Paying uni fees- anyone done it?

[homebythesea]

We are planning on paying DS fees come September (yes I know it's not advised by Martin Lewis etc etc,). I just wonder what the process is- do we get an invoice from the Uni and if so when?

Sorry but £45k of readies should and could be invested in far better ways than pre paying student loans
and
anybody with that much in readies is by definition ultra rich
(I'm an accountant : top 0.5% by income = family income over £250k = a fair chunk of MN posters)

if you have that much in readies and do not have a financial adviser you are mad

if you have that much in readies and do not have a financial adviser you are mad

Im sorry but that 45k you mentioned isn't that much in real terms.

Talkin We pay it out of income, and get help from dh's employer as part of his employment package.

If people have that money set aside for paying for uni (cheaper than school fees anyway), then it's up to them surely? It's not 'prepaying' student loans either, as none are necessary if you are picking up the fees and living costs.

We have cash in the bank Talkin no need to consult anyone

yeah, god forbid that people can actually manage their own money.

OP we have done this plus Masters for two DCs and are half way through doing it for a vet medic. The eldest is now working and incredibly grateful that he isn't paying a loan from his graduate salary. Our logic was that if we hoard it and wait until DH dies then they would pay IT on the money whereas if we paid their fees etc then they would have the benefit of the money but up front. I'm sure Martin the money man will have loads of reasons why our logic is wrong but we are very comfortable with our decision even though it has meant we cut back on some other spending to compensate.

Oh good god, of course we have financial advice (sometimes). We are also capable of making our own investment decisions, have good working knowledge of the tax system and many investments across property and shares. We also happen to have a fair bit of cash! Didn't think this would turn into a financial management lesson....

Didn't think this would turn into a financial management lesson

Every day's a school day an all that jazz

My parents paid my uni fees - under and post grad and in both instances (different uni's) I was sent an email invoice to the uni email address for the full amount a couple of weeks after the first term started.

Or a first year micro economics course - where you learn that psychology plays a large part in individual decision making, and so affects the macro.

So we are allowed to have different attitudes to risk, debt, and apply different values towards outcomes such as allowing our DC to enter their adult years loan free. Even if the financial management brigade think us irrational, feckless or whatever....

I am tempted to drum up a few accountant jokes. Economists may be dismal but at least we asign a value to everything. (The old whore joke that regularly comes up in Econ 101.)

I would add that it is not how much money you have. Anecdotally but people with least are often most reluctant to see their children take on debt, hence a willingness of parents to take on second jobs (B&Q with its willingness to take on older staff being an obvious example) to keep loans to a minimum. People I have talked to are desperately proud that their children are at University and will support them every way they can, but I wonder sometimes about the poor choices of University, and poor subject choices. Going to University is a huge investment decision, yet advice around choices can be poor. My instinct is that fairly soon we will start to see misselling claims.

For me a reason to stay out of the whole thing. DC are at University. it costs money. They are my DC, and I want them to go there, so I pay.

It would be hard to argue in terms of money that paying upfront is the best financial decision but for some people, they prefer to gain less financially but have no debt hanging over them.

If you're able to pay fees by credit card, I'd do it if it costs the same. I paid my eldest son's accommodation of 4.5k this year on my credit card, gaining almost £50 from the rewards scheme and also delaying paying effectively by 4-6 weeks, then he paid me that 4.5k from his full grant plus a little bit of his student loan. If you pay the accommodation fees in one go at his university, you receive £250 on your smart card which can pay for all sorts of stuff on campus, not just food, so next year on 3.8k accommodation (he managed the cheapest this time), we'll get back a bit over £300 on 3.8k, that's almost 8% gained (saved).

My eldest was in a shared flat and will be again next year, my 2nd son will be in the same type too hopefully at his choice university. Cheapest and it's just fine. More social than self-contained en-suite too.

£45k of spare cash is not a large amount for some people by the way and plenty of us who earn a lot manage our own money and investments. We are not "mad" not to have a financial adviser. We are better than many financial advisers.

As someone said above even if you'd get more interest by keeping your savings for our family which has the money (university will cost the same as private school anyway and paid out of income) doesn't like debt. We are one of the families who prefer not to have debt having over us even if we lose out financially by that (eg if the children never earn enough to have to repay the debt etc which is unlikely given what their older siblings earn in their 20s)
With the older children I paid termly I think from memory - a third of the fees per term and I paid it direct to the university.