Should I pay off my student loan early?
Many student loans are written off before they're repaid. See what you'd really repay, and what a lump sum now would change.
Your answer
Enter your plan, what you owe, your salary and how long you've been repaying.
About this calculator
For anyone with a student loan who's wondering whether to pay a lump sum off, or wants to know if they'll ever clear it. It's a rough guide, not advice.
What happens to your answers
We don’t keep them. Your answers go to our server to do the sums and aren’t stored or logged. If you copy a link to your answers, they’re in the link itself, so only share it with people you trust.
How it’s worked out
Each year we add interest, then take off what you'd repay from your pay: 9% of what you earn over your plan's threshold (6% for a Postgraduate Loan). Whatever is left when the loan is written off is cancelled.
We run it twice, once as things stand and once after the lump sum, and compare the total you'd pay. We use this year's published interest rates and thresholds, the announced changes after that, then your inflation figure.
Worked example
Without overpaying, you'd repay about £29,255 before the rest (about £86,697) is written off in April 2053. Paying £10,000 now would cost you about £10,000 more in total.
Plan 2 · pay £35,000, rising 3% a year · RPI 4.1% this year, then 3% · first due to repay April 2023 · lump sum £10,000
| What you owe on your Plan 2 | £45,000 |
|---|---|
| You repay 9% of your pay over the threshold, £29,385 a year in 2026/27 | £29,385 |
| Interest this year: 4.8% (RPI 4.1%, plus up to 3% by income, at most 6%); after this year we assume RPI of 3% | 4.8% |
| The Plan 2 threshold stays at £29,385 until April 2030; after that we raise it with RPI | £29,385 |
| Written off 30 years after the April you were first due to repay (April 2023) | April 2053 |
| By April 2031: pay £39,393, £3,421 repaid in total, £51,558 still owed | £3,421 |
| By April 2036: pay £45,667, £7,913 repaid in total, £58,257 still owed | £7,913 |
| By April 2041: pay £52,941, £13,120 repaid in total, £65,685 still owed | £13,120 |
| By April 2046: pay £61,373, £19,156 repaid in total, £73,881 still owed | £19,156 |
| By April 2051: pay £71,148, £26,154 repaid in total, £82,873 still owed | £26,154 |
| By April 2053: pay £75,481, £29,255 repaid in total, £86,697 still owed | £29,255 |
| Total you'd repay without overpaying | £29,255 |
| Written off in April 2053 | £86,697 |
| Paying £10,000 now, then £29,255 from your pay | £39,255 |
| Extra cost of paying the lump sum | £10,000 |
A year-by-year projection from the 2026/27 tax year to the April the loan is written off, using the repayment thresholds and interest rates published for 2026/27.
Questions people ask
Why could paying a lump sum cost me more?
You repay a share of your pay, not of what you owe. If the loan would be written off before you clear it anyway, a lump sum mostly reduces the amount written off, while you keep paying the same from your pay.
When is my student loan written off?
Plan 1: 25 years after the April you were first due to repay (at 65 for loans before September 2006). Plan 2, Plan 4 and Postgraduate Loans: 30 years. Plan 5: 40 years.
Can I get an extra repayment back?
No. There's no penalty for paying extra, but you can't get extra repayments refunded, so be sure you won't need the money for something else first.
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