situation... average pay is 16k for a grad a couple of years ago. You have to envisage what your pay will be in the future and if you go up the teaching path you shouldn't have any problem.

It's tough for most at the start.

Remember to never to make voluntary repayments and to put it in a savings account. Read martin's article for more info.

dannynixon

CLAPTON wrote: »

yes indeed it is well know and often written about... clearly you are not a maths teacher.

Haha, thanks for the sarcasm Clapton. It is the first statement that I have received because of lots of changes of address at uni (new tennants not forwarding my mail etc).

I knew the interest rate, new the amount I had borrowed etc but it has only just come to light now I have started paying it back.

Btw, I am a primary school teacher to Y1 children so the level of maths is somewhere around what is 17 + 10 lol.

dannynixon

greyster wrote: »

no need to be rude clapton.

Danny - everyone is in same situation... average pay is 16k for a grad a couple of years ago. You have to envisage what your pay will be in the future and if you go up the teaching path you shouldn't have any problem.

It's tough for most at the start.

Remember to never to make voluntary repayments and to put it in a savings account. Read martin's article for more info.

Was not planning on making voluntary payments anyhow. Funny thing is, I blew loads at uni and when I was 17 and told about student loans being "interest free" I dod not have a problem spending it. If I had being less of a party-goer I could have easily borrowed 3k less over 3 years at uni.

Thanks for the advice anyways about savings

neas

i have a student loan of 11k now... It goes up by about 500 a year but i pay back 1000 a year. So eventually mine will get paid back.. so long as inflation doesn't go up (which it is going to

Originally they were based on CPI which was 2% then they switched them to RPI which runs at 4.8%.. also they were rising every year you was at uni. I was niave and thought the same as you.

Still if you had the extra moneuy putting it into an isa for a house deposit would be wiser.. ;P

iolanthe07

tennants

Hope you're not an English teacher either!

CLAPTON

neas wrote: »

i have a student loan of 11k now... It goes up by about 500 a year but i pay back 1000 a year. So eventually mine will get paid back.. so long as inflation doesn't go up (which it is going to

Originally they were based on CPI which was 2% then they switched them to RPI which runs at 4.8%.. also they were rising every year you was at uni. I was niave and thought the same as you.

Still if you had the extra moneuy putting it into an isa for a house deposit would be wiser.. ;P

no no no it was always RPI
it drops to 3.8% in Sept 08

sreppaw

The RPI used to be similar rate to the CPI (about 2%) but last March there was a spike, so we end up paying more interest. :mad: Like wise, if there was a dip we would be paying less for a year. I think it would be better if the loan tracked RPI averaged over the last year.