Education loans

No. Only Singaporean citizens and permanent residents can apply. Consider applying for another type of personal loan, and use the cash to fund your education expenses.

Yes. Your income must be at least $12,000 p.a. if you are applying in person without a guarantor.

If you have no income, one or both of your parents, or other sponsors, can guarantee the loan on your behalf. Joint applications are allowed. Loan guarantors are expected to have a minimum income of $30,000 p.a. (This could be a joint income from two sponsors.)

Yes. The lender will have a list of approved institutions. You must have been accepted for a course at one of these institutions in order to qualify for a loan.

It depends whether you or your parents can fund any of the cost yourselves. If you need a loan for the entire amount, your course fees alone are likely to be $30,000 or more, but will be significantly reduced by the Ministry of Education Tuition Grant.

In some cases you will not receive the cash in your personal bank account. Instead, the lender will pay the amount over to your approved educational institution.

If your course qualifies for either of these sources of funding, and they are available to you or your parents, by all means use them because they will be cheaper options than a loan. Education loans are designed for students who do not have access to government-backed funding, or need to supplement their government-backed funding.

For most loans you must be at least 21, and most lenders impose an upper age limit of between 60 and 65 years. If you’re under 21 you’ll need a guarantor or joint loan applicant whose age is within the limitations.

In addition to the standard personal loan documentation, you’ll need a letter of acceptance from the institution where you are going to study, setting out the course, the fees payable, and how long the course lasts.

Education loans are usually unsecured, so you won’t lose any collateral. If you have a loan guarantor, the bank will try to recover the money from them if they fail to recover it from you. As with all loans, the lender will also have the option of taking legal action against you and and/or any guarantor.

Education loans have lower interest rates than standard personal loans.

You have two options:

• Fixed flat rate, with loan repayable in equal monthly instalments over the total repayment period (loan tenure or loan tenor)
• Monthly rest rate — variable rate, so variable monthly repayments, but should be lower than fixed rate

It’s a type of personal loan that provides cash to fund your studies, covering items like enrolment fees, tuition fees, books and course material, examination fees and possibly even your living expenses while you are studying in Singapore. You may also be able to get an education personal loan to cover the cost of studying overseas, including your living expenses.

You can usually choose a repayment period (loan tenure or loan tenor) of between one and 10 years.

It depends on the lender, the Terms & Conditions of the loan, and whether you are choosing a fixed instalment, interest-only, or deferred payment loan.

Fixed instalment loans required you to start repaying your loan in equal monthly instalments straight away, even while you’re studying.

Interest-only loans will allow you to make small repayments while studying, and pay off the bulk of your loan once you’ve graduated and are working.

Deferred payment loans do not require you to make any repayment while your course lasts. Your loan repayments will begin once you’ve graduated.

Interest-only and deferred payment loans are usually more expensive, but may be the only option if you don’t have an income source to fully fund your loan repayments until you’ve graduated.