student loan of 40000?

OVERTONE69 · 07-10-2010 1:59pm #1

After much looking around for deferred loans or career development loans ive discovered that Ireland doe not handle loans the same way other countries do.

And i'm really stuck here. I have a part time job with dunnes but their making me work 30+ hours a week. im getting home at 1 in the morning and driving 1 + 1/2 hours to college.

Ive looked everywhere for a job but no where is hiring. absolutely no where.
I live on my own and my rent + bills+ food + petrol costs me about 200 euro a week.

if i keep goin down this road, im either gonna fail my degree or get a degree with a score so low its not worth anything.

so i came up with a massive crazy idea.

get a loan:

advantages to my situation is im already in my third year of a 4 year course and just need to support myself for 2 more years.

another advantage is that its a computer science degree, so work should still be easy to find once i graduate, especially with a high score honours degree.

i started looking for deferred loans where you only pay the interest but they seem to not exist.

so i figure out the math.

Not including summer jobs or internships,

€200 a week for 2 years from now is 20800.

when i take out a loan of a 5 year term, for 40000

the monthly repayments come to
796.00.

796 x 24 = €19104.

and then finally the 40000-19104 comes to 20896.

so just a little over what i need to survive

The problem with this is that its unheard of, getting a loan and paying it back with part of the loan until you i can get a job.

I'm aware of many risks. But i need to ask the advice of someone more financially able. hence why im writing it here.

has anyone any advice on this topic?

MagicMarker · 07-10-2010 2:03pm

You'd be an absolute fool to take out a 40k loan tbh. If you can't afford college full time then stop and try and find somewhere where you can go part time while continuing to work.

OVERTONE69 · 07-10-2010 3:07pm

Believe me ive tried looking for jobs. but no wheres hiring. and im not sure part time course helps the situation. i'd be doing the same amount of work, just swapped.

and my job would get most of my energy instead of my college.

coffee_cake · 07-10-2010 3:11pm

Can you defer 4th year for a year and work full time and save a lot?
Maybe by the end of that you will be able to find a different part time job or you could get a smaller loan for a year to scrape by. Plus you should have savings if you live as minimally as possible. You shouldn't need all that much. I think ulster bank used to have deferred student loans but I don't know if they would now.

Also if you are spending that much on petrol does your college have a bus service? Maybe you could drive only part of the way to where a bus goes and park&ride?
Also if you are renting on your own you could try moving to shared accommodation somewhere different? You must be able to save a lot more then? I think that's more typical for students!

Savman · 07-10-2010 3:19pm

What bank is gonna loan 40k to a student working in Dunnes? Anglo!

MagicMarker · 07-10-2010 3:20pm

OVERTONE69 wrote: »

Believe me ive tried looking for jobs. but no wheres hiring. and im not sure part time course helps the situation. i'd be doing the same amount of work, just swapped.

and my job would get most of my energy instead of my college.

So which would you prefer, a higher workload or a mountain of debt? Thousands upon thousands of people study part time and are able to get by, there's no reason why you couldn't too.

OVERTONE69 · 07-10-2010 3:31pm

bluewolf wrote: »

Can you defer 4th year for a year and work full time and save a lot?
Maybe by the end of that you will be able to find a different part time job or you could get a smaller loan for a year to scrape by. Plus you should have savings if you live as minimally as possible. You shouldn't need all that much. I think ulster bank used to have deferred student loans but I don't know if they would now.

Also if you are spending that much on petrol does your college have a bus service? Maybe you could drive only part of the way to where a bus goes and park&ride?
Also if you are renting on your own you could try moving to shared accommodation somewhere different? You must be able to save a lot more then? I think that's more typical for students!

Deffering 4th year is'nt of the list. its actually quite a good idea.

There's a big if involved though as to whether im able to save up that much.

Im already in shared accomadation, i spend 325 euro on rent monthly. about 50-70 euro on bills.
and petrol comes to 40 euro a week.

i would gladly get the 75 to college every morning but getting the bus to work afterward would mean a lot of bus travel and their not nearly as reliable as having a car is. what i save in money i lose in time.
Im also involved in a bit of a carpool so other people would lose out aswell.

in terms of savings. in the 3 weeks ive been in college, ive worked 90 hours, ive saved about 250 euro. Thats all i could spare.

Regardless of all those ideas deferring 4th year wasn't one i really gave thought to. Although i dont like the idea of dropping out for a year and just adding a year without a degree, ill consider it. So thanks for that

OVERTONE69 · 07-10-2010 3:36pm

MagicMarker wrote: »

So which would you prefer, a higher workload or a mountain of debt? Thousands upon thousands of people study part time and are able to get by, there's no reason why you couldn't too.

ill look into it then. try figure out more about part time. Are there degrees the same as full time and such.

i suppose i could dumb down the mountain of debt by doing something profitable over the summer, i hadnt really done the math yet so i didnt want to count it in.

OVERTONE69 · 07-10-2010 3:39pm

Savman wrote: »

What bank is gonna loan 40k to a student working in Dunnes? Anglo!

all Aib students loans require a guarantor now. so they rate the guarantors income aswell as my own.

kmick · 07-10-2010 3:44pm

40k is a hell of a lot of money to borrow. If it were me I would scale back the Dunnes work to the weekends and take out a much smaller loan. So you maintain an income but can afford to study during the week. Do you have a parent/rich uncle/freind who could loan you the money interest free?

OVERTONE69 · 07-10-2010 3:53pm

kmick wrote: »

40k is a hell of a lot of money to borrow. If it were me I would scale back the Dunnes work to the weekends and take out a much smaller loan. So you maintain an income but can afford to study during the week. Do you have a parent/rich uncle/freind who could loan you the money interest free?

If i could roll back dunnes then it wouldnt be a problem.

There not as easy as everyone seems to think. last year it was no problem working 18-22 hours a week. now a new manager who'll be there for the next two years and has a vengeance against students. wont let me work any less than 30 hours.

It's taking a serious toll on my education and im really desperate, thats why i thought of the loan.

Most of my family is quite poor, but there is one person, my girlfriends auntie, shes a very wealthy woman, but she just got married and I dont want to bother her with my problems. and to be honest, im a little afraid of her.

Shes about a foot and a half shorter than me but still feels like shes looking down.

40k is a lot. i know. But at this point, im fairly desperate.

I want my education and have a real passion for this, but god jobs are so hard to come by.

All students i know have been crucified trying to do college and jobs. theres only myself and one in other employed part time in my class of 25

wmpdd3 · 07-10-2010 8:02pm

Can you try get a transfer to another Dunnes, most would love someone willing to do 25hrs but still be happy with 15 hrs come next Jan when things get tight again.

OVERTONE69 · 07-10-2010 9:58pm

unfortunately no.

great idea, but ive been on the waiting list for a transfer for 2 years now. its not happening.

I dont wanna sound cocky, but i think their afraid to get rid of me, im kinda of good to them.

maybe thats a fault in itself.

thanks for the input though.

Im definitely getting some new ideas thanks to this thread. i was pretty desperate this morning

matt70iu · 08-10-2010 1:02pm

Feel for your situation man, I ended up having to drop out of college in my final year cuse I lost my job and couldn't afford the expense.

If I was in your shoes, I would look at deferring for a year as already suggested and save some cash. A loan IMO would be a very bad idea. You are basically tying yourself down for 5 years and who says it would stop there??

In a couple of years you might decide you want to go traveling and top the loan up again and so on so fourth. If you can adopt a policy of living off money you have, rather than debt you don't, you will be so much better off in the long run.

I understand that there may be a time when you'll want a mortgage etc, but at least at the end of that you have a house to show for it.

This generally is not the case with unsecured medium term debts. Stay away from them and save if at all possible!!

Hope you manage to get sorted!

stepbar · 08-10-2010 9:33pm

You won't get 40k you'd be lucky to get 5k. I'm not being smart or anything but it just won't happen. A bank would never give a 40k unsecured loan unless you were on a savage wage p.m (savage being over 100k a year)

OVERTONE69 · 09-10-2010 11:36am

matt70iu wrote: »

Feel for your situation man, I ended up having to drop out of college in my final year cuse I lost my job and couldn't afford the expense.

If I was in your shoes, I would look at deferring for a year as already suggested and save some cash. A loan IMO would be a very bad idea. You are basically tying yourself down for 5 years and who says it would stop there??

In a couple of years you might decide you want to go traveling and top the loan up again and so on so fourth. If you can adopt a policy of living off money you have, rather than debt you don't, you will be so much better off in the long run.

I understand that there may be a time when you'll want a mortgage etc, but at least at the end of that you have a house to show for it.

This generally is not the case with unsecured medium term debts. Stay away from them and save if at all possible!!

Hope you manage to get sorted!

thanks man. that makes a lot of sense.

In the mean time im gonna look for a better job. but deferring a year isnt bad at all.

dellas1979 · 10-10-2010 10:11pm

What is your daily routine that you cannot manage it VS taking out a crazy loan (which I dont think youd get anyways)?

Maybe its a time management thing?

I know its hard, because Ive done it before. I worked in Dunnes for years during college. Id arrive in a 6 in the evening. Work till 2/3 in the morning and back up again for 8. That was Wednesday and Thursdays. Id do the same thing Friday but obviously no college on Saturdays. Id work Saturdays and Sundays too. Id no car and had to rely on lifts/buses/anything.

OneWayBet · 10-10-2010 11:58pm

OP, be warned that automatic employment after you graduate is far from certain, even if you do get a job quickly graduate salaries in IT can be pretty low so do some projections and try to picture yourself with this mountain of debt in 3 years time on a meagre wage. Also like other posters have mentioned, the banks in Ireland are broke, there is no way in the world they will take a punt on a student who *might* make it when they are already turning away professionals from "no brainer" mortgages because they have no cash to lend. This is of course unless you have somebody who will act as guarantor on the loan, and think long about inflicting this on any kind soul!

On the positive side if you are good at it, IT remunerates very well. The expenses you listed seem very high. Here is my suggestion:

1. Take a year out of college.
2. Live somewhere rent free (e.g. at home), please either help out with the chores or get some part time work to contribute to the bills.
3. Get yourself broadband where you live, if nobody else wants to chip in go for something cheap like a 3 mobile dongle.
4. Teach yourself online, follow tutorials, use and help develop Open Source software. You will gain so much experience and if you end up contributing you will also build up a reputation that you call call upon for future job references. Trust me, IT companies love new graduates who can prove they have contributed to OpenSource projects.

At this point if it's not working out chances you were never cut out for it, but if you are loving it and clearly progressing then the world is your oyster

From this point you may find yourself in a situation where you are "employable" in software development rather than Dunnes so you can work (albeit on a low wage) and develop your career simultaneously, and perhaps complete the paperwork with a part time degree.

student loan of 40000?

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