''It's Time To Pay Back Your Student Loan!'' - $190 Every Three Months "Even Without" Income.

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The Swedish Board of Student Finance (CSN) is the government agency that manages Swedish student finance, i.e. grants and loans for studies. They also manage driving licence loans and home equipment loans amongst other things.


Their table of contents:

  • Student finance – grants and loans for studies
  • Home equipment loans – for refugees
  • Driving licence loans – for the unemployed
  • New arrivals in Sweden - refugee

I just received my first letter regarding repayment of my student loan from CSN. I obviously understand that you need to pay back what you owe, but I was actually shocked when I received this letter as I finished School 3 weeks ago. They work fast. Really fast.

Even though literally everyone knows that Sweden is 'such an amazing country' in many different ways, Sweden is also extremely messed up. I mean, 600 nurses and doctors got fired from one of our biggest hospital recently despite the fact that we need to recruit 233,000 people to the health care sector by 2023.

Talk about counterproductive or to be working backwards. I find these news odd and actually quite insane. But, that's a different story.

Today, I'll just focus on CSN and my student loan debt.

I finished School 3 weeks ago, with the unemployment rate at 6.3% in total, it's not that easy to get a job, even though it's a decent number. Where I live, we had an unemployment rate of 10,7% in November this year.

I am now a psychiatric nurse or a nurse specialized in psychiatry, and I am one of the lucky people to have scored a job the day after I finished School. I am obviously happy, but I haven't even signed the papers for it yet and CSN sent me a letter about how much money I am supposed to pay them back for my student loan.

My total student loan debt is:

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($9228 U.S Dollars.)

I appreciate the interest rates and I know that our student loans in Sweden are good in general, but I have to pay $190 every three months starting in February:

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The things that bothers me is this:

  • How could anyone pay that without a job?
  • Shouldn't they check if I am able to pay back before sending me repayment letters?

One of the good things obviously, is that I am able to pay back monthly instead, if I want too. It doesn't cost me anything extra and I can easily switch to monthly basis instead... But still, I think it's messed up to do this when they don't even know if I have a job or not...

CSN is supposed to be some sort of a "lifeline", and whenever you want to study you have the option to do that and still have an income. It's minimal, and it's basically impossible to live off of your student loan income if you have kids or if you live in a large apartment for instance... But CSN can still be a good option for many as the interest rates and the payment time is good in general.

I mean, my total student loan debt is about $9228 U.S Dollars and I am supposed to pay back ~$190 every three months. That's about $760 per year... So roughly speaking, I have to pay everything back in 12 years.

I bet most people would consider that to be a good deal... I just wonder why on earth they are telling me to pay back before they actually know if I have a job or not. Wouldn't it have been better to give me the first repayment letter when they know that I have a job, and let me pay back in 12 years from that day...?

  • No wonder things are going south.



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Sounds like CSN is similar to the Danish model. I had a student debt of 65000Kr ish, but I get a letter of repayment 3 years after I finished school and that will be stopped if I start school again.
I pay 650kr pr month which is "nothing" for someone with a job.
The interest on the Loan is about 2%, so thats pretty good :D

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Yeah, I think it's about the same here in Sweden. I just can't understand why they send repayment letters immediately, without even knowing if people have a job or not. $190 every three months is not much to argue about, if you have a job... But without it, I bet there's tons of people out there having a really hard time.

I mean, even the ~$65 monthly, if I'd go that route instead would be gruesome for people without a job. That's about 8% of the monthly income as a student, if you have student loans.

8% might not sound like much, but on top of that, you need to pay rent, electricity bills, internet and whatever... So it quickly adds up to quite hefty amounts if you have a low income.

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Ye no, I dont know why the sent it that early :D I dont know their policy.
I think the Danish govt check, I didn't have a fulltime for 2 years or so, I just a substitute working different areas of the storage branche :D
But when I got my fulltime job, they sent it out.

I had to pay every second month, which was weird to me, but I could change it to monthly instead :D

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That sounds like a much better system though, to pay it back starting from the day you have a job. A much better option than just randomly send out these repayment letters telling people to pay back regardless of having a job or not.

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Some years ago, you had 10 years after you finished school, before you had to pay it back :p (With or without a job tho) xD
I would just call them if I didn't have a job

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Well, everyone should be able to get a job in 10 years though, as long as nothing extreme would happen...

I still can't understand why they send me this shit when I finished school only 3 weeks ago. That's weird. I can handle it though, as I have a job etc.. But I don't like the system at all.

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Ye. 10 years is an insane amount of breathing time :p

Maybe they know you got a job? Maybe they spy on you :p

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Haha nah, not so likely. I still haven't signed the papers for it yet. We've agreed on doing that tomorrow so it's literally impossible for them to know about it.

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Its the govt dude, they know everything!
Well, dno :p

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(Edited)

In the UK, most students will usually finish a 3 year course at university with a debt of around US $50K now.

The interest rate is higher (around 6% I think) but repayments only start when their salary goes above a minimum of around US$ 25K per year.

Then the repayments are deducted automatically by their employer.

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Oh, I see. That sounds pretty good actually. We have to pay our debts on our own. It doesn't get deducted by the employer or anything like that so I personally think that's a better way to do it.

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Yes, having the repayment threshold is a good idea.

It allows students to get established in a job before having to worry about starting to pay back their loans.

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Yeah exactly. That sounds like the ideal way of doing things. I think it's crazy to send me a letter asking me to repay money starting in February when I finished School 3 weeks ago.

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It does seem rather prompt! Is there any appeal procedure to delay paying until you are established in the new job?

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I'm actually not sure. I think there is, not sure how it would work out though. I will just pay whatever they want me to, as I have a job, but it would obviously have felt better if I got to be a little more established before I had to start paying back.

We'll see, I might look into it more detailed further on. For now, I'm just glad that I've been able to get a job. It's worse for people with no or low income.

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I am not sure this would be possible in the Nordic countries.
I have worked at the same company for 2 years and I have gotten a 4dkk raise hourly, which is around 0.6 usd raise :D Thats not really anything xD
The minimum wage here is really good.

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I feel you. I'm lucky that I have a job, but still I'm paying almost 100€ per month for the next 10+ years to pay back my student debt.

It's sad how some assume forcing students to get a high debt is a way to help people to get a higher education.

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Yeah, I agree.. I think it's a great idea though, and opportunity for many people, but even though the interest rates are good I still think it's too much in total, at least in general. I mean, ~85% out of my student loan went to cover my rent and other bills. So most of it covered my living expenses during the education.

Now, when I'm finished, I need to pay back what I owe for basically living during that time. So it's not that much about the actual education, it's more about the living expenses during the education.

I obviously understand the idea behind it, but some of my classmates for instance, they had financial aid during the education, so they basically got paid for going to school and they owe nothing. That's Sweden in a nutshell though.. Unfortunately.

So, meanwhile I have to pay ~$65 per month for about 12 years to pay back my student loans, they will keep 100% of their salaries from day 1.

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I just wonder why on earth they are telling me to pay back before they actually know if I have a job or not.

Because they don’t care. They made a loan, they expect payment on it. Same thing in the U.S. Student loan debt is a house of cards. Lenders have no incentive to not loan. Either the student pays up or the student defaults and goes into bankruptcy and the Federal Treasury pays the lender.

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It sure looks like a bunch of improvements could be made regarding student loans all over the world. I guess things like this are why some people are hesitant in the first place.

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'It licks the boots, or it lives under a bridge.'

How do you like crapitalism, now?

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When I graduated I wasn't able to pay so I was able to defer payment for a number of years. After I had used up all the time allowed I was able to make low payments based on my income level. I now pay about $130 a month on the two remaining loans I have which are only a couple thousand dollars now if I remember right.

I'd be surprised if they don't have similar arrangements available in Sweden, it couldn't hurt to call them and ask 😄

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