Update Note: 12/12/2017. I wrote this blog just before November’s base rate rise, predicting then UK rates would rise and Santander 123 wouldn’t follow. Well UK rates did rise, and Santander’s confirmed it won’t follow. So everything below still stands. Some of the alternative accounts and rates have shifted slightly, but most are pretty similar – just click...

If you read the papers you’d think the answer is a clear cut yes. I too agree, to an extent. Yet the most commonly quoted problems tend not to be what worries me most, and the things least mentioned can hurt.    On Tuesday, MSE organised an event at the Tory party conference, where I debated this subject...

Have you been Plevined? I ask that question in the almost certain knowledge that most people reading this won’t have a clue what I’m on about. Yet the answer is YES for millions, and if so that means you’re owed big money. At the end of August, the financial regulator the Financial Conduct Authority launched a two-year...

This weekend the papers have been mooting that Theresa May’s Government is looking to cut the English and Welsh student loan interest rate – now at a 6.1% headline rate for those who began uni in or after 2012 – in order to appeal to the youth vote. I find this frustrating. Not because I object; I’ve...

Fear grabs votes and makes headlines. Sadly, though, both sides’ political spin and spittle over student finance have resulted in widespread rampant misinformation – and it’s got worse again this year.  So with a new academic year about to start, my message to students and their parents is simple – forget the politics – ensure you understand...