Your fees (2 Viewers)

[xeuyrawp]

So, after a discussion in another thread, I'm curious as to how people pay their fees.

I'm in a Commonwealth Supported Place. I defer my HELP payments, and I don't make any voluntary contributions to it (totally defer).

The poll's private for obvious reasons.

CSP = Commonwealth Supported Place, DFEE = Domestic Fee Paying.

 

[mserica]

For me, work pays for uni so thats an added bonus.. therefore its paid upfront.. however even if work didnt pay then I would probably still pay upfront!

but i still have a CSP just incase that for some reason I forget to get the invioce in on time that there is no stupid charge attached to not paying asap!!

 

[Cyan_phoeniX]

For me, work pays for uni so thats an added bonus.. therefore its paid upfront.. however even if work didnt pay then I would probably still pay upfront!

but i still have a CSP just incase that for some reason I forget to get the invioce in on time that there is no stupid charge attached to not paying asap!!

Mserica I think you've confused DFEE with CSP that is paid upfront. The reason you have CSP is because you definitely dont want DFEE (DFEE is far more expensive - generally it has a lower uai than its HECS counterpart. You generally do DFEE only if you dont get the uai you need - but just under - or if your not an Australian Citizen).

 

[mserica]

Okay now im confused... I know i am definately CSP (as it has that on my invoice) but i have to pay upfront, if i dont then i get the 200 late fee?

So out of curiosity, how does that work?

 

[Cyan_phoeniX]

Okay now im confused... I know i am definately CSP (as it has that on my invoice) but i have to pay upfront, if i dont then i get the 200 late fee?

So out of curiosity, how does that work?

yep, so your a CSP. that means your supported by the government and that means you pay a lot less than a DFEE.

Say, with CSP you need to pay 2200$ per semester. If you were a DFEE you would pay a lot more (im not sure exactly, but isnt it like 3 times as much?).

So with CSP, you can either defer the 2200$ or you can pay this upfront (your doing the latter). If you defer, the 2200$ stays as a debt (no real interest is added to it over the years besides some base ajustment index thingy). If you pay upfront, you get 20% off the amount, so you only need to pay 1600ish.


EDIT: ok, this 200$ fee complicates things. If you wait AFTER the 23rd FEb and then decide to pay upfront, then you get the 200$ fee. If you just leave it (and defer it) then you dont get that 200$ fee. As most of us have been saying, the 200$ fee is just stupid.

 

[CieL]

I'm in a Commonwealth Supported Place. I defer my HELP payments, and I don't make any voluntary contributions to it (totally defer).

Same here..

 

[*hopeful*]

im deferred but my parents have made the occasional payment over the years (damn i sound veteran)

 

[pLuvia]

Same here..

^

 

[glitterfairy]

rofl I clicked DFEE by mistake.. I think I do CSP, but pay that in full upfront so to get the discount (ok not me, my parents - but the deal is that I have to help with my brother's HECS fees when the time comes)

 

[GoodToGo]

Full deferment is the way to go! You'll never be poorer than when you're at uni... and uni's the time u need a bit of dough to get up to crazy shenanigans...

 

[Cyan_phoeniX]

rofl I clicked DFEE by mistake..

 

[K.]

I clicked the wrong one too

I meant to click CSP-pay all upfront.

 

[ALLLICE]

defer! defer! defer!

 

[dracover]

full defer is definetly the way to go

reasons:

1. inflation (uni should teach u that u should defer) CPI is indexed onto ur outstanding payments but cpi takes into account of many things like cars and large appliances that have a tendency to go down. for most uni students they dont buy these things so they're money is spent on food and outings. the inflation on these items is far more then the actual CPI so u would say make a 1% gain a year so looking at ur first years payments u would be up 1%.

now consider the opportunity cost of say a 6%p.a. return if u stuck it in a good account like ing and stuff thats like 7% a year compounded 3 yrs lata it will be 30% which is 5% more then the discount u will get anyways. now if u consider someone like me doing a double degree then its 4-5 yrs which puts it like 40%+ so ur 15% better off. not to mention the other opportunity costs of spending the money and enjoyment u get out of it.

Also if u dont get a job for 1 yr upon graduation thats another 7%

the last year may be worth wild since the compound factor isnt as great but first 2 is a definite nono


2. if ur parents have a homeloan its even worse cause the 8%-9% rates of interest on that money will compound and get worse

3. also u might not have to pay for it at all. some companies offer graduate positions where they pay ur hecs as part of the deal. however they cant make that part into a different outright payable sum (especially large companies) could have something to do with tax issues not realli sure.


hope u guys read that =D
hope it helps =D

 

[H?]

Defer. It's the cheapest loan you will ever get, and cost effective too

 

[Cyan_phoeniX]

full defer is definetly the way to go

reasons:

1. inflation (uni should teach u that u should defer) CPI is indexed onto ur outstanding payments but cpi takes into account of many things like cars and large appliances that have a tendency to go down. for most uni students they dont buy these things so they're money is spent on food and outings. the inflation on these items is far more then the actual CPI so u would say make a 1% gain a year so looking at ur first years payments u would be up 1%.

now consider the opportunity cost of say a 6%p.a. return if u stuck it in a good account like ing and stuff thats like 7% a year compounded 3 yrs lata it will be 30% which is 5% more then the discount u will get anyways. now if u consider someone like me doing a double degree then its 4-5 yrs which puts it like 40%+ so ur 15% better off. not to mention the other opportunity costs of spending the money and enjoyment u get out of it.

Also if u dont get a job for 1 yr upon graduation thats another 7%

the last year may be worth wild since the compound factor isnt as great but first 2 is a definite nono


2. if ur parents have a homeloan its even worse cause the 8%-9% rates of interest on that money will compound and get worse

3. also u might not have to pay for it at all. some companies offer graduate positions where they pay ur hecs as part of the deal. however they cant make that part into a different outright payable sum (especially large companies) could have something to do with tax issues not realli sure.


hope u guys read that =D
hope it helps =D

What your talking about is investment. Of course if you put a sum that is big enough into a locked account to gain interest you are going to receive good money in the future. I get the maths but what you are saying is just plain unrealistic and for most people not very practical. For these gains to really take place, most of the money will have to be put into the account from year one - locked in. Who can do that (and who is disiplined enough to do that)? Yes you'll be 40% better off by the end of it, but thats only 40% of what you initially put in??? :/ For most people your earning as you go and your not going to have such a large amount of money to begin with - overwise if you did, than investment is always going to be your answer, in any circumstance, for gaining good money in the future.

What you are saying is all good on paper, but not practical. I'll support that by betting that, in regards to the only way that deferring uni fees seems to be beneficial, not a single person here is doing just that when they defer their money (either they simply cant or wont).

 

[glitterfairy]

uh I totally didn't get all of that :/

But basically, I'm "borrowing" money (but not having to pay any back until I start working) to pay fees upfront, because due to the discount I'd end up paying less this way? :/ that's my theory anyway...

 

[xeuyrawp]

What your talking about is investment. Of course if you put a sum that is big enough into a locked account to gain interest you are going to receive good money in the future. I get the maths but what you are saying is just plain unrealistic and for most people not very practical. For these gains to really take place, most of the money will have to be put into the account from year one - locked in. Who can do that (and who is disiplined enough to do that)? Yes you'll be 40% better off by the end of it, but thats only 40% of what you initially put in??? :/ For most people your earning as you go and your not going to have such a large amount of money to begin with - overwise if you did, than investment is always going to be your answer, in any circumstance, for gaining good money in the future.

What you are saying is all good on paper, but not practical. I'll support that by betting that, in regards to the only way that deferring uni fees seems to be beneficial, not a single person here is doing just that when they defer their money (either they simply cant or wont).

That makes no sense, mate... We are talking about investing the same money which you put into HELP fees. If you put x into fees, we are suggesting putting x into investments. For clarification x = x. Therefore, it is exactly the same financially.

It is, however, slightly more difficult in a logistical sense, because you need to figure out how to invest it. Then again, something like commsec is only a mouse click away.

For clarification, your way gives no HELP debt. If I did it your way, I'd be spending all my money on fees (2.2k a year for me, 1.7k year national average), although even something like 1.5 is bad enough and constitutes a lot of one's money, even considering a Christmas holiday saving. Anyway, we'd be walking out into the world with not much saved, but at least we'd have payed our HELP debt.

The other way gives you a HELP debt, but enough of an investment to pay it off and to have extra (ie what I have now). You walk out into the world (and into banks) with a large debt which is taxed at a very moderate rate (2-5% -- someone confirm?). The HELP tax cannot increase, so the banks do not see it as a very large liability, unless you have other financial problems. Whilst you can pay your HELP debt off at any time, you are never forced to pay more than the moderate rate.

 

[Cyan_phoeniX]

That makes no sense, mate... We are talking about investing the same money which you put into HELP fees. If you put x into fees, we are suggesting putting x into investments. For clarification x = x. Therefore, it is exactly the same financially.

It is, however, slightly more difficult in a logistical sense, because you need to figure out how to invest it. Then again, something like commsec is only a mouse click away.

For clarification, your way gives no HELP debt. If I did it your way, I'd be spending all my money on fees (2.2k a year for me, 1.7k year national average), although even something like 1.5 is bad enough and constitutes a lot of one's money, even considering a Christmas holiday saving. Anyway, we'd be walking out into the world with not much saved, but at least we'd have payed our HELP debt.

The other way gives you a HELP debt, but enough of an investment to pay it off and to have extra (ie what I have now). You walk out into the world (and into banks) with a large debt which is taxed at a very moderate rate (2-5% -- someone confirm?). The HELP tax cannot increase, so the banks do not see it as a very large liability, unless you have other financial problems. Whilst you can pay your HELP debt off at any time, you are never forced to pay more than the moderate rate.

But the banks do see it as a liability nevertheless. Which is what my point was on about earlier, that it can make a difference when getting a loan. A poster has even said this via her experience, my brother also went through the same thing.

So are you doing all that? Can anyone tell me how much your saving by using this other method? Even by looking at the figures, Im still pretty sure that for it to make a real difference you going to have to have a fairly big amount of money invested over a long term (for 3 years- that is, have alot of money from year one) for it to be better than that initial 20% off.

And it makes perfect sense, mate. How was i not referring to the same x?

EDIT: sigh, can someone please do the maths using an example!!!

 

[sukiyaki]

defer the fees *___*
i can barely afford living like this as a uni let alone paying off some or full fees