Student Finance Statements

[Okki]

I have just received mine and am absolutely horrified at how much the interest has shot up. I used to make voluntary payments to cover interest but I can't do that any more as what I could afford to pay now equates to 25% of the interest charged.

My DS got his yesterday. £200 a month increase! Madness.

I've been a teacher for over 12 years. I'm still paying mine off and I'm in my late 30s. I was told at the time the interest and the repayments were so tiny you'd never notice it coming out of pay packet. Utter rubbish.

Mine will be paid off in 2020. Thank goodness.

@skippy67 £200 increase? 😳
Do you mind saying what the total each month is and out of what post tax income? Feeling pretty shaky that I might have saddled mine with more than is reasonable.

Remember that loans under the old system before 2012 have different rules and are repaid in a different way to those under the current system.
Repayments under the current system are entirely based on what you earn not what you owe.
So if you earn £30 k a year your student loan repayment is approx £385 a year and is the same whether you owe £10000 or £100000.

(£385 is roughly 9% of your earnings over £25725)

The interest charged has doubled from one year to the next. My postgraduate loan is now being charged over 6%. That's ridiculous and I don't know how they can justify that tbh. Undergraduate loan also doubled but is less. I'm never going. To be paying back capital at this rate - only interest. Two loans combined = over £100 a month in interest.

I've not started paying mine off yet. £55k and climbing doubt I'll ever pay it off tbh

Okki it may be accruing £100 a month interest but it's misleading to imply that your monthly payments are increased because of the interest.

@HoozTurnIsIt how have I implied that when all I've said is I'm never going to be paying off capital with interest increases going the way they are.

Mine has increased in total amount owed since i started paying it back. Paid back £3300 interest in same time £3800.....

I don't know the monthly totals. He'll start working in August so he'll know then. He seems quite chilled about it though...

I just look at mine and laugh. Doing what I do now. I’m never going to scrape the surface as I don’t earn enough. Even if i get promoted unlikely then it will still be peanuts I’d be paying each month

With the current rate of interest I am paying back less than it is accruing each month. There is no incentive at all to pay it back and it is very disheartening.

I graduated in 2011 and have been paying it back since 2012. I actually don't think I've paid down any of the capital in that time. I can't see it ever being even remotely close to paid off.

Mine gets written off next year, cannot wait!!!

Feel sorry for the 2nd wave loans they were just brutal repayment terms

Read up on what Martin Lewis of Moneysavingexpert says about student loans and ignore the interest. Something like 80% of students won't pay off all their loan and the interest could be a million pounds a month and it makes precisely zero difference to how much you will pay. Just let the money go out every month and forget about it, and FFS don't go making voluntary overpayments unless you like throwing your money into a black hole.

Martin Lewis is campaigning on this to change the way the statements are formatted so it doesn't show the total amount you owe. He's heard from people who have been scared by the total figures and paid off lump sums which will ultimately be for nothing as the interest just swallows it back up. I wish I'd known more when I was at university as my dad gave me 4k so I didn't take out the full amount in the final year but I will still be paying off the same. I could've used that 4k toward a house deposit and got on the property ladder earlier.

I've just checked my account and I owe just over £19300. I borrowed about £20-21k.

7 years of repayments

My interest rate is 1.5% - is that the same for everyone?

I left with £12,000 ish. I pay £3,000 a year (self employed so it gets taken by my accountant and had the odd maternity leave which changed this) and after 6 years I still owe £4000 🙄 the interest is a killer

Just checked mine and I reckon I'll pay mine off in ten years.

I'll be 36. Woo.

Remember that they get written off after @30 years anyway. And repayments are only based on your income. If you stop earning, repayments stop.

You need to view it more as a tax than a loan.

I don’t trust the terms to stay the same. They already haven’t. I’m glad I’ve just come to the final payment of mine.

@Violetroselily I graduated 2017 and I have 6% interest on both my loans which are (£45k) undergrad and (10k) Masters - they are to be paid concurrently.

And they started adding interest the day I started uni, not the day I finished. They don't tell you that clearly when you're applying at school 🙄

Remember that they get written off after @30 years anyway.

Not necessarily. Depends on when you were studying

I'll never pay mine off. Just got first statement for my post grad loan and it's gone up to £50/month interest. Plus the £37 grand undergraduate loan that goes up every year despite the money taken from salary. I retire in 14 years and my salary is only £27000 so I just ignore it now.

Still got 2 units and a thesis to finish as well

Then I'm thinking about a phd before I'm too old. Another £25000 to add to the balance.