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As a student or a parent, what are all the things you should know about taking an education loan? Here's comprehensive help.
As a student or a parent, what are all the things you should know about taking an education loan? Here’s comprehensive help.
Taking an education loan is a difficult decision. While the most common question that students ask is if they should take the leap or not, there are several aspects that should be considered.
An education loan is simply an offering that a bank or a lender provides to guardians to fund a child’s secondary and higher education requirements. Different banks and government institutes offer education loans at other criteria and interest rates at different rates. An education loan is of 2 types – Domestic and Overseas depending on where the institution for which you are taking an education loan is based vis-a-vis your location.
Here is a set of FAQs (note, this applies to Indian students taking an education loan for domestic education) that could be helpful to you.
Should you take an education loan to fund your studies?
Yes, if you don’t have any other way to fund yourself.
Education is a tool for economic empowerment that can help set your children on a fulfilling path in life. A high-quality education in a child’s chosen field of study can be emotionally and socially rewarding apart from the financial benefits that come with the joy of a stable income arising out of a solid educational background.
Yet, education costs are steep and rising. Increased competition for college seats, few colleges for niche areas that your child may be interested in and increased privatization of education as well as introduction of foreign education has many parents chasing sleepless nights.
In India, traditionally many parents funded the entire education and living expenses for their children from school upto post-graduation. Doing that today, however, can cause a significant dent in a family’s overall retirement or financial planning.
It is therefore better to take an education loan given the ease of availability and taxation benefits.
An education is an investment and when students (with the support of their guardians) take up an education loan – it can both help them learn financial responsibility as well as indirectly reduce the financial burden families face in educating children for years.
However, before taking a student loan, there are a few things you should consider.
Another use case is when working professionals want to take up higher studies.
Can the change in you want in your career/education path be done without taking an educational loan?
Then you may be better off, investing in career growth strategies like networking instead.
For instance if you already work in servicing in an advertising agency, a switch to a brand role is a matter of knowing the right people and jumping a job (or two).
This kind of growth might not be possible, though, for example, if you are an engineer who wants to work at a top tier bank in a treasury role without a good MBA/ CFA/ FRM sort of background (not impossible but the probabilities stack against you).
There are benefits of being a working professional though. If you have three or more years of experience, your parents can be waived off as co-signers. For elderly parents or those approaching retirement, this can be a sigh of relief.
What is the level of personal financial risk that you may incur in case your plans don’t work out?
If you are unemployed post the education period, does that mean your parents compromise on their retirement savings? Unfortunately, it is the people who have the greatest risk of financial compromise who need the loan the most. If that is you, don’t hesitate or have false fears when it comes to fulfilling your objective.
No bank can deny an student loan on the basis of income of parents. The education loan is given to a student on the basis of his/her academic record (minimum 60%) and the future prospects (placement, package and industry trend) of the course in which he/she is getting enrolled.
What if you have the money at hand to pay for your education?
Even if you have money at hand, taking out 15-30 lakhs over the duration of a couple of years, can affect the effect compounding has on your overall savings and retirement plan.
With an education loan and an EMI, you can strike a balance between giving your child the gift of independence at having fulfilled a financial responsibility and at the same time, know that you have the financial wherewithal to support them, should the need arise.
Also, parents often don’t realize that living expenses and margin money (the proportion of money that banks will not support) can be significant in itself and therefore it’s best to keep some spare money for additional expenses.
What is the objective for the education loan?
Good education boosts self-confidence and is the first step towards leading their best lives. Hence, taking a loan might look frightening but in the long run, it leads to great opportunities that shape up careers.
For many people, loans are a way to not financially burden the family even if the fees can be paid from the savings. Also, as the first major financial decision, it can create a good follow-up path to a strong credit card for housing, car loans etc.
Looking at the immediate ROI or Return of Investment on your student loan in terms of a pay off is important but can cause alarm if students and their parents rely on misleading information such as college placement scores. It’s best to look at ROI from the lens of a long-term career path rather than a short-term pay packet.
Where should you take a loan from?
Today, there are several types of institutions available to support you with loans. Be it PSU banks, private banks and even new-age lending startups.
Before choosing one or becoming hyper-anxious, note that any prestigious institute would have a tie-up and prefer them as a partner. It creates massive convenience as your child will be able to coordinate with batchmates, college authorities more flawlesly). If your chosen educational institute has no such services and you are evaluating independently, give second preference to a bank that you have a past relationship with (for example, from where you may already have a home loan).
Make sure that you look at the interest rates and moratorium (the period where education is completed but repayments are yet to start) carefully so that you do not encounter any issues later.
Some key points that require proper research are the duration of repayment, late payment fees, moratorium period, and pre-payment charges.
Usually, the interest rates for education loans lie somewhere around 8% to 15% of the principal amount. Do proper research on the long-term and short-term repayment periods to understand better what to choose.
From personal experience, choose a bank that can support you online as very often the funding bank is in another state nearer to the educational institute that may lead to logistical issues and travel later.
Check for the best combination:
What are some of the thing/terms that you should keep in mind?
Academic performance – The academic performance of your child plays a role in deciding whether the loan can be approved or not. A student is usually expected to have average and above average marks on their report card to get a grant or a loan. When I took a loan, I submitted my quarterly marksheet.
Admission to an unrecognized university – Banks often do not approve loans if they find the university unknown. They conduct a verification process on their level to know about the university. Conversely, going to IIT/IIM/Ivy Leagues almost guarantees your loan.
Loan amount — What is the amount that you are taking the loan for? The full fees or partial amount? In many cases, cost for laptop/educational materials may be covered. So before blindly putting the amount, evaluate this. Any mid-terms escalation fees have to be covered by the student for instance, as per most loan brochures. Similarly, stipends/scholarships can be expected to be credited to loan account, so be careful of the fine print.
Sanctioned amount — This is the amount that the bank gives you (for instance your MBBS fees may be 30 lakhs, but the bank will be willing to sanction only 21 lakhs).
Margin Money — This is the amount that the bank expects you to give as part of sanctioned amount (equivalent to a down payment). For instance 10% margin money on your sanctioned amount is what you would need to pay for your share.
Rate of Interest — ROI is usually based on tier of institutions and for all tier I institutes it’s MCLR based. MCLR is Marginal Cost of Funds Based Lending Rate, that refers to the minimum interest rate below which financial institutions can’t lend. MCLR is subject to changes as per RBI regulations and as per your personal financial situation as well.
For example, if you have borrowed on or before March 31, 2016, your loan will still be linked to the old system of base rate. However, you can switch from base rate to MCLR at mutually agreed terms between you and the bank. The bank can charge you a fee for the switch.
Every parent aspires to provide their child with the most extraordinary life possible. Parents are always looking for methods to stay one step ahead. So, if you are looking at supporting your children, you can help them in the following ways:
Paying off your other loans and credit card debt timely
Education loans often hinge of co-borrowers’ support (in this case, the parent or guardian). If you do not have a clean bill of financial health AKA CIBIL credit score – your child may not be given a loan or given a smaller percentage of the ask. Hence, start paying your credit card bills and ensure you manage other aspects of your financial life so it doesn’t become a roadblock at the loan stage
Increase your insurance live coverage
It is always a prudent idea to increase the percentage of your life insurance coverage when you take a larger financial loan should there be any unfortunate event in life
If the financial burden of your education loan is very high (~20 lakhs and above), you can also start a recurring deposit or SIP in a mutual funds so that you can pay off chunks of the interest on the education loan sooner.
Amortization or repayment period
Use one of the calculators available online (ignore the USD) and put in all the inputs from your loan brochure to evaluate the repayment period.
The typical repayment period is 10–15 years for education loans. However, since there are no foreclosure or pre-payment charges on education loans so it is always a good idea to not wait out the entire period.
Collateral Security
In high risk cases such as a lower tiered institution, you may be asked for a collateral (FD, PPF account, property, gold), but mostly education loan schemes come without any collateral security that need to be pledged for taking the loan.
In case, property needs to be mortgaged — general insurance needs to be taken on the same. Property legal verification and valuation fee needs to be paid. Though banks may claim a no processing fee, all this accounts for close to 2–2.5% of loan amount.
As per RBI guidelines to banks, education loan upto Rs. 10 Lac and Rs.20 Lac for studies abroad can be granted to all eligible students. No collateral seccurity/ third party guarantee is required for loans upto Rs.4 Lac. In loans above Rs. 7.5 Lac, banks canobtain collateral security.
Documentation and charges
You would require a bunch of documents (PAN, Aadhar, address proofs, photographs, admission acceptance letter from college, income details etc). This may vary mildly from bank to bank and it’s a good idea to ask upfront for the extent of paperwork.
Apart from the primary lending form, banks may also debit a small amount from your savings account as processing fees for the work they did. There are also penal charges for defaulting on EMI payments.
CIBIL Score
This is tricky. I had a credit card with timely payments hence a positive credit history at time of lending. However, many students may not have a CIBIL score. Banks may just check this for your parents or co-borrowers but cannot stop you from availing an education loan if you don’t have the same.
(Please note if you are not able to pay off your loan due to financial issues and your bank negotiates and waives off interest under extraneous circumstances or changes your settlement — this is known as an OTS or One Time Settlement and will remain as a negative thing in your credit history forever so don’t run to waive off your interest if a bank offers a restructuring during a financial crisis).
Pro-tip: Check your CIBIL score once after paying off your loan.
Can you fund a course from two banks/NBFCs?
Yes as long as the loan brochure or terms of agreement don’t contradict it. This is a reasonable use case for when your primary bank won’t lend you the full amount.
Be careful for a loan transfer case though; just because you may want to transfer your loan to a bank with lower interest rate, you may have to go through multiple rounds of paperwork.
What is a moratorium period?
It is the period when interest is charged but you may not pay for some time. For instance while you are completing your education and an added period that may vary from 6–24 months. In case of an education loan, the in between payment of interest (during course completion) and in the period between course completion and moratorium closure is optional.
One may pay it to keep final interest outgo low or pay only after completion.
The choice is yours.
In many cases during the moratorium, you are charged simple interest, that switches to compound interest, once you start repaying. Be careful of the time you start paying back!
Repayment during study period is not mandatory and I have seen ridiculous cases of parents paying interests during the education period. Not needed, the primary borrower/student can pay it back when they pay back the remaining interest and principal.
Paying off your education loan in the moratorium period especially when still in college is like reaching the airport 24 hours before your flight.
Note: Accumulated interest during education period and recurring interest post repayment are both applicable for interest deduction under 80E.
For an education loan, during the college education period the interest accrues and EMIs start post education +6months or employment date. Use this period to create a RD/FD which you can use for a bulk settlement so that you monthly interest payment gets reduced right upfront.
My bank can’t find my collateral documents. Help!
In case your bank misplaces customer documents. Per RBI regulations, they have to give a newspaper advertisement stating papers are lost by them, plus a letter from Lawyer stating that the property is yours, and has clear title and duplicate paper from Court. Also, you can take a letter from the bank that the property has clear title and they will go loan to the borrows without chain papers.
But for the love of God, keep your originals to yourself and take pictures and make photocopies for everything!
What are the things to keep in mind about taxation?
There is no tax benefit for the principal part of the EMI. Only claim deductions for the interest you pay. You can only claim as an individual (i.e. you / your relatives/ your co-borrowers) and not as a Hindu Undivided family or partnership or any other form of legal structuring.
There is no limit on the maximum amount that is allowed as deduction. You, however, need to obtain a certificate from your Bank. Such certificate should segregate the principal and the interest portion of the education loan paid by you during the financial year. The total interest paid will be allowed as a deduction.
The deduction for the interest on loan starts from the year in which you start repaying the loan. It is available only for 8 years starting from the year in which you start repaying the loan or until the interest is fully repaid whichever is earlier. This means if the complete repayment of the loan is done in 3 years only, then tax deduction will be allowed for 3 years and not 8 years.
Always take the interest certificate from you bank annually in your loan account that says “Amount paid by the customer towards interest during the financial year upto 31st March XXXX: Rs.XYZ” when filing your ITR.
What is the Central Scheme of Interest Subsidy for Educational Loans?
In case your family income is less than 4.5 lakhs, you get a subsidy on your interest. The choice is yours, you can choose to avail i, and do the extra paperwork. You can also choose to let go if you are confident of employment prospects.
The education loan scheme is a Government of India scheme and there are uniform rules and regulations followed by all banks. They can’t deviate. So, take a call.
Learn more here.
What is the connect between insurance and education loan?
Many banks will force you to take a personal term insurance to go with your education loan. The call is yours.
If you do not have financial dependents or already have a term plan or life insurance coverage in some form or space equivalent to the loan amount, ditch this frill. It is just a bank’s way to cross-sell. General insurance for mortgaged property for education loan may be mandatory. Again, cross check and read the fine print!
What are the steps that I need to follow for closure?
First close the loan by paying off full amount online or at branch.
Reach out to the loan servicing branch in you city, and get this loan closed from there. This maybe called a Retail Asset Hub or some other nomenclature.
Ask for a loan foreclosure advise if paying off early and a loan account statement. Obtain no dues letter.
In the loan foreclosure letter, check if there is any prepayment charges and they are as per your agreement/sanction letter which was issued when the loan was taken. This ideally should not be the case.
Check loan account statement to see if all your EMIs have been correctly adjusted and there are no words they charges levied here and there which are not know to you. accordingly, tally the outstanding amount as per loan foreclosure advise with the outstanding as mentioned in the loan account statement.
Once you have closed with the loan foreclosure and received the no dues letter for your loan account, follow the process laid down for savings bank account closure. Or continue Savings bank account per your choice.
What are some stupid things that I should avoid?
Signing blank checks/documents. Signing anything without understanding why you are signing that for.
How should I repay my loan?
Internet banking/mobile banking/standing instruction is the best. You may be working in a different city from the one you are studying in so avoid the physical remittance.
How much EMI should I pay every month?
Personal finance is ‘personal’. Your income, expenses, lifestyle are all your own. No one can tell you the right amount.
There are two principles: (1) Always meet the minimum amount (2) Pay as soon as possible
Is it a wise decision to repay the loan ASAP?
Don’t be tax-wise, repayment-foolish. I know a lot of people who think it is a good idea to stretch their loans by reducing EMIs and putting the remaining money in equity/MFs. Ask yourself if:
(1) The mental peace and financial freedom is worth it
(2) Reducing tax outgo can be done without increasing interest outgo to bank.
Don’t make your bank rich. The repayment period for interest is only 8 years and in most cases, you should pay it up before. In the later years, your principal overtakes your interest so you hardly get enough benefit. The tax amount is not in your pocket. It’s with bank.
For example purpose, if your interest outgo is 2L, you are paying 60000 from tax money and 1.4L from your pocket.
If you close loan today (just imagine), even after paying that 60000 tax, you are having 1.4L in your own pocket.
For someone in the 20–30% tax bracket, there is a tendency to stretch but (personal opinion) subject to your own circumstances is to avoid.
Can my parent/spouse claim 80E deductions?
Yes, anyone who meets the definition of relative under the Income Tax Axe can claim deductions under 80E as long as they are the ones paying the EMI.
Should you take a longer term loan or a shorter term loan?
Take a longer term if you are asked to choose by yourself for flexibility as long as it does not invite foreclosure (early closure charges).
New tax regime or old?
The old one is beneficial when you have large interest payments in the first couple of years of paying off your loan. Just use a comparative calculator and take a call for your income and tax bracket as well as other aspects factored (80C).
Is there something that I should do before I start paying off my education loan?
Yes. Create an emergency fund of 3–6 months in a savings account, liquid fund or Fixed Deposit.
Should I reduce my expenses?
Don’t kill yourself in the pursuit of loan repayment. If you enjoy travelling/shopping, do so in moderation. Living a terrible life to save a few thousands more is not ideal. Instead, look at side gigs or alternate income sources that you can add to pay faster. Use your annual variable pay to reduced the chunk of loan to be paid etc.
What’s something that I should keep in mind that no one talks about?
What is the connect between insurance and education loan? Are there special programs for women?
Remember, the pressure of paying back the loan, high-interest rate, attached collateral and other liabilities can put undue pressure on your child and finances. So, emotional resilience is as important as the math of the education loan.
Also note that some banks will try to pass off combined insurance – loan programs to you, it is a wiser idea to keep this separate. You may have enough insurance to cover the loan amount already or even if not, can purchase a cheaper term insurance online than a bundled financial product.
Some banks may offer concessions or offer specific support for women – do read the loan brochure and ask your branch manager for details.
Lastly, Educate your kids about the process of applying for a student loan and make them aware of the consequences of not repaying the loan. An education loan is a great way to teach young adults that with great (educational) power comes great (financial) responsibility!
First published here.
Image source: shutterstock
Ayushi Mona co-leads Broke Bibliophiles Bombay Chapter, India's first offline reader driven community. She is a poet and writer who evangelizes Indian writing in English at the India Booked podcast and has also read more...
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