is everyone in debt, or just everyone my missus knows?

[Philly Q]

Yeah, it's tough for you guys with student loans (they didn't exist in my day).

The government claim they want to discourage a "debt culture" and yet they're happy for countless 21-year-olds to leave University with many thousands of pounds of debt.  :?

[38thBeatle]

No Johnny, we got some back but the dozy sod had given her his credit card  to use. He was thinking through his trousers unfortunately.We got a few quid back but nothing of any great significance.

[PoshCollins]

When is a Kitchen meant to cost £17,000  :roll:  

[Will]

Yeah, it's tough for you guys with student loans (they didn't exist in my day).

The government claim they want to discourage a "debt culture" and yet they're happy for countless 21-year-olds to leave University with many thousands of pounds of debt.  :?

More than that, they are encouraging more university attendence, and trying to increase statistics in education (as in most things as well)
My school has treated me worse and given me less support for being the only person not going to uni.

And I'm to young to get into debt at the mo :) want to avoid it really

[MrBump]

I was completely free from (non mortgage) debt until last week at which point I bought a new car.

Bugger.

[Ted]

If you're a student and you know what you want to do i.e. your course is relatively vocational student loan should not put you off...

its the cheapest loan you'll ever get! no job, no need to pay off...

[PoshCollins]

Anyone to hazard a guess what Uni or College will be like for someone my age?   .

I'm 16 in July.

[_tom_]

Not sure about in the future but right now its about £6-7k a year. Quite a lot but uni is fun (until everyone runs out of money/stops going out), so its probably worth it really.

[Jonny]

Not sure about in the future but right now its about £6-7k a year. Quite a lot but uni is fun (until everyone runs out of money/stops going out), so its probably worth it really.

For me it's not that much:

1. You get a student loan so you pay when you leave Uni and have a reasonable income, i.e. currently £15 000
2. If you applied then your library board will pay for £1000-2000 of it for you.

etc. etc. plus grants and all that malarkey.

[_tom_]

I didnt know anything about that library board thing. I got a £250 "regional bursary" though just for living within 20 or 25 miles of the uni, which funded my Pearl LP :lol:

Btw, until I find a summer job do you reckon I can get on jobseekers allowance, since technically I am able to work but havent been able to find a job yet, or due to me being a uni student am I exempt? Dad suggested it but I feel so lower class and cheap just thinking about it :lol:

edit - turns out students cant get jobseekers allowance. Time to start sending out CVs then :\

[ToneMonkey]

I still owe about £16,000 to Student Loans (who have just caught me up after 5 odd years and now go for £140 a month) and about £8,000 on a loan........ And just bought the wife an £8,000 car which I'm now tied into.

I also owe a couple of people beers.

Owing money isa right paini n the arse, for all you young 'uns.  Don't get credit cards, they really do take the proverbial.

[FELINEGUITARS]

I have a loan for the business which I needed after doing several guitar shows (another benefit of not doing one this year) and also I used it to get rid of a large debt on a credit card.
Now I am really careful not to run up any debts on a credit card that I wont be able to pay off at the end of the month.

In fact I chose to play the credit ratings game as best I can
I do use my credit card a lot every month - payingh lots of bills and buying stuff , but then at the end of the month when the statement comes through I just pay it in FULL

What this does is score me lots of points for spending via credit but because I always pay it off in full makes me look like I'm affluent when in fact I am just careful. I chose not to overspend (he lied) unless its on tools and stuff for work

My only vices are CDs, gigs, food, clothesetc and the occaisional amplifier.
Oh and hair products too!
Guitars I seem to have enough of strangely enough

[mikeluke]

Long time away but... the students out there and recent leavers - how much on average do I need to budget per year for fees etc? What is a typical student loan debt? We started saving £50 a month per kid starting when they were born for this 'eventuality' - so with luck they'll have around £11,000 plus the interest when they get to go to college - assuming the idle little gits get that far  :roll:

"Wasn't like that in my day, lad, I'll tell thee...."

[Twinfan]

Apart from the (10 year fixed rate) mortgage I've got:

* Car loan with 12 months to pay
* Sofa loan (0% finance though, so that's OK  ;) )
* Fairly chunky credit card balance

The credit card is the 'bad' debt if you like, but if I needed to I could sell my motorbike etc and pay it off.  I'm a live now, pay later kinda guy  :roll:

We're having a belt tightening this year and trying to cut debts a bit.  Mrs TF is selling her motorbike as she doesn't use it any more, plus I've cleared a few guitars etc.  I'm getting more sensible as I get older, but I don't regret the choices I've made or the money I've borrowed in the past.

You only live once, right?

[ToneMonkey]

I think a typical student loan debt is in the region of £10k.  I was a bit different from most students in the fact that my folks couldn't afford to give me any money (didn't have to pay fee's either what with being a scivvy).

You might have the trouble of having to fork out for fee's.... I did hear that things like engineering might have an additional £3k a year put on as they are expensive to teach (they could just chuck out all the bloody sociology and media studies students so that there's some money left over for real subjects - rant over  :roll: )