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I have two student loans, of which I have repaid not a penny. Tim Send a noteboard - 29/04/2012 02:21:09 PM
I don't even know how much is outstanding. Probably about £20,000 total by now. The first one began in 2003. I've not paid a penny of either of them, nor been asked to. In the UK you don't pay a set amount per month or year like a mortgage: you pay a percentage of your annual income above a certain threshold. So it's more like tax than a commercial loan, and in fact it's deducted from your salary along with your tax.

The percentage is fixed at 9%, and the threshold goes up a bit each year: currently it's £15,795. At no time since the first loan started have I earned enough in a single year to make any repayments. However, this will probably change in a year's time. Thankfully they won't double up and ask me for 18%: the earlier loan will be repaid first, and the later one will wait.

There is interest, but it's (supposed to be) exactly the same as inflation, which makes it interest-free in real terms. I didn't actually need my first loan, as tuition fees were only £1,200 a year back then, but I realised it was the cheapest loan I'd ever get, so I took it out anyway and invested it, hoping for an above-inflation return. It actually worked out pretty well.

If you die or reach retirement age without having paid back the full amount, any balance is wiped.
Vigilantibus non dormientibus jura subveniunt.

—Nous disons en allemand : le guerre, le mort, le lune, alors que 'soleil' et 'amour' sont du sexe féminin : la soleil, la amour. La vie est neutre.

—La vie ? Neutre ? C'est très joli, et surtout très logique.
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