One graduate loan, please.
I'd finished Uni with a Desmond and a pile of student loans. I had no job and fanciful aspirations of becoming a famous musician. I needed some new equipment with which to create my masterpieces and I had no money to buy it.

So I skipped to the bank, cap in hand, and was promptly offered a couple of grands worth of graduate loan.

"Ace!" I said to the man in the tie as I scribbled my name on a piece of paper.

"Indeed." he mumbled with an uncertain look and an air of regret.

"I'd best get a job if you want to see any of this money again." I half joked, before winking and shooting him with my fingers.

"Ummm..." he began all too late as I was already out the door.

Eventually I wished I'd followed my own advice. The difference between a graduate loan and the one they changed it to (after I finally capitulated and dragged my worthless self back in to speak to them) was a fair (read: fucking massive) increase in APR. Worse still I also doubled an overdraft I shouldn't have had in the first place. An overdraft that had been free during my student days, but was no longer. An overdraft they gracefully included in my loan at the new, significantly increased APR.

There's a moral to this story: if you get offered a loan, don't pretend to shoot the man with your fingers, they don't like it and will hold a grudge if you don't pay back the money you owe them that is.
( Moey, Thu 16 Jul 2009, 15:40, Reply)