How long before your student loan is written off? Martin Lewis reveals the date when repayments stop
IF you've been to university, the chances are you have a huge amount of debt to pay off thanks to sky-high tuition fees and maintenance loans.
But what some students and graduates might not realise is that this debt gets wiped for everyone after a certain number of years.
Those who studied at uni in England and Wales after 2012 - when the new higher fees were introduced - will have all of their outstanding student loans wiped after three decades - or 30 years from the first April after graduation, to be exact.
In Scotland, the debt is wiped after 35 years, while in Northern Ireland it's 25 years.
Anyone who started uni between 2006-2011 get their debt wiped 25 years after they graduated.
The figures come from Martin Lewis's , where he explains the point at which all repayments stop, regardless of how much you still have left in your loan account.
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While the fees are wiped around 30 years after you graduate, they also get scrapped if you die - and the debt won't be added to your estate, unlike other forms of debts.
The same applies if you become permanently unfit to work.
Some graduates who have spare cash want to pay off their student loan early, but Martin recommends against this.
He told The Sun Online: "In the majority of cases, because student loans are only repaid if you're earning enough money, and you don't need to repay if you're not earning enough, and because they also get wiped after a certain number of years, people shouldn't be paying them off earlier than they need to.
"Even for those who can afford to pay it off, if you have any other form of borrowing (mortgage debt, a car loan etc) those commercial loans have much more stringent terms, so better to pay those off than clear the student loan and borrow back using commercial debt.
"Student loans are the best form of structured loan you can get, so if you're gonna have other types of loans, better to clear those first.
"If in doubt - don't overpay", he added.
Last month, The Sun Online reported how millions of students and graduates face a 33 per cent increase in the interest rates they pay on tuition fees and maintenance loans.
The interest rate is charged according to the RPI (retail prices index) measure of inflation every March, plus three per cent.
The RPI for March was announced as 3.1 per cent, meaning some students now face paying interest of 6.1 per cent on tuition fees and maintenance loans.
This hike in interest rates will take effect from September for the 2017/18 academic year.
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