Central Banks Cut Interest Rates

[mcgillianaire]

"The Bank of England has cut interest rates by half a percentage point in an effort to steady the faltering global economy. No decision on UK rates had been expected until Thursday - and the move puts the interest rate at 4.5% from 5%. The unprecedented step failed to cheer world stock markets. The last time the Bank of England cut rates in a special meeting was on 18 September 2001 - when rates came down from 5% to 4.75%. In the UK, some mortgage lenders also immediately passed on the rate cut to borrowers - trimming their variable rates." [BBC ARTICLE]

Woohoo! I was so happy when I saw this headline. A couple months ago I took out a loan to finance my law-conversion course and asked for a variable rate. I had no clue if and when rates would be cut, but my dad told me to go for it. Then two nights ago, after seeing how much interest was added into my loan at the end of last month, I was praying for a rates cut sooner rather than later. My prayers have been answered. Maybe God exists...

Comments

[lctrc-gtr-dde.livejournal.com]

Yup. So British citizens take their university loans from banks?

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

No, not normally. They get them from the government but only upto a total of £3,145/yr for tuition fees and £6,475/yr for accomodation and living costs. You don't need to begin paying it back until the end of your degree and you're earning £15,000. My loan is different because it's a dedicated loan (http://www.natwest.com/personal/loans/g1/professional-training-loan/bpp.ashx) given only to students doing my law conversion course at my particular institution through a specific high street bank (in this case, Natwest). The fees for medicine and law are much higher than for any other degree so they have special high-street bank loans for us. So far I've taken out £10,000 and will probably take out the remaining £15,000 next year. The conditions of our repayment are different. We have to start repaying the loan within a 6 months of our graduation at the end of the two years and it doesn't matter how much we're earning, we have to start paying it back regardless. And we only have 10 years to pay back the principal and the interest!