Student Loan and ISA's

I'm off to Uni this september and I've started to fill out the student finance forms. My parents are able to put me through Uni using their own funds and therefore they've said that I needn't apply for a Tuition Fee or Maintainence loan.
However, I've noticed that a lot of people on here advocate getting a Maintainence loan anyway and putting it in an ISA. The highest interest rate I've found is 5.2% from A&L, and given that the Maintainence loan currently charges 3.2% interest, there's a net gain of 2% if i put £3000 of £3300 pa. into an ISA. To be honest, it seems like a lot of stress (form filling etc.) to earn 2%, so I was wondering if anyone could provide me with some figures / advice on the best ISAs based on their experience of doing it.
thanks! x

Reply 1

flora

I think the point is not that you aim to earn money from it, but that it is a very very cheap loan, so it's worth taking it and saving it anyway. Then when you leave uni, you have £Xk sitting in the bank ready to start you out in the real world, while paying a very small amount of interest on it, as opposed to a normal bank loan that would charge vastly greater interest.

Reply 2

drawmeamonkey

i only put mine in for a few months, as i needed it pretty soon into the term, still earned me 18 quid, paid this week - and thats pretty useful at this time of year lol

you shouldn't compare it to the loan rate of interest really, the interest on student loans is just so you pay back the same amount in real terms when you are earning.

any opportunity to get a bit of extra money while you are at uni is worth it!