3 in 4 graduates don't know their student loan balance - is it worth overpaying?

Around 3 in 4 people don’t know their student loan balance. Of the 662 graduates with student loans who responded to our thinkmoney survey, 508 said they had no idea how much they owed.  

A big reason for this is that many people never check their balance because they don’t know how to or because they’re just disengaged with this specific debt. For many, their student loan is just a “graduate tax” their employer deducts from their pay slip every month.  

But, as we discussed in an earlier article, this leads to millions of people accidentally paying more than they need to. That’s money that could have stayed in your pocket (and which you can still reclaim).  

How to check what you owe 

You can see your current student loan balance anytime by logging in to your Student Loans Company (SLC) account on GOV.UK. This is where your interest gets added and where your repayments are recorded. The SLC manages your account and keeps track of repayments collected through HMRC’s payroll system.  

If you’re not sure which repayment plan you’re on, you can also check this through SLC. Your plan matters because it affects: 

• how much you repay 

• what interest rate you’re charged 

• when your loan gets wiped 

Once you see the figure, you might wonder whether it's worth overpaying. This is a very individual decision and it's based off of several factors we explore below.

When will my student loan get written off? 

One of the most important things to know about student loans is that they don’t last forever. No matter how big your balance looks, your loan is wiped after a set number of years, depending on which repayment plan you’re on.  

Here’s how it works: 

Plan 1 (mostly pre‑2012 England/Wales, older Scottish/NI loans) 

• If your first loan payment for your course was on or after 1 September 2006, it’s written off 25 years after the April you were first due to repay. 

• If your first loan payment was before 1 September 2006, it’s written off when you turn 65.  

Plan 2 (most people who studied between 2012–2023 in England/Wales) 

• Your loan is written off 30 years after the April you were first due to repay.  

Plan 4 (Scottish borrowers) 

• If your first loan payment was on or after 1 August 2007, your loan is wiped 30 years after the April you were first due to repay. 

• If it was before that, it’s written off at age 65, or after 30 years, whichever comes first.  

Plan 5 (England from 2023 onwards) 

• Your loan is written off after 40 years from the April you were first due to start repaying.  

Postgraduate loans (Master’s or PhD) 

• These are written off 30 years after the April you were first due to repay. 

Is it worth overpaying your student loan? 

You might be wondering if there’s any point overpaying given student loans get written off anyway. For many graduates, overpaying doesn’t save money, and in some cases, it can even cost more overall. 

Here’s why: 

Your monthly repayments don’t depend on how much you owe 

You always pay 9% of what you earn above your threshold, no matter your balance. Paying extra doesn’t lower that 9%. The only exception is the postgraduate loan, where you’ll repay 6% instead of 9%, but the same rules apply.  

Most people never pay off the full balance 

Because the loan is wiped after a set number of years, many people will finish the repayment period with a remaining balance that disappears. Thresholds move up most years, and salaries don't always follow suit which also contributes to this. For example, Plan 2 loans are wiped after 30 years, no matter how much is left.  

If your earnings stay low or average, overpaying rarely makes sense

If you earn below or just above the repayment threshold, you may never repay the full amount before the loan is written off, so any extra payments wouldn’t necessarily save you any money long term. 

When overpaying your student loan can make sense 

Overpaying can save you paying loads back in interest and can make sense, but typically only if you’re a high earner and are likely to pay off your loan before it gets written off anyway.  

There are no blanket, one-size-fits-all rules when it comes to deciding whether to pay off your student loan or not. This is because whether it makes sense for you specifically will depend on factors like:  

• What plan you’re on and how much you owe (thresholds, repayment percentages, and rules around writing off the loan all differ depending on this)  

• Exactly how much you’re making right now  

• Whether you expect to keep making the same or more for the rest of your working life  

• Whether you’re planning on taking any career breaks where your income will dip below the threshold (and you won’t need to pay for that period)  

• Whether you have other debt that’s more important (spoiler: most other debt will likely take precedence here)  

• Whether you’re better off saving or investing the money (this decision can be partially based on current student loan interest rates and potential returns if you go down a different path)  

There are all sorts of student loan calculators online which can help you work out how much you’re likely to pay and how long it’ll take you to overpay your loan. You can use them to gauge your situation, but make sure you understand the assumptions they make before you do.  

What if you just value the “debt-free” life?  

Some people choose to clear the loan for emotional reasons. But you need to understand that you might end up paying more than you need to in order to clear debt which would have been written off anyway.  

If you value a debt-free life, it’s also best to consider paying off other debts first, for example your mortgage which won’t be written off after a set period of time.  

After that, you need to weigh up what matters more – putting money away in savings for later life, or spending that money to pay off a debt that’ll be written off eventually anyway. Overpaying can absolutely be the clever financial decision in some cases, but it’s all about weighing up your individual circumstances.  

Key takeaways

• 75% of graduates don’t know their student loan balance, which increases the risk of overpaying by accident (but there's ways to reclaim accidental overpayments).

• Your SLC online account is where you can see your real-time balance, repayment plan, and interest.

• Your repayment plan shows you what you repay, your interest rate, and when the loan gets wiped.

• Most borrowers won’t clear their balance before it’s written off, meaning overpayments often don’t save money.

• Overpaying (on purpose) typically only tends to benefit high earners who are on track to clear the loan before the write‑off date.

• Overpaying is a very individual decision because if your income dips below the threshold (career breaks, part-time work), repayments pause making overpayments even less worthwhile.

• Clearing other debts usually takes priority, as most commercial borrowing works out more expensive purely because it doesn't automatically get wiped.