Student Loan 2015 Discussion

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  • silvercar
    silvercar Posts: 46,861
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    I live in Hungary, and am vexed by the overseas thresholds.

    The threshold for Hungary was decreased to just over 7,000 pounds a year before tax last year.

    This amount is a crazy low sum. I currently earn around 18,000-19,000/year before tax, and I earn a pretty good wage for Hungary.

    I am demanded to make repayments of 95 pounds a month towards my student loan. Previously, the threshold was around 9,500 a year. According to the cost of living, that's a fair amount, and would result in me paying back around 60 pound per month. That 50% increase is huge, when I'm no better off tha before.

    Is there anything I can do? Or any way to make a real complaint?

    At £18,500 with a £9,500 threshold you would be paying £67.50 per month.

    At £18,500 with a £7,000 threshold you would be paying £86.25 per month.

    So the increase is less than 28%.
    I'm a Forum Ambassador on The Coronavirus Boards as well as the housing, mortgages and student money saving boards. I volunteer to help get your forum questions answered and keep the forum running smoothly. Forum Ambassadors are not moderators and don't read every post. If you spot an illegal or inappropriate post then please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com (it's not part of my role to deal with this). Any views are mine and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.com.
  • Scarloc99
    Scarloc99 Posts: 7 Forumite
    nemo183 wrote: »
    Government figures say that 25% of jobs in the UK require a degree, yet 50% of people leaving the education system have a degree. Go figure.....

    Realise this post is from a while back but i see quotes like this alot.

    lets say there are 1000 jobs in the UK 25% of them is 250 so 250 jobs

    Now lets say there are 500 people in the education system, 50% is 250 so the right number of people for the jobs required.

    The 2 numbers are completely independent of each other, 50% could be more (if 1000 people left education) or it could be less. The important thing is understanding that they have no relation to each other and so cant be compared. If a whole number was used, for instance the government says there are 20,000 university level jobs but 40,000 university leavers then a discussion can be had.
  • Scarloc99
    Scarloc99 Posts: 7 Forumite
    The living at home rate is considerably less than the rate for living away.

    The parents contribution should always be taken as a guide and not a requirement in my experience. I went away to University to study and my sister stayed at home. My parents supprted me by directly paying towards my rent, the amount they paid worked out as less then the amount suggested by the guidlines, I had a partime job. Mum and Dad where there for emergencies if needed but certainly they didnt just give me a lump sum to mae up there contribution.

    My sister, by living at home continued as normal, food etc all paid for, again they didn't pay her a top up out of there money and in fact she paid them a monthly rent amount (they actually saved it away and she had it to put towards a car when she graduated) this helped teach her the same lesson I was learning living away about budgeting etc. We where treated equally but she got more in terms of 20 here and there for socialising and going out. I got the larger lump sum payments towards rent, or a big food shop.

    Up to you how you manage it but I would advise you see how your son is managing before handing over lump sums of cash.
  • Hi all,

    My sister lives in Australia and is paying off her student loan from there. She told me that she is paying back $250AUD per month and I thought this seemed very high. Hoping someone can provide some insight into this and if you think this is high. Here are the details of her loan, if you need further information let me know.

    Balance £15,733.16

    Interest Rate: 1.25%

    Arrears: £2,015.00

    Monthly repayments: £150.00

    Thanks in advance

    GI
  • sheramber
    sheramber Posts: 18,857
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    Hi all,

    My sister lives in Australia and is paying off her student loan from there. She told me that she is paying back $250AUD per month and I thought this seemed very high. Hoping someone can provide some insight into this and if you think this is high. Here are the details of her loan, if you need further information let me know.

    Balance £15,733.16

    Interest Rate: 1.25%

    Arrears: £2,015.00

    Monthly repayments: £150.00

    Thanks in advance

    GI

    according to this
    http://www.studentloanrepayment.co.uk/portal/page_pageid=93,6678668&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

    She is due to pay 9% of her income over £21330
  • Hi

    so if I complete a 3 years course, say with a student loan each made up of £9000 fees and £4000 maintenance, so £13,000 x 3 = £39,000 after 3 years, then let's say I was in a position to pay that back in full after the 3 years [or maybe 1 year later], Martin's guide says

    "While studying:

    Accrues RPI inflation plus 3% on the outstanding balance. This continues until the first April after graduation when it changes to…"

    IF inflation is 3%, then we are looking at 6% total,
    SO surely my first year's £13k has become £13,780 with interest,
    then at end of year 2 I might have that £13,780 + £13k more loan, plus another year's interest on the lot, so then I start year 3 with £28,387.
    Add year 3's £13k loan, and end of year 3 with 12 more month's interest = grand total £43,870.

    Hence I've borrowed 3 lots of £13k = £39k. If I finish and straightaway enjoy a lottery win, then I've clocked up a massive £4,870 of interest in just 3 years.
    So before I have any earned income, this penalty is there if I want to clear the debt, so if I had had the £50k lottery win just before I started uni., surely I'd have been better off funding my own needs for 3 x £13k, rather than borrowing 3 lots of £13k on the student loan ? OR am I missing something ?

    Martin Lewis, PLEASE advise / enlighten ! [I ask because I heard you on 5Live about this last Monday, read your 6,000 words - super job - and this is my ONLY query after all of that].
  • silvercar
    silvercar Posts: 46,861
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    jrallen17 wrote: »
    Hi

    so if I complete a 3 years course, say with a student loan each made up of £9000 fees and £4000 maintenance, so £13,000 x 3 = £39,000 after 3 years, then let's say I was in a position to pay that back in full after the 3 years [or maybe 1 year later], Martin's guide says

    "While studying:

    Accrues RPI inflation plus 3% on the outstanding balance. This continues until the first April after graduation when it changes to…"

    IF inflation is 3%, then we are looking at 6% total,
    SO surely my first year's £13k has become £13,780 with interest,
    then at end of year 2 I might have that £13,780 + £13k more loan, plus another year's interest on the lot, so then I start year 3 with £28,387.
    Add year 3's £13k loan, and end of year 3 with 12 more month's interest = grand total £43,870.

    Hence I've borrowed 3 lots of £13k = £39k. If I finish and straightaway enjoy a lottery win, then I've clocked up a massive £4,870 of interest in just 3 years.
    So before I have any earned income, this penalty is there if I want to clear the debt, so if I had had the £50k lottery win just before I started uni., surely I'd have been better off funding my own needs for 3 x £13k, rather than borrowing 3 lots of £13k on the student loan ? OR am I missing something ?

    Martin Lewis, PLEASE advise / enlighten ! [I ask because I heard you on 5Live about this last Monday, read your 6,000 words - super job - and this is my ONLY query after all of that].

    Well Martin's advice is you shouldn't pay it off unless you are confident of being a high earner for a long time. So it isn't an either/or between not taking it and repaying on graduating.

    If that is genuinely your only considerations, I would say you also could consider taking the loan and investing it if you don't need to live off it. could you gain more interest than you are charged?

    The other point worth making is that most universities will charge you the full year's tuition fees at the beginning of each academic year unless you are taking the tuition fee loan when they accept phased payments through the year (so interest only charged from when each phase is given). It would be worth calculating the interest on paying the loan off as it is given to you as that would be potentially cheaper than paying the tuition fees yourself.

    The other point is that it may be worth waiting until you have finished studying before paying it off just because if something went wrong during your studies and you dropped out, the forecast of a high earner may change.
    I'm a Forum Ambassador on The Coronavirus Boards as well as the housing, mortgages and student money saving boards. I volunteer to help get your forum questions answered and keep the forum running smoothly. Forum Ambassadors are not moderators and don't read every post. If you spot an illegal or inappropriate post then please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com (it's not part of my role to deal with this). Any views are mine and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.com.
  • koru
    koru Posts: 1,494
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    Martin has explained that you are only going to end up repaying in full if you get big salary increases. To get an idea of what is likely, the following Economist data shows the average salary, 5 years after graduation, for most subjects:
    https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2017/08/graduate-earnings

    You can also look at this split down for each university, by subject. (It might help in choosing subjects/uni, although earnings aren't the only criterion, of course.)
    koru
  • silvercar
    silvercar Posts: 46,861
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    1. £2880 as it is your contributions that count.

    2. Unsure, but I would have thought it would match the profit you show on your tax return.
    I'm a Forum Ambassador on The Coronavirus Boards as well as the housing, mortgages and student money saving boards. I volunteer to help get your forum questions answered and keep the forum running smoothly. Forum Ambassadors are not moderators and don't read every post. If you spot an illegal or inappropriate post then please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com (it's not part of my role to deal with this). Any views are mine and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.com.
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