Student Loans

[Guest loopylisa]

Hi

 

I have a MASSIVE student loan debt- like 20K and growing due to the interest. I understand I will have to pay it back from Australia but I also want to go onto to do a clinical masters in Australia. Looks like I am going to end up with HECS and a UK student loan. Does anyone else have experience of paying back student loans from AUS to UK? I am a AUS citizen and will be staying permanently

[Guest Adelaide_bound]

what style of loan is it? Pre or post 1998?

 

If it is the newer style, you just fill in a form every year whilst you are doing your Masters, if you are a full time student, as you won't be earning enough to pay it back (the payback level is something like £18000 for Australia), you'll have to fill it in every year to defer, and then sort out sending back your payments when you are earning over £18000 each year (which is annoying as they charge you for paying in AUSD$, so you can either pay them loads of it coming out of your Aus bank account, or arrange for it to go into a UK bank account and then pay them from that).

 

(Having just seen your sig, I'm guessing its a new style loan?)

[Guest loopylisa]

Its a new style loan im afraid- graduated from UG in 2007. I also have a career and development loan from barclays which is £5k. So I cant get them to take it directly out of my wages and they charge for paying in dollars? That seems a little rotten to me

[Guest loopylisa]

UG= Undergraduate degree

[Guest Adelaide_bound]

if you search on the student loans website for 'overseas payments' you can find all the forms you need I think. The whole company are one of the most useless in the world, if they were to take payments in overseas payers as well, I think they would melt down!

[Guest loopylisa]

I'm just waiting for them to meltdown and then maybe I wont need to pay it!!! Even when I was earning a typical graduate salary for psychology grads the interest on the loan was still more than the repayments. Now thats not sustainable surely?

[Guest Adelaide_bound]

Best to not get me started on the student loans company - they are evil and I can't quite believe they are allowed to continue running as they do, due to the lies they peddle and how they break contracts, however you as the student are cast as the actual evil one - but then that's our Gov for you (no doubt, the same in any country, but there you go).