Reading the comments here has been really eye opening to me.
I always knew that tuition was orders-of-magnitude more expensive across the Atlantic but now it's a bit clearer why.
Here (Northern Ireland, but it applies to the UK as a whole), students don't start to repay their loans until their earnings are over a certain threshold, then repayments are proportional to how much they earn over that level. If their annual earnings ever fall below it again, payments stop until they're back on their feet.
I can't remember exactly what my interest rate was but I know it was fixed BELOW the central bank rate at the time.
Standard financial advice here is to max the loan out even if you weren't in need of it and just put it in a savings account for the interest (probably not worth it these days).
Lastly, if the loans aren't fully repaid by retirement age, they're written off.
So yeah, you folks are really getting screwed over there.
I always knew that tuition was orders-of-magnitude more expensive across the Atlantic but now it's a bit clearer why.
Here (Northern Ireland, but it applies to the UK as a whole), students don't start to repay their loans until their earnings are over a certain threshold, then repayments are proportional to how much they earn over that level. If their annual earnings ever fall below it again, payments stop until they're back on their feet.
I can't remember exactly what my interest rate was but I know it was fixed BELOW the central bank rate at the time.
Standard financial advice here is to max the loan out even if you weren't in need of it and just put it in a savings account for the interest (probably not worth it these days).
Lastly, if the loans aren't fully repaid by retirement age, they're written off.
So yeah, you folks are really getting screwed over there.