Student loan repayment calculator
What comes out each month, and the question that actually matters: will you ever clear it?
- Written off
- –
- Outcome
- –
- Total you would repay
- £0
- Left unpaid at write-off
- £0
Repayments are a share of income, not a share of the debt
This is the part that makes a student loan behave unlike any other borrowing. You repay a percentage of what you earn above a threshold, and nothing at all below it. The size of the balance has no effect on the monthly figure. Two people on the same salary repay the same amount whether they owe £9,000 or £90,000.
The rate is 9% above the threshold on every undergraduate plan, and 6% on a postgraduate loan. A postgraduate loan is repaid alongside an undergraduate one, not instead of it, so someone with both hands over 15% of everything above the lower threshold.
The thresholds and terms differ sharply
- Plan 1: repay 9% above £26,900, written off after 25 years. Undergraduate, England and Wales, started before September 2012. Loans taken before September 2006 are written off at 65 instead.
- Plan 2: repay 9% above £29,385, written off after 30 years. Undergraduate, England and Wales, started between September 2012 and July 2023.
- Plan 4: repay 9% above £33,795, written off after 30 years. Scottish students. The highest threshold of any plan, so repayments start later.
- Plan 5: repay 9% above £25,000, written off after 40 years. Undergraduate, England, started August 2023 or later. The lowest threshold and the longest term, so most borrowers repay for their whole working life.
- Postgraduate: repay 6% above £21,000, written off after 30 years. Masters and doctoral loans. Repaid at 6% alongside any undergraduate plan, not instead of it.
Plan 5 is the one worth pausing on. The lowest threshold and a forty year term mean most borrowers on it will repay for their entire working life and still not clear the balance.
The question that actually matters
Not "how much do I owe" but "will I ever clear it". If the projection above says the loan is written off with a substantial balance outstanding, then the balance is a number on a statement rather than a debt you will repay, and voluntary overpayments are simply money given away. If it says you clear it years early, overpaying genuinely saves interest.
This is why the balance growing every year alarms people far more than it should. Interest applies to everything you owe while repayments are only a share of income above the threshold, so on a big balance and a normal salary the debt rises for years. What decides the cost is your salary over your career, not the number on the statement.
What this assumes
A steady salary rising at the rate you set, no career breaks, no time working abroad, and the interest rate you entered holding for the whole term. None of those will be exactly true. Treat the projection as a shape rather than a forecast: whether you are on the "clear it" path or the "written off" path is robust, the precise year is not.
Common questions
- Which plan am I on?
- It depends on where and when you studied. Plan 1 for English and Welsh students who started before September 2012, Plan 2 from September 2012 to July 2023, Plan 5 from August 2023, Plan 4 for Scottish students, and a separate Postgraduate loan for masters and doctoral study. Your annual statement says which.
- Is a student loan really a debt?
- It behaves more like a graduate tax. Repayments are a fixed percentage of income above a threshold, they stop if your income falls below it, and the balance is written off after a set number of years whatever is left. Nothing is repossessed and it does not appear on a normal credit file.
- Should I overpay to clear it early?
- Usually not, and this calculator will often show why. If the projection says the balance is written off with a large amount outstanding, then voluntary overpayments are money you would never otherwise have paid. Overpaying only helps borrowers who would clear the loan anyway, which mostly means high earners with small balances.
- Why does my balance keep growing?
- Interest is added to the whole balance while your repayment is only a share of income above the threshold. On a large balance and a modest salary, interest can exceed the repayment, so the balance rises every year. That is unpleasant to look at and, for most people on that path, financially irrelevant: the write-off arrives before the balance does.
- What interest rate should I enter?
- The one on your annual statement. Rates vary by plan, change every year with RPI, and on Plan 2 also vary with your income. This calculator does not guess it, because a guessed rate would produce a confident answer that is wrong.