Student Loan When To Pay Back

If you’re a student loan borrower, you may have been bombarded with warnings about how quickly your student loan debt can grow. But there’s no need to panic about paying back your loans straight away. If you’ve finished studying full-time and are earning more than #21,000 per year, then it’s likely that you’ll be able to start repaying your loan without having to pay extra interest or fees on top. However, if you’re still studying full-time and earning less than #21k per year then there are ways in which it might be possible to reduce the amount of interest paid on your loan while still making regular payments towards it each month.

There’s no need to pay back your student loan as soon as you leave university or college.

A student loan is a debt, not a gift. It’s important to understand the difference between a debt and a grant. A grant is an amount of money that you don’t have to pay back, while a loan is an amount of money that you are required to pay back.

If you’re still confused, look at it this way: imagine someone offers you money and asks for nothing in return—wouldn’t that feel like something was being given away? And wouldn’t it feel like something was being taken from yourself if they had asked for something from you as well?

If you’re still studying full-time and earning less than #21,000 a year, you may be eligible for a partial or full remission on the interest rate.

If you’re still studying full-time and earning less than #21,000 a year, you may be eligible for a partial or full remission on the interest rate.

A partial remission means that the interest rate will not apply to your loan. A full remission would mean that there is no interest on any of your loans at all. This is only possible if you have already repaid a significant chunk of your loan when taking out this loan or are in a position where paying it back won’t negatively impact your family’s finances.

This can be further reduced if you’re in a low-paid job but still studying part-time, and not earning more than #25,725 a year.

If you earn more than #25,725 a year, your monthly repayments will increase and you won’t be able to claim the full amount of interest relief.

If you are married or in a civil partnership your spouse/civil partner can apply for joint consolidation if they have student loans that they took out before 6 March 2012. This means that both of your loans will be combined into one so that only one single repayment plan needs to be set up each month.

If you are married or in a civil partnership and are separated from your spouse/civil partner then any income-based repayment plan will continue until the date when one of the following events happens:

• Your separation is legally recognised by court order; or
• You remarry (or enter into another civil partnership); or
• You live with someone else as husband or wife and treat them as your spouse; or
• You form an intention to marry someone else (if this isn’t legally recognised by court order).

If you’re on a low income and suffering financial hardship, there are lots of funding options available.

The maximum student loan available is £9,000 for the 2017/18 academic year. There are also a number of funding options available to help students pay for their studies, including:

• Student loans – These can be used to cover tuition fees, books and other course costs. You don’t have to pay this back until you earn over £25,000 per year.
• Student grants – These are awarded by your university and go towards paying your tuition fees. They’re usually means-tested based on your household income and parental status. Grants may also cover some living expenses if you’re studying away from home or not living at home while you study as part of an apprenticeship or traineeship programme (or similar).
• Student bursaries (also known as awards) – Bursaries are non-repayable funds that support your studies by helping with the cost of equipment, travel expenses for placement work placements and any compulsory equipment that might not otherwise be covered by other sources of funding.

Most students don’t repay their loans until they’ve left university and are earning more than #21,000 per year.

• You can defer your loan payments while you are studying.
• You can apply for an interest-free loan while you are studying.
• You can apply for a part-time loan while you are studying.
• You can apply for a full-time loan while you are studying.

Don’t feel pressured to start repaying your loan straight away.

• Interest on student loans is calculated at the rate of inflation. This means that even if you pay back your loan early, the amount you owe will increase each year.
• You don’t have to start repaying your student loan until you are earning more than #21,000 per year (or between #21,000 and #25,999 for those who live in London). If this applies to you and you decide to defer paying back your loan for several years because of financial hardship, then interest will continue to be charged on it at the rate of inflation – but remember that if you leave it too long before deciding to start paying them off in full then there may be additional penalties applied when they do come knocking!
• It’s worth trying out our repayment calculator tool (http://www.studentloanrepaymentcalculator.co/) before making any decisions about whether or not now would be a good time for repayment – as well as being able to see how much interest has been added since starting university (this will depend on when exactly they were taken out).

I hope this has given you some useful information on when to start repaying your student loan. If you’re still unsure about the best time for you, then speak to your bank or visit the Student Loans Company website.