Students who graduated in the last 5 years..

Erm, off the top of my head I owe ~£16K. I've been working for over a year now but haven't made any payments either..

If you pay minimum amounts back it doesn't even cover the interest. Probably why mine is 2k higher than when I left!

(plus I went traveling for a year etc.)
 
4 year BSc here.

I came out with only my SLC debt. However I worked part time for the duration of my degree and that paid all my costs. Including rent and running my car. I stashed all my loan payments in the highest interest ISA I could find each year. I have now probably made around 1.5k interest on my sfudent loan and will probably use it as a deposit on a house.

Never had a credit card or used my student overdraft.

I don't t understand the whole "poor" student thing. It just takes a part time job and a bit of effort to balance your time between work and uni.

/Salsa

Just out of curiosity, how much was your rent/general outgoings, and how much (total) did you receive in loans/bursary/etc. I just ask as what you've described is verging on impossible for a lot of students sadly :(
 
I owned not a penny aside from student loans.
I worked at Tesco for the first 3 years, then I had a placement year, then in my final year I got £1000 sponsorship so focussed on my studies and left good old Tesco.
I always worked through the student holidays. In summer 2008 I worked average 4 nights per week at Meir Tesco (Stoke On Trent) as I was transferring stores and that was the take-it-or-leave-it job when the recession hit.

My parents helped me throughout uni with hall fees, as both parents worked and were over the grant threshold. Also if they had not helped me I would not have been able to go University, so I am very grateful for their help.
I did a year of a PhD but quit as I hated it, but that was funded.

I know plenty of examples of students who owed a fortune when they left University. Makes me laugh when many of them turned their nose up at jobs such as till bitch, trolley boy or burger flipper, only for them to graduate and end up in that sort of role!

Debt aside from student loans:
1 year of Mech Eng - £0
3 Years of Manufacturing Eng - £0
1 year of PhD - I got paid £13k tax free + £4k course fee, free flat/bills/food as was a hall warden......on paper it was awesome, but in reality I was very unhappy so I left.

Student loan debt
For my Undergraduate study of 1 year mech and 3 years man I owed £4800 ish when I left.






A question I must ask everyone.....what on earth did they do for 3-4 months over the summer if they were jobless? I would have been pennyless and bored out my head.
 
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Just out of curiosity, how much was your rent/general outgoings, and how much (total) did you receive in loans/bursary/etc. I just ask as what you've described is verging on impossible for a lot of students sadly :(

Loan amount was 4.8k a year with no bursary, so 19.2k total.

Outgoings were somewhere in the region of £650 - 750 a month, £350 a month of which was rent & bills sharing with 2 other lads.

I worked 16 - 20 hours a week during term time and full time during holidays.

/Salsa
 
Just out of curiosity, how much was your rent/general outgoings, and how much (total) did you receive in loans/bursary/etc. I just ask as what you've described is verging on impossible for a lot of students sadly :(

Both myself and my girlfriend have a 3.5k loan and a 2.5k grant a year. I make a bit of extra money fixing PCs, laptops, phones etc. Our annual outgoing on our 2 bedroom flat, bills, food, car costs etc is around 13k. We then have around 5k or so of disposable income a year.

We both feel we live comfortably. So when we both manage to obtain graduate level jobs we will maintain our current living standards while saving the extra income for a deposit for a house.
 
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If you pay minimum amounts back it doesn't even cover the interest. ...

I think it entirely depends on what your salary is. My loan payments were automatically started when I left university, as they started at £15K annual salary and I earnt more than that in my first graduate job.

For me, I have maybe a year and a bit left before my £11K loan is fully repaid through compulsory PAYE deductions. When I was 18, I always dreamed of repaying the loan before I turned 30, so I'm very happy that that will now become a reality. :)
 
That's the standard amount, if you're not entitled to any extra from means tested family income.

The majority are entitled to at least a fair bit from the means tested section, mind. I'm not at all from a poor background and get £5kish each year.
 
The majority are entitled to at least a fair bit from the means tested section, mind. I'm not at all from a poor background and get £5kish each year.

Yeah I guess being given that much extra would definitely make things a lot easier!
 
I don't think that's something to take pride in; an interest free overdraft is wonderful if you are sensible. It enables you much greater flexibility in budgeting. A zero percent credit card does the same, and both build credit ratings for later life.

Who said I'm taking pride in it? I just answered the question.

I'd rather not have debt because yeah sure it's a 0% overdraft while you're a student and what happens when you're at the end of your course still £1000 into your interest free overdraft and oh wait I'm not a student anymore bye bye 0% overdraft. No thanks. I have worked full time over each summer since I've been at university so that I can live comfortably and not have to use an overdraft. Sure I could just live out of an overdraft like some of my friends but I'd rather not because of the scenario I describe above. Also earning extra money allows me to treat myself to stuff if I want to.
 
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Undergraduate - £0 debt
MSc - Paid for course using money I saved whilst working during Undergrad.

£0 debt leaving university.

Good times.
 
Living at home and working weekends, no debt.

Just logged onto the SLC site, got £22k with them, though that's not taken into account the repayments made this year, which are just under £100/month.
 
I had around £2k of debt as I worked part time to cover my expenses, and I had just stopped drinking so no expensive nights out eating my funds.
 
Who said I'm taking pride in it? I just answered the question.

I'd rather not have debt because yeah sure it's a 0% overdraft while you're a student and what happens when you're at the end of your course still £1000 into your interest free overdraft and oh wait I'm not a student anymore bye bye 0% overdraft. No thanks. I have worked full time over each summer since I've been at university so that I can live comfortably and not have to use an overdraft. Sure I could just live out of an overdraft like some of my friends but I'd rather not because of the scenario I describe above. Also earning extra money allows me to treat myself to stuff if I want to.

Hey I'm with you! I work three jobs at uni to give myself a lifestyle which is probably much better than the majority of students have.. it doesn't mean that utlilising free credit when it's available is a bad thing. I'm completely aware when I'm no longer a student I can't use that overdraft... but while I am, I may as well take advantage of the freedom of budgetting it allows.
 
Still at uni, I haven't dipped into my overdraft just yet (part time job helps!) but it's only my first year and I'm just about to move out so we'll see.
 
Who said I'm taking pride in it? I just answered the question.

I'd rather not have debt because yeah sure it's a 0% overdraft while you're a student and what happens when you're at the end of your course still £1000 into your interest free overdraft and oh wait I'm not a student anymore bye bye 0% overdraft. No thanks. I have worked full time over each summer since I've been at university so that I can live comfortably and not have to use an overdraft. Sure I could just live out of an overdraft like some of my friends but I'd rather not because of the scenario I describe above. Also earning extra money allows me to treat myself to stuff if I want to.

You seem to know little about the student accounts.

that interest free overdraft carry on for up to 3 years. For example.

mine was 2 at end of uni. After I left I was given 1 year to drop it to 1k interest free then following year 500 then 0. So no you not saddled with interest to pay.
 
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