Student Loan Guides
Understand your plan type, when your loan is written off, and whether overpaying makes sense.
A UK student loan behaves far more like a graduate contribution than a conventional debt, and treating it as one leads to poor decisions. You repay a fixed percentage of everything you earn above a threshold, nothing at all below it, and whatever is left after a set number of years is written off entirely.
That structure has two consequences that surprise people. The balance is largely irrelevant, because what you actually repay is driven by your earnings over your working life rather than by the amount borrowed. And overpaying voluntarily only benefits you if you were on course to clear the loan in full before write off, which for many graduates on some plans never happens.
Which plan you are on decides almost everything: the repayment threshold, the percentage taken, the interest applied and the number of years before write off all differ between plans. Plan 2 and Plan 5 in particular are frequently confused, and the difference between them changes the lifetime cost substantially for the same salary.
All guides
Student Loan Repayment Thresholds 2026/27
The 2026/27 thresholds for Plan 1, 2, 4, 5 and Postgraduate loans, with worked examples showing what you repay at each salary.
When Is Your Student Loan Written Off? Rules for Plan 1, 2, 3 and 5
Write-off dates by plan type: Plan 1 after 25 years, Plan 2 after 30, Plan 5 after 40. How cancellation works automatically.
Plan 2 vs Plan 5 Student Loan
How Plan 2 and the newer Plan 5 differ on repayment thresholds, interest rates, and write-off periods.
Will I Ever Pay Off My Student Loan?
How to project your balance forward and work out whether full repayment or write-off is the more likely outcome.
Working out your own position
Identify your plan first, since every other figure follows from it, then use the matching calculator to project repayments against your expected earnings. If you have a postgraduate loan alongside an undergraduate one, model both, because they are repaid simultaneously and the combined deduction is larger than people expect.
The single question worth answering before making any voluntary overpayment is whether you are realistically going to clear the balance before write off. If the projection says you will not, overpaying simply hands over money you were never going to be required to pay. This is general information rather than financial advice, and the Student Loans Company holds the definitive record of your plan and balance.
Jump straight to a tool: student loan calculator, Plan 2 calculator, Plan 5 calculator, postgraduate calculator.