Nicole from Sydney was out with friends when she found out the federal government had made changes to the way HECS or HELP loans were indexed.
She was shocked, and not in a good way.
“My gut dropped because I’d just paid off $36,000.”
Nicole’s student debt was affecting her ability to buy her first home.
“The difference that my having a HECS debt made to my borrowing power was close to $100,000. Obviously, with house prices the way that they are at the moment, not having that extra $100,000 of borrowing capacity was the difference between me being able to buy a property and not being able to buy a property,” Nicole explained.
So, she decided to pay the debt off, using the savings she’d earmarked for her home deposit.
That payment went through…
