More Facts On College Loans And Student Loan Calculator
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| Student Loan Calculator |
Under the Student Loan Scheme, students who don’t have enough funds to finance their college education can borrow money from the government to help pay for their tertiary study, but they also have to start paying the loan back once they earn over a certain amount.
Since the requirement of different loan providers varies, you are advised to find out what your intending loan provider requires before even thinking of collecting a loan. You need to find out what type of loan plan is available to you and which one suits you best. Student loans are ‘unsecured’ loans; being an unsecured loan only implies that you don’t have to provide an asset such as a house or car as security, like other loans require. Student loans are not ‘means tested’, and what that simply means is that what you or your parents earn or own does not affect your ability to get a loan. Nevertheless, just bear in mind that if you are under 18 you will definitely be required to get your parents’ consent to get a student loan.
Perhaps you may not know this, but there are actually three parts to a student loan, plus you do not have to borrow all three parts. Here are the three parts,
- Compulsory fees: student loan for compulsory fees takes care of and pays all of your compulsory tuition fees. You are not allowed to pay for any other fee from the loan for compulsory fees and as such, fees are paid directly to your institution or education provider. In the previous article, more was discussed on compulsory fees. This takes us to the next, which is the course-related cost.
- Course-related costs: loans for course-related costs covers a lump sum for things like stationery, textbooks, childcare, travel, or computer equipment. The course-related costs part of a Student Loan helps with costs related to your study and as your loan provider may want, it is paid directly to your bank account. To prevent wastage and too much debts, some loan providers set a standard; in the sense that if you pay back your course-related costs within a year, you are not entitled to borrow the money again in that same year. It is very important to note that you don’t have to claim all your costs at once; you only need to specify when you apply how much you need – take note that you may need to provide evidence of your costs, after which you can claim the balance at any time up until your course finishes.
- Living costs: the student loan for living costs can help with your weekly expenses especially if you do not qualify for a student allowance or if you do not qualify for the full amount of student allowance. You can borrow up to a set amount each week for living expenses, which will be credited to your account. However, do bear in mind that if you receive a student allowance this will reduce the amount you can borrow for living costs. Unlike student allowance, student loan for living costs is not affected by any other income that you may earn. However, it is strongly suggested that if you do start to earn other income, then adopt the idea to reduce your living costs payments by paying part of the loan or collecting only little, because what you borrow you have to pay back. What you should expect to pay for the costs of living while attending school all depends on the type of lifestyle you have as well as what costs you usually have for living. One of the main factor that usually takes up the most of the funds is rent is a main factor and takes up most of the funds needed, next to consider is food and other misc. living expenses. The misc. living expenses which include things like insurance, gas, clothes and so on, now depends on your life style and the area where you live in since the price of these things can vary. However, the fact remains that students should only be concerned with borrowing to be able to afford the basics, which is needed to survive while attending school.
Student loans do help students when in the need of funding during times where work is limited and money is insufficient. Student loans are usually a little more expensive in terms of interest as a result of the fact that most students starting off do not have a great credit score. The importance of having a high credit score is that you will be paying lower interest rates, but when an inexperienced student seeks funding they may pay high rates. The good thing is that students are usually allowed to defer payments their loan till graduation, so while attending school, you need not bother about the student loan calculator till after graduation.
