Students warned to keep overdrafts manageable to avoid interest

Tertiary students taking interest-free deals from their banks are being warned not to borrow more than they can repay before their course finishes.

Almost a third of New Zealand tertiary students use overdrafts, new research shows. These are usually interest-free to students while they are studying, offered as part of banks' student banking deals.

But that almost half  of all students do not pay back that money before they leave university - the point at which interest often starts to apply.

Almost 20 per cent ended up paying interest for six months or more - 11 per cent took six to 12 months to pay it off and 9 per cent took more than two years, the research revealed.

from
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/95758129/Students-warned-to-keep-overdrafts-manageable-to-avoid-interest