So my university accomodation (provided by the university) was more than the maximum a student could have for the year in Maintance loan/grant
Sadly it is simply maths incoming-outgoings and the poorest students who need to borrow the most can’t even pay for accomodation
I was a student in Oxford(I went to Brookes) and the cost of living is extortionate, The system starts with debt and continues with it. Grants are really important. I would be curious to know whether a credit card could be better in some circumstances. There seems to be a culture now of having your parents help you(Which is okay,if your parents can afford it)But there are some people whose parents don’t care and then your loan is tidied to your parental income.
That doesn’t surprise me at all.I was reading in the student newspaper in the rise of gambling as a way to make money…
If Monzo want to actually make an impact on student’s lives and differential themselves from other banks they need to certain things like:
Monzo Student - Cheaper than Monzo Plus and focus on Insurance for HMOS and also an “emergency fund” for when you can’t afford food etc(I did this a long time ago but that’s another story 
)or bills.(This I think could be set a £200 or something and used to make that shortfall)(But you would need to show evidence of a job etc.)
Education - Budgeting but also food(food you want to actually eat that’s cheap and nutritious)(Pizza homemade probably costs £3 compared to dominoes)(Cook together etc)
Financial education- Budgeting and credit cards etc.
RailCard - Would be very useful…(Also millennial one)
Mental Health education - Spotify student and Headspace.
If I’m being honest, the debt part isn’t all that of an issue when you look at what actually gets paid back over the course of the debt. Most are unlikely to even pay off the debt and will in most cases be serving the interest gained since they were sold off.
What is an problem is the loans given don’t align with the actual cost of being a student. It’s akin to getting a business loan for £100,000 when you actually need £250,000 to do what you want to do.
Banks prey on this and get you into the perpetual cycle of debt and repayments - if I’m honest a credit card would cause more harm than good. Some of my friends turned to gambling like you and @don_quixote say just to try and beat his overdraft.
I can’t see how banks can substantially change this unless some very innovative and risky products are launched. Maybe some sort of offset current account where parts of post graduate salary are taken (like how the actual student loan is paid) but in my opinion the problem starts with the government and the universities.
Less debt means interest rates go up meaning more savings
That still doesn’t tackle the disparity between what you receive from the government vs how much it costs to live - if you haven’t got any extra money to save it doesn’t matter how good interest rates are. Not to mention is base rate improves, you’ll be paying more interest on your loans from student finance.
Student loans are a whole different thing to overdrafts.
Martin Lewis gives the best advise on this. Just pay the minimum payments and forget about ever paying it off in full. Treat it like a “tax” for having gone to university and you’ll be better off that way instead struggling with over payments and such that will have little impact.
Worth noting that this article was published in April 2016
Yes but that was the last change. I’m graduating this year and everything in that article still applies except the threshold I pay back is a little higher
Well I don’t think they are completely distant. The majority of the loan is from tuition fees but a significant portion of it is the maintenance loan. The maintenence loan not being enough is the reason that some students have to use their overdraft
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