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No defending her, but there is a generation of kids that got pretty shafted on fees and loans. We went from free tertiary study to charging thousands for fees and materials, with living costs heaped on top. And the interest rates were out of control, the same as anyone taking out an unsecured loan.
I finished uni in 1998 with a loan of $30k and change. Yeah I spent plenty of money on booze and non-uni stuff, but I also had a steady stream of jobs all the way through.
I did the overseas travel thing almost straight after uni, making almost no money, working shitty jobs, but having a blast. And before I knew it, my loan balance was $73k
I spent years paying the minimum and watching the interest build at double digit % rates. Luckily I was in the position to repay it in full a while back, but I can definitely see cases where people didn't get to that point. A few different career choices, and it would have been a crippling handicap.
It's probably too far out of hand now, but some interest rate relief for those that got stung with years of 10-12% interest (this was NOT the 80's) would have made a huge different to many people I suspect.
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@Nepia said in Alternative needed from the absolute crap of stuff.co.nz:
@voodoo You were same generation as me, compounding interest from the day we took out the loan. The wrong f-ing 5 year period.
yup. I still have one, and it's still big, despite me making faithful payments every 6 months since i moved over here.
The interest is a killer. I have considered drawing against my house to pay it out, because i get charged less on a home loan
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It's interest-free if you stay in NZ isn't it? There are a small minority who go overseas with no intention of paying back their loan, or contacting IRD, so you can understand the reason for having this rule. I had a small loan for post-grad studies which I paid back promptly while working in the US.
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@voodoo said in Alternative needed from the absolute crap of stuff.co.nz:
@Nepia yep. It's hard to whine too much cos we knew the deal from the outset, but compared to other folk it was a raw deal!
Worth every minute of fun I had though!
I don't think we really knew the deal from the outset though back then as it was so early ... peeps can hate on Labour but they certainly made it easier for students to take out AND repay student loans.
@Bovidae said in Alternative needed from the absolute crap of stuff.co.nz:
It's interest-free if you stay in NZ isn't it? There are a small minority who go overseas with no intention of paying back their loan, or contacting IRD, so you can understand the reason for having this rule. I had a small loan for post-grad studies which I paid back promptly while working in the US.
Yep, interest free in NZ, but not sure why they don't allow an interest write-off for people who pay above the minimum from overseas, especially if the NZ job market has not been able to provide them with employment.
@mariner4life Probably a worthwhile thing to do if the wife is ok with that?
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I see no justification for overseas based people to pay crippling interest whilst people in NZ pay none. If you're concerned about overseas defaulters, then toughen up on penalties for non-payment of principal (financial or other penalties). No need to also sting them with crazy interest, you're just ensuring there is a generation nof people who will never come home
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I'd just like to point out that: yes I did enjoy free tertiary education and yes, I also wasted it spending all my time drinking and on other excesses, I did get arrested and convicted fighting for no fees on behalf of future generations
No need to thank me.
I do think there is a generation that got seriously shafted on fees. I also think comparisons across generations aren't valid because the whole landscape changed significantly.
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@voodoo said in Alternative needed from the absolute crap of stuff.co.nz:
@Nepia probably right, can't say I though too hard about future repayments while I was at Uni!
I bloody did. Was the first or second year of student loans, came out with a farking telephone number. Really drove life choices - went overseas, but invested in my career working in the UK. Back then you had to pay back 1/15 a year, PLUSinterest that accrued. Not fun at all.
That said, the people getting arrested are those who refuse to engage with IRD at all. For years. You make your bed, you lie in it - I have massive sympathy for loan holders, but as someone said above - you know what you're signing up for.
I did contemplate getting married for the studenta llowance in my first year at uni. My mum would have killed me though, and I'm still not sure it wouldn't have been a good idea ...
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@nzzp said in Alternative needed from the absolute crap of stuff.co.nz:
you know what you're signing up for.
While I don't disagree that we should all have known what we were signing up for I think financial literacy was way lower back then (compared with the current lot) and lots of us really didn't grasp the consequences.
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@dogmeat said in Alternative needed from the absolute crap of stuff.co.nz:
I'd just like to point out that: yes I did enjoy free tertiary education and yes, I also wasted it spending all my time drinking and on other excesses, I did get arrested and convicted fighting for no fees on behalf of future generations
No need to thank me.
I do think there is a generation that got seriously shafted on fees. I also think comparisons across generations aren't valid because the whole landscape changed significantly.
Its created a huge debt bubble in the states and the argument it's not far away from being something that starts to hold their economy back is getting traction there.
This guy is a former Trump offical and his idea of making it fair for people who have already paid back their loans seems decent -
@voodoo said in Alternative needed from the absolute crap of stuff.co.nz:
I see no justification for overseas based people to pay crippling interest whilst people in NZ pay none. If you're concerned about overseas defaulters, then toughen up on penalties for non-payment of principal (financial or other penalties). No need to also sting them with crazy interest, you're just ensuring there is a generation nof people who will never come home
I agree. It doesnt matter where a person goes, as long as the scheme incentivizes loan holders to repay as quickly and as regularly as they can. And severely punishes those who run and hide
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I had a 42k student loan when I graduated in 2000. 13k of that was interest, that 8% compounding from drawdown, I didn't get any kind of assistance cos my parents were too 'rich'. Year after I graduated, I went overseas and taught English, sending money home each month to pay it off. It was a shit job for a shit company but I cleared 26k of it, then the rest via NZ jobs the regular way out of my pay.
Have ZERO fucking sympathy for those who skip away and pay nothing. They are entitled assholes now having a whinge because they can't come home? Fuck off. Don't pay your debts, that's what happens. A student loan is a LOAN. Everyone else is chipping away at it, and nowadays the terms are much better than the 90s.
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@voodoo said in Alternative needed from the absolute crap of stuff.co.nz:
I see no justification for overseas based people to pay crippling interest whilst people in NZ pay none.
incentive to keep allegedly "well educated" people IN NZ so it benefits our economy?
What might be better, is to maybe allow it interest free for say 5 years post-graduation, but if you leave NZ, after that 5 years, you start getting charged interest?
I never went to Uni and have not had a Student Loan...but have mates who have, and the ones that went overseas dutifully paid thier student loans off.
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@taniwharugby said in Alternative needed from the absolute crap of stuff.co.nz:
@voodoo said in Alternative needed from the absolute crap of stuff.co.nz:
I see no justification for overseas based people to pay crippling interest whilst people in NZ pay none.
incentive to keep allegedly "well educated" people IN NZ so it benefits our economy?
What might be better, is to maybe allow it interest free for say 5 years post-graduation, but if you leave NZ, after that 5 years, you start getting charged interest?
I never went to Uni and have not had a Student Loan...but have mates who have, and the ones that went overseas dutifully paid thier student loans off.
Funny, broadsheets like the Ferald have little interest in reporting about all of the law abiding folks that pay off their loans
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@taniwharugby said in Alternative needed from the absolute crap of stuff.co.nz:
@voodoo said in Alternative needed from the absolute crap of stuff.co.nz:
I see no justification for overseas based people to pay crippling interest whilst people in NZ pay none.
incentive to keep allegedly "well educated" people IN NZ so it benefits our economy?
What might be better, is to maybe allow it interest free for say 5 years post-graduation, but if you leave NZ, after that 5 years, you start getting charged interest?
I never went to Uni and have not had a Student Loan...but have mates who have, and the ones that went overseas dutifully paid thier student loans off.
I don't like the whole "try to handcuff people to NZ" approach. The benefits of travelling, of working abroad, of being around different cultures, if hate to see people choose not to do that because of an interest rate differential on their student loan.
Student Loans