A UK student loan behaves almost nothing like a mortgage or a credit card. You repay 9% of everything you earn above a threshold — not a fixed instalment — and whatever is left after the write-off period is cancelled. The balance and the interest rate are, for most graduates, decorations on a number they will never finish paying.
Not the balance. Not the interest rate. Your salary path, and how long until write-off. Two people with the same debt and different careers pay wildly different totals, and the one who borrowed more may pay exactly the same as the one who borrowed less — because both are written off before they clear.
That is also why voluntary overpayment is usually a mistake. Money paid into a loan that was going to be written off anyway is money given away. It only pays to overpay if you are confident you will clear the balance before the write-off date — which the projection above tells you.
Plan 1 — English/Welsh students who started before September 2012, and Northern Ireland. Plan 2 — England and Wales, starting September 2012 to July 2023. Plan 4 — Scotland. Plan 5 — England, starting August 2023 onwards, with a 40-year write-off rather than 30. If you are unsure, your online repayment account states it.
Usually no. Repayment is a percentage of income, so clearing the balance early does not reduce a monthly bill — it just ends one sooner. If the projection shows the loan being written off with a balance outstanding, every voluntary pound is a pound wasted. If it shows you clearing it comfortably before the write-off date, overpaying saves real interest.
Less than people expect. For anyone who will not clear the balance, the rate changes the number on the statement and nothing about what they pay. It matters only near the boundary — where a lower rate is the difference between clearing the loan and being written off.
9% of your income above the threshold, so on a £32,000 salary against a £27,295 threshold that is 9% of £4,705 — about £35 a month. A postgraduate loan adds 6% above its own lower threshold, and the two run at the same time, which is where a combined marginal rate near 50% comes from for some earners.
They are the 2024/25 figures and they change every April, which is why every one of them is editable above. Check GOV.UK for the current year before making a decision on the result.
Releases in which this page changed, newest last. Derived from the archived copy of every release, not from notes written afterwards — so it reflects what actually shipped. Site-wide passes are left out; they are in the full changelog.