Paying for uni? HECS vs Upfront payment (1 Viewer)

[Bananaberry]

As far as I know it's based on your taxable income as reported in your return, so if you earn under the threshold for the whole year there's no compulsory repayment.

well maybe I might get a nice tax return lol

but if I do, I will be most probably putting it all back into my HECS, and get the 10% disocunt too

 

[FugitiveGirl]

Under what circumstances do you get the 10% and 20% discounts? I'm a little confused about this

 

[ajdlinux]

Under what circumstances do you get the 10% and 20% discounts? I'm a little confused about this

The 20% discount is for when you pay your HECS contribution upfront. A 10% bonus applies when you pay a voluntary contribution on top of your mandatory repayment after you have earned a HECS debt.

 

[FugitiveGirl]

Oooh neat! Thanks

+rep

 

[oct25]

Wow, after reading all that I think I've changed my mind.

However, I'm not sure how I pay for it. Do I go onto my bank account, type in the UNSW Biller Code and my Customer Ref. No. and just pay however much I want?

If I pay too much, what happens?

Thanks!

 

[rx34]

You can pay by Bpay. With Westpac online banking, you click the Bpay link and enter the code (from the UNSW invoice). Or you can pay in the post office, give them the invoice and pay by eftpos/credit card. Make sure your eftpos daily limit is set high enough ($3.6k ish)

 

[spazamataz]

Okay I got my online fee statement, and was expecting it to be something great, but its not much at all!
So my parents are planning on paying for it, pending the accommodation fee statement becoming available....

 

[rowdyroddy]

isnt there like a 20% fee for using hecs?

 

[oct25]

You can pay by Bpay. With Westpac online banking, you click the Bpay link and enter the code (from the UNSW invoice). Or you can pay in the post office, give them the invoice and pay by eftpos/credit card. Make sure your eftpos daily limit is set high enough ($3.6k ish)

Thanks. The problem though is that I'm unsure of exactly how much a semester costs. Would it be okay for me to pay a lil extra so that I get it back later in a refund?

My only concern is that I tick the option to pay upfront only to not pay enough by the census date and have my enrolment cancelled!

Will I get a warning from unsw if this is the case?

 

[Bananaberry]

isnt there like a 20% fee for using hecs?

No there is no fee for using HECS. Maybe your confused with the 20% discount they give you on up front payments you make over $500 when you are going through uni.

If you defer your HECS until you earn above the income threshold, they charge you a sort of interest (not actually is interest just the rate of whatever the CPI is, currently its 3.9%)

 

[spence]

Thanks. The problem though is that I'm unsure of exactly how much a semester costs. Would it be okay for me to pay a lil extra so that I get it back later in a refund?

My only concern is that I tick the option to pay upfront only to not pay enough by the census date and have my enrolment cancelled!

Will I get a warning from unsw if this is the case?

The invoice will say how much to pay

 

[madsam]

Thanks. The problem though is that I'm unsure of exactly how much a semester costs. Would it be okay for me to pay a lil extra so that I get it back later in a refund?

My only concern is that I tick the option to pay upfront only to not pay enough by the census date and have my enrolment cancelled!

Will I get a warning from unsw if this is the case?

If you look on the uni website, you can find out how much it'll cost. It shouldn't be more than 4k per semester for the most expensive course, i'm paying i think 3400-ish? for Aero engineering at usyd


And what you people are forgetting, if you have the 20k in the bank, its not an instant upfront payment of 20k, its progressive. So you can still put it in a long term deposit or two (14k for a year + 3k for 6 months) or something along those lines, generating money while still receiving the 20% discount

And i'm pretty sure you can alternate between HECS and upfront payments (If you have the money available)

 

[Bananaberry]

Yep you can altertate. As I've mentioned, I paid for every semester up front except my last.

 

[kairihearts]

wen i got the enrollment payment, its like less than 3000. my payment scheme is HECS-compulsory upfront-no discount. is there a loan? am i in debt to the goverment?

 

[Raix]

Uh I'm pretty sure it's either HECS or upfront - No discount. So which is it?
If you choose HECS, you can either use it for the whole amount, meaning you owe all of it to the government, or pay it partially upfront with HECS covering the rest, giving you a 20% discount.
If you pay upfront, to the Uni, you pay in full, with no discount.
Correct me if I'm wrong.

I had a serious panic attack earlier because I'm still on PR and since PRs can't get HECS, I was really worried about being able to pay. It sucked cause I did apply and get approved for Citizenship last year but it's taking a long time to get to the ceremony. I called them up and thry said I'll be going on March 18th, the census date is March 31st.
I freaked out even more when the due date on my fee statement was in February.
But I called up and they said it's fine if I went over the due date as long as I got my certificate before the census date.

So does this mean that as soon as I get the certificate, I can show up at the Admin centre and apply for HECS?

 

[annabackwards]

The 20% discount is for when you pay your HECS contribution upfront. A 10% bonus applies when you pay a voluntary contribution on top of your mandatory repayment after you have earned a HECS debt.

EDIT: Oh i got what you mean by 10%. That's if you make a voluntary payment of $500 or more after you graduate yeah?

Wow, after reading all that I think I've changed my mind.

However, I'm not sure how I pay for it. Do I go onto my bank account, type in the UNSW Biller Code and my Customer Ref. No. and just pay however much I want?

If I pay too much, what happens?

Thanks!

Thanks for asking this questions, it saved me the trouble of asking XD

 

[proringz]

Here's a good article weighing up the options:
Am I better off paying HECS upfront?

 

[Otacon2009]

There's 90% chance I'm going to have to (grudgingly) defer my HECS until at least the middle of the year. I prefer to pay up front because it's the one thing from uni I don't want to hang around long after the graduation. Earning $15.47 and still making the money to pay HECS upfront is a little bit of a feat, but the costs of moving to QUT means that I'm not going to have time to raise the money in time.

 

[joker252]

even after the 20% discount, it works out that it is cheaper overall to use HECS


having known that however i still decided to pay upfront

 

[joker252]

but think of it this way

study for 10 years

build up a huge hecs debt

move to the cayman islands

tokyo drift

4 LYF

what up