£37m worth of personal loans 'taken for education'

New research shows that personal loans worth £37 million were taken out between February 2009 and February 2010 to deal with education costs.

Sainsbury's Finance has today (June 7th) estimated that £37 million was taken out in personal loans over the course of 2009 in order to pay for education.

According to this new research, the price of schooling, university fees and general education costs rose by five per cent in the year-long period ending February 2010, which prompted a significant upturn in the amount of loans taken out in order to pay these increased bills.

In total, the supermarket bank reports that around 4,400 loans with an average value of £8,000 were taken out for these reasons.

Sainsbury's, which last month appointed David Fisher as the new chief executive officer of its finance arm, reports that some 1,100 finance packages - worth £12.25 million - were secured to fund school fees throughout the year, while 1,900 loans - worth £13.56 million - were taken out to help with university and college costs.

The lender offers a competitive range of annual percentage rate (APR) financing products, including APR loans from as low as 7.8 per cent for amounts between £7,500 and £14,999.