Study Loans At German Universities
From the year 2005, when novel laws concerning the university fees were determined by the Constitutional Court of Germany, different loan schemes have been created. Until then some credit institutes had already proposed plans for student loans (German: Studentenkredite). Much later than the DKB (Deutsche Kredit Bank) had implemented the first academic credit supply together with Career Concept, the world’s first provider of educational funds, in October 2005 the Deutsche Bank started to provide loans for the students. Nowadays, there are numerous offers from other private and public banks, as well as the KfW.
The “dbStudentenKredit” of the Deutsche Bank is free for all students at German universities or colleges, regardless of their particular study topic. The age limit is 30 years. As a further requirement for the grant of a “dbStudentenKredit” the credit institute needs a complete study plan. All lectures that a student wants to take should be listed up and future career plans need to be described. Furthermore, the bank wants to have information about the creditworthiness of the students from the Schufa book that contains the financial information of all German citizens. These two categories of information provide the bank with the necessary security.
During the 1st and 2nd Semester one can get up to 200 Euros a month for living expenses and education fees. At a further stage the maximum amount of money is 800 Euros monthly. The rate of interest changes from time to time. After a student has finished studying the sum that has to be paid back is fixed by a new contract. During the first year after going off from university no repayments need to be made. The students have 12 years to reimburse the loan (Studentenkredit). Surely it is also possible to repay the total amount of money in one go.
The Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau (Credit Institute for Reconstruction), was created shortly after the 2nd World War with the goal of supporting the restoration of the German country. Since April 2006, also the KfW bank offers a student loan for people studing for their first degree.
The KfW Student Loan (Studentenkredite) does not call for many background information, but it is not approved in the case of a private bankruptcy. Furthermore it is free for all German students (also EU foreigners) and for all state-recognized universities. The only conditions are that the applicant has not yet ended his studies and not yet reached an age of 31.
Find out more about the student loan (German: Studienkredit)situation in Germany and go to my blog about Studienkredit. Various possibilities of student funding in Germany discussed further.
Tags: education, Finance, loans, student loans, students, studies, study, studying, university
