I was just wondering if people on here thought having a student loan means they are in debt? I don't have credit cards or anything bought on finance the only thing I owe or will owe is my student loan, I wouldn't think of myself as being it debt what do you think?

Also morgages I don't have one but would you call that a debt?
You owe money with both but I wouldn't say they were debts.

They are both debts, I don't think of my student loan as a debt, cos its basically a tax on education, its not secured on anything.

A mortgage on the other hand is certainly a debt, as its repayable at fixed intervals and generally is secured on something (the house)

:)

Ive got about £20,000 of student loans, I dont class it as debt, i class it as free money, but thats just me :D

I know that a debt is owing money, I suppose what I meant was do you see these debts in that way.

A student loan is very definitely a debt; ultimately you'll need to pay it back, whether you feel it justified or not, I'm afraid.

A debt doesn't ahve to be secured - by definition there are unsecureddebts and secured debts - the latter typically against property, and often at a longer term and more favourable interest rate. Unsecured debt like credit cards, hire purchase, bank loans not secured against property, etc. are typically at a higher rate of interest and are payable over shorter terms.

Even if a debt isn't structured in terms of it's repayment, if you owe someone money you have debts.

Joe

I don't consider my student loan the same type of debt as my other loans/credit cards. They can't suddenly call it in, you can't default on payments because they take payments automatically, you don't have to make payments if you're not working, and you don't have to pay it back unless you're earning over the threshold of £15k and even then payments are small unless you're earning an awful lot. It pales in comparison to the whacking great £200 a month I'm repaying on a loan which funded my postgraduate study. However, it IS accruing a great deal of interest which is very disheartening. I can't see that I will be free of student debt now for around 20 years minimum.

your student loan is a debt but i wouldn't say you're in debt.

in my opinion, debt is the result of poor money management and/or misfortunue. i gather you've done neither then therefore i don't think you're in debt

student loan is something you have control over, just like a mortgage, you'll pay it back over time and it shouldn't be a burdren, just one of those things.

so its all good

i'm paying off a student loan, graduate loan a personal mortagage and 3 buy-to-let mortages but i'm in control of them; my incomings are greater than my outgoings, i've never missed a payment and my credit rating is excellent so i wouldn't consider myself in debt, although i have debtors

Sorry, I wasn't stating facts, those were my opinions :) didn't meant to sound patronising - I understand the differences between secured and unsecured debt, for my example (as noted) I was assuming that a mortage was secured

Your student loan is, of course a debt. It means you will owe money and be paying it back over a number of years in the future.

Your student loan is also an investment. As long as you are serious about your course and working hard to qualify, then you have invested in your own future and should see a good return on this initial outlay when you move into a career.

Student loans are on the whole good and ligitimate debts. You should feel proud that this is the only money that you owe. :)

I consider all my debts to be investments in my life...
I'm at uni, so I have the student loan to pay back...
I've got a laptop on credit, so that I can do uni work, so thats another investment in my education...
I've got a car on credit, which means that I can do the job I'm doing, get from place to place safer, and be entirely independent...

None of my debts worry me as I know I can pay them all back, no worries. I have a credit card but I don't use it, and I have an overdraft but I pay that off over the summer when I'm working full-time :)

Na - student loans don't count - keep it as long as you can!! I don't even count my overdraft - only thing that counts for me is the credit card.

It depends on how you see it. If you know in the back of your mind that you can pay off the money owed, then you won't feel you're in debt.

I don't have a student loan. I guess I was in the lucky batch of graduates who did not have to pay fees.

I see properties as an investments. You can rent it out, and you can sell it to recooperate. In that sense, I don't see a property as a debt as such. Of course, I'd see it as a debt if I know that it's not an easy to sell property, and the maintainenance cost are way high. Credit cards to me are debts. It's incurring interests which would cripple you if you don't have enough income to cover the outgoings.

Btw, have anyone ever read those books , 'Rich Dad, poor Dad' ?

If you owe someone/some business/etc money then you are in debt, look it up in the dictionary. Whether it's a credit card, a student loan, graduate loan, normal loan or mortgage it's all debt.

I guess as said before it's how you think of it. If you can manage your debts and payments then you don't feel in debt in the same way as if you can't afford your payments etc. Then again some people just ignore that...stupid people mainly.

I'm paying back a loan and a credit card and I'm definitely in debt even though I can afford them both I'd still rather be clear and not have to worry about it at all.

almost everyone is in debt- wherever you owe money to someone else it is s debt.
lots of people however don't have credit, or don't want credit. but they are still in debt.

in my opinion, debt is the result of poor money management and/or misfortunue.



unfortunately thats not the opinion of banks, building societies, gas & electric companies, telephone companies,sky tv. etc

if you do not pay in advance then you are in debt, there is a bill outstanding which would count towards a debtors list if you went bankrupt or similar.
debt is balck & white - you owe money or you don't.
how you feel about it is different.

Don't ever think that your student loan isn't a debt, cos as soon as you start paying it back you'll regret the day you didn't take it into account and wonder why you can't afford other more important bills.

If you can be taken to court for non-payment of it, then it's a debt!

Ya can put a party frock on it an call it something else if you want, but it is, unequivocally, a debt!

I hate debt,and all the nasty horrible little sh*ts that sell it like it's the way forward. It's not. Ocean finance my arse!

Banks are just as bad - student loans or not. Do you still think they would loan you money if they weren't going to make a decent amount of cash out of you?

I get sad when I think of all the stress and unhappiness that debt brings into people's lives. I know what it did to mine for a time, and I will never go back there again!

I know no-one is holding a gun to anyone's head when an agreement is made, but many companies package the product so well, that when an individual wants something new and wants it now, or perhaps in times of trouble, the deal is incredibly hard to resist.

It can be avoided if you're disciplined. I have far more disposable income now that I'm out of debt compared to when I was in debt.

At one point, in my mid twenties, when I was young and stupid, I owed 13 grand to various creditors.

I worked hard, and it took me a long time to get out of it, but once I'd repaid it all, I vowed never to go down that road again. I'm 34 now, and don't have any debt. Well, 200 quid on me IKEA card but that dunt count :hihi:

Gotta say that financially, I feel a whole lot better about stuff these days. It feels good to be debt free!

Do yourself a favour and chop up ya Visa!

If this thought fills you full of dread, and you can't possibly contemplate it, then just go and stick the equivalent of 30% of your current outstanding balance down the toilet and pull the chain!

Remember, there aint no such thing as a free ride in life....everything has a price attached to it!

Just a little quote to make ya smile - can't remember who it was by.....

'Banks are the financial institutions that will lend you money provided you can prove you don't need it'

Since it's just opinions you're after.
Any money you owe is a debt. Being 'in debt' might mean more depending on the context it is used, but I'd expect that most of us for most of our lives will owe money on something, so technically we'll spend most of our lives in debt to someone (or some company).
I see no reason to think of a mortgage or student loan differently.

just add that I don't think borrowing is inherently bad. I'm going to borrow to buy my new car, I know I can afford the loan, and the total cost of the finance over 3 years is about 1k, so that's paying 1 k for the privilege of getting the car now instead of in 3 years time... A price I think is worth paying.

If you can be taken to court for non-payment of it, then it's a debt!

'Banks are the financial institutions that will lend you money provided you can prove you don't need it'

That quote is SO very true.

Another financial quote worth remembering is:

"Wherever you see the word 'Credit' replace it with the word 'Debt' "

StarSparkle

If you owe someone/some business/etc money then you are in debt, look it up in the dictionary. Whether it's a credit card, a student loan, graduate loan, normal loan or mortgage it's all debt.

.

I am not completely stupid I know what a debt is, I was just wondering if people saw there student loans as 'debt'.

If you can be taken to court for non-payment of it, then it's a debt!



The student loans company can't take you to court for non-payment of it because you can't not repay it, it's linked to your national insurance number and is taken out of your pay before you even see it (mind you I think they can if you skip the country and earn enough overseas).

I know exactly what you mean bjshooter. I feel the way the government have set up the student loans system has resulted in a whole generation of people who come out of their university years with a very naive view of debt. We run up £500 of overdraft without a second thought because it's interest free without the realisation that it isn't our money and the bank can call it in at any time. But we have no choice because we're given no other money to live on and even part time jobs don't cover this. We have this £10,000 loan which we don't see in the same way as a normal debt because of the way it's set up.

I can see that we're going to turn into a 'borrowing' generation who take credit where it's offered without really considering the full implications.

I have student loans taken out as a mature student. But due to serious health problems I can no longer hold down a job, so it is unlikely they will be repaid in full. When I was working I did pay a small amount back, but I know that because of a chronic complaint I will never hold down a job which pays enough to pay these loans back.

At some point I suppose they will be written off, but in the meantime I am still getting them deferred.

So to get to the point, I dont feel in debt because of these.

Twiglet, that is only the system for the more recent graduates. Previously it was repaid as a direct debit, which means that I could cancel it and subsequently suffer court action if the £20/month was worth it to them.