If you’ve repaid your Plan 1 student loan

Not sure if it's helpful, but I graduated in 2005 and paid it off in the summer of 2016, think I started payments in January 2006 though. Just paid the automatic repayment amount, and no career breaks in that time.

I have two plan 1 loans under different T&Cs, the one I took out 3 years later gets cancelled about fifteen years earlier. I will never finish paying it back, but thats fine with me. I got annoyed when I was paying quite a lot back that there was no way of directing the money to one loan or the other, they treated them as the same despite the very different terms as they were both 'Plan 1'. No point me worrying about it.

I also feel sorry for younger cousins with absolutely enormous loans they never have a chance of paying off.

It took me about 5 years, started on salary of mid 30s but that jumped after a couple of years and I was earning around £83k when I paid it off. Made a few overpayments towards the end. Graduated with approx £14k debt.

I graduated in 2009 but only started earning enough to pay it off in about 2016, then last year got to the point where there was about £3k left so just paid it off because interest rates were starting to go up. So about 7 years earning between £30-£40k, if I hadn't paid that last bit off early I assume it would have taken about 9 years in total/16 since graduating?

But mine was comparatively low to start with because I got a reduction on tuition fees for staying in Wales, and didn't take out the third year maintenance loan because I had worked enough over the summer to just pay my house share in advance (because otherwise they wanted your guarantor to sign for shared liability and my parents weren't willing to do so). Also interest rates were very low so it didn't increase at the amount they do now, I can see how it would be really dispiriting to be paying hundreds a month and barely seeing the overall amount go down at all.

Just over £80k I think. Started paying it back as soon as I left but the interest is just insane! I do tend to forget about it, but it’s quite amusing sometimes to check the number! I think I worked out when graduating I’d have to average £70k salary over the 30 years of repayments to pay it off. Not very realistic!

I graduated in 2010 owing around £19K.
Then went on to do a post-grad course for a year after undergrad - funded by postgrad loan from Natwest (£25K).

Paid off £25K one first as the interest was really high and repayments were fixed and didn't correspond to salary or even whether I was employed or not! Paid that off in about 4 years, making overpayments whenever I had some spare cash.

Finished paying student loan for undergrad in 2019. So it took 10 years.

Started work in 2011 on £25k and have had payrises and bonuses etc. since then. The bonuses are taxed/SLC obviously, so they helped to chip away at it!

Approx 6 years. Salary 70k or so at the time (10 years ago).

For those asking about amount borrow vs interest, I originally borrowed about £17k and worked out that the interest I’ll have paid in total (due to really low rates for a good few years) will be about £6.5k.

Graduated in 2010, salary of £30k now - realistically I won't be able to pay it off without making overpayments (no plans to do so) and quite frankly I'm not worried at all. I will never earn a large enough salary that the repayments will get huge and be something I miss. Just biding my time for the next 11 years until it gets written off.

I graduated in 2001 and paid my loan off in 2016. From 2001-2014 my payments were only really covering the interest. Started work as a contractor in 2014 so paid the balance off in about 2 years (was about 12k I think)

I paid the last 3k off in a lump sum as well were looking to buy a house and just didn't want it counted against me (which is does even if they claim is doesn't)

It impacts affordability, whilst it's not a "debt" in the classic sense of the word that impacts your credit report, it still reduces your spending power, so if you are spending £200 a month on a student loan, you have £200 a month less than someone on the same salary without a loan, so yes it'll always count against you in that regard.

My husband owed about £27k when his plan 1 loan was due to start being repaid. He's 12 years in to repayment and this month should see it finally drop in to just 4 figures. If we can keep overpaying it it should be paid off in about 4 years. We could maybe have paid it off quicker but we paid just the bare minimum until maybe 5 or so years ago when it finally became clear (due to increased earnings) that he would pay it off before it gets wiped after 25 years, so we've been trying to pay it off faster the last few years. The interest rate is just ridiculous now though!

I paid mine off a couple of months ago. I borrowed around 13k I think and it took me until I was 36. Really started coming down in the last couple of years when I earned 50k. For ages I was on around 28k and barely seemed to move it.

I was the first year that had to pay fees - 1998. I also had a maintenance loan of I think around 20k across the four years. I hardly paid anything for the first few years but then requalified as a solicitor and paid it all off quite quickly then. Last payment was in 2010.

My husband (started same year as me took a bigger loan) has never paid any of it and will probably have it written off when he is 65. The student loans people once wrote to me to suggest that as I must be financially supporting him (which I was) I might like to pay his loan for him (I did not).

I started with £38k in 2012 and still have £22k. Pay off £220 a month on a £58k salary. Unlikely I'll earn much more so I'd say I've got at least 15 years left paying so it'll be written off around the same time.

I took the maximum amount. Repaid within just about 10yrs. Starting salary was 38k, didn’t grow much for the first 2-3 yrs but after had good jumps in pay. During the last year overpaid to get rid of the balance.

Bloody hell. How much did you borrow to begin with?

I think about 10 years.

Salary went from 27k post graduation and think I was earning 55k by the time I paid it off. I paid the last 3k off in a lump sum as well were looking to buy a house and just didn't want it counted against me (which is does even if they claim is doesn't)

My original debt was about 25k

Still paying mine off - graduated in 2014 with about £25k ish of debt. Don't think barely any of it has been paid off tbh. My salaries so far have been:

16
18
19.5
22
25
30
35
43.5

It took 17 years and by the time I'd paid it off, I was earning around £60k which was a few years ago now.

A student tax for the middle class and lower income families. If you're wealthy you're all good!

#keepwealthinequality 🤣🤣

It essentially should be viewed as a student tax now.