Student loan repayment

dowie said:
no it isn't right, you're still making loan payments and that affects how much you can afford to borrow
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It does factor into the affordability calculation (how much you can afford to pay each month), but not the total amount they'll lend you. So the size of the loan isn't relevant, because the monthly repayment is only a function of your salary, not the size of the loan. And the monthly repayments are generally small anyway, unless you're making big bucks. And if you're making big bucks, the student loan payment isn't going to stop you getting a mortgage.

So actually for all practical viewpoints, it really doesn't have any big effect.
 
MichaelAwkward said:
It is, but it doesn't appear on your credit rating or anything so the only effect depends on how much you earn above £25k, on which you pay 9%.

So, £50 a month less than on the older plan. £150 a month isn't a massive amount when you're bringing home nearly £2700 a month, I don't think.
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That's pretty much exactly the position I was in when i paid mine off a few years ago. And i can tell you the £150+ was definitely noticeable when you've got a mortgage, wife and two kids.
 
cheesyboy said:
That's pretty much exactly the position I was in when i paid mine off a few years ago. And i can tell you the £150+ was definitely noticeable when you've got a mortgage, wife and two kids.
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By the time most people graduating today have a mortgage, wife and two kids it'll nearly be time for them to write it off anyway (30 years).

And if the degree helped you to get the position where you're earning £45k, £150 a month isn't a huge burden to pay. You chose to get a mortgage, wife and have two kids after signing up to take on those loans so if it was a struggle, you only have yourself to blame.
 
My degree more than doubled my salary after a few years, can’t complain about the £150 odd a month I pay. Only about £10k left to pay as I was lucky and got in the final year of 3k fees.
 
Panos said:
And here we are, those of us living in England cannot finish our OU degree because of the high tuition fees in England (Scotland same course is 1/3 the price), nor are eligible for a student loan because we work.
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I don’t think there is any problem getting a student loan while working. I think the main criteria to be eligible is that you can’t already have a degree.
 
john_s said:
I don’t think there is any problem getting a student loan while working. I think the main criteria to be eligible is that you can’t already have a degree.
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I think he's got something a bit confused re: whatever happened with his degree. It is a bit of a shame if that has caused him to leave it without, essentially, completing the third year as I'm pretty sure there were arrangements in place to deal with these situations - you don't suddenly get your fees changed part way through a degree course.
 
dowie said:
I think he's got something a bit confused re: whatever happened with his degree. It is a bit of a shame if that has caused him to leave it without, essentially, completing the third year as I'm pretty sure there were arrangements in place to deal with these situations - you don't suddenly get your fees changed part way through a degree course.
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I think you could if you took a break from studying with the OU, as I think the transitional fees only applied for a limited period.
 
I graduated in 2002?. No idea what plan it was nor the interest rate (perhaps linked to the base rater), I could have saved the money, but chose to pay the loan off within 5 years.

No idea how it works now, but a loan is a loan and it was good to get rid.

Think I had 9k? Basically just under 3k per year for 4 years. I took the loan on my year out too. But I think you could only take half the amount.
 
dowie said:
I think he's got something a bit confused re: whatever happened with his degree. It is a bit of a shame if that has caused him to leave it without, essentially, completing the third year as I'm pretty sure there were arrangements in place to deal with these situations - you don't suddenly get your fees changed part way through a degree course.
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Is not "third year" unfortunately is level 3. I had just started my last courses level 2 that needed it's lab also. So I couldn't start quantum mechanics until after the cut off date.
Back then I was working for a danish shipping company, and had to schedule everything because I was sent abroad 3-4 months at the time.

Kinda difficult trying to squeeze 30 hours studying every week while working 10+ hours on site 7 days a week. Because there were 60 point courses, not 30 which I could do while working abroad.

What annoyed me most, was that I made a mistake had I known this will happen.
Should have listened the professors and taken the additional mathematics course needed to get a degree in Mathematics, and then one more on Physics to have a degree on that also. Instead went down Astronomy, Planetary science and the Astronomy lab course at Majorca as my next three courses :/

Nvm.
 
Panos said:
Is not "third year" unfortunately is level 3. I had just started my last courses level 2 that needed it's lab also. So I couldn't start quantum mechanics until after the cut off date.
Back then I was working for a danish shipping company, and had to schedule everything because I was sent abroad 3-4 months at the time.

Kinda difficult trying to squeeze 30 hours studying every week while working 10+ hours on site 7 days a week. Because there were 60 point courses, not 30 which I could do while working abroad.

What annoyed me most, was that I made a mistake had I known this will happen.
Should have listened the professors and taken the additional mathematics course needed to get a degree in Mathematics, and then one more on Physics to have a degree on that also. Instead went down Astronomy, Planetary science and the Astronomy lab course at Majorca as my next three courses :/

Nvm.
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I think the fees came in circa 2011/2012 - you'd have had up to 5-6 years to finish your 2nd year/level 2 and complete the 3rd year/level 3 courses... I think something definitely got confused there.

FYI the University of London runs distance learning programs too - they're a bit cheaper and it looks like you could complete a mathematics graduate diploma there or combine with economics for a degree.
 
dowie said:
I think the fees came in circa 2011/2012 - you'd have had up to 5-6 years to finish your 2nd year/level 2 and complete the 3rd year/level 3 courses... I think something definitely got confused there.

FYI the University of London runs distance learning programs too - they're a bit cheaper and it looks like you could complete a mathematics graduate diploma there or combine with economics for a degree.
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Actually I was looking at the economics one, because it will help my software developer career.

But whats annoying is at Scotland they are 1/4 the price
 
Lakeland said:
My degree more than doubled my salary after a few years, can’t complain about the £150 odd a month I pay. Only about £10k left to pay as I was lucky and got in the final year of 3k fees.
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I feel sorry for people studying now. 9k a year fees, how do they even manage to pay that??

The maximum student loan I could get was 4k a year and did not have to pay any fees at all as my parents eared under the threshold. The 4k didn't even go that far so it was a good job I saved a bit of money before I went to uni

Graduated 2007 (course was 2003 - 2007)
 
Guest2 said:
I feel sorry for people studying now. 9k a year fees, how do they even manage to pay that??

The maximum student loan I could get was 4k a year and did not have to pay any fees at all as my parents eared under the threshold. The 4k didn't even go that far so it was a good job I saved a bit of money before I went to uni

Graduated 2007 (course was 2003 - 2007)
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Christ. 9k over 4 years Vs 9k per year now.

I hope my lad doesn't want to go to uni...or need to. Course if he does want to then I'll support. But I hope he just has entrepreneurial streak. I keep pointing at my computer and showing him the apps and software I build to get him interested. He's only 6!
 
tbh.. there shouldn't be a time limit on it - recover from the persons estate at death if needed. The arbitrary cut off where the debt is just wiped is silly and potentially going to cause further problems down the line.
 
dowie said:
tbh.. there shouldn't be a time limit on it - recover from the persons estate at death if needed. The arbitrary cut off where the debt is just wiped is silly and potentially going to cause further problems down the line.
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University education should be free tbh, even though it's overrated as you can learn more these days from google & youtube if you specialise into a subject than you'll ever learn in 3 years at university doing a degree that tries to teach a wide range of things that only just relate to each other
 
Minusorange said:
University education should be free tbh, even though it's overrated as you can learn more these days from google & youtube if you specialise into a subject than you'll ever learn in 3 years at university doing a degree that tries to teach a wide range of things that only just relate to each other
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I'm not sure it is feasible with the numbers who want to go these days nor really fair on taxpayers who opt not to go.

I'd support certain areas being free - like nursing, or people (especially those from subject areas where they're struggling to recruit) who opt to go into teaching getting their loan debts wiped in return for X years teaching in a state school etc..
 
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