The maintenance loan can be a decent wad of cash but, frankly, it doesn’t always keep pace with reality – rent alone can cost way more than you can borrow!

Make a budget, allocate your cash, and try to get a feel for the tight spots – and how you’ll handle them – before they land. It’s especially easy to zip through your loan as soon as it lands, making the rest of term skint city. Do yourself a favour and find ways to make your cash go the distance.

Myth #5 It’s game over if maintenance money falls short

Here’s where a budget helps – it’ll give you time to get back-up cash in place before you need it.

If savings, wages, family top-ups and your 0% overdraft aren’t enough to plug the gaps, check you’ve got all the student finance and uni support you’re entitled to. There may be charity grants, or council and corporate schemes you can apply for as well.

Definitely talk to your uni’s welfare team before things get desperate – they’ll know of other schemes worth scoping out.

Myth #6 It’s cheaper to pay tuition upfront

The student loan is worth considering whether you can make it through uni on your own dime or not. In fact, paying upfront or clearing your loan early could mean spending more than you need to.

If you’re not eligible for student finance, or it’s not enough, you’ll need back-up: find free funds (savings, wages and academic awards) ahead of commercial borrowing to keep costs – and stress – to a minimum.

Myth #7 Repaying the student loan is expensive

You don’t start repaying your student loan until you’ve left your course AND your income is more than £21k in England/Wales (£17,775 in Scotland/NI).

You then pay 9% of whatever you earn above the threshold. So earn £22,000 in England, and you’ll pay 9% of £1,000 – that’s around £7/month.

You can expect to make higher monthly payments as your earnings go up (i.e., with raises or bonuses), but always capped to 9% above the threshold.