EDUCATION LOANS IN GERMANY
The National governments can no longer finance the whole state education system. To disburden the national treasury in countries, which finance college and university students, they introduced tuition fees. To support und help them furthermore, they have grant systems to decrease their living expenses. Subsequently, students in Germany now, like their counter-parts in the USA, need to look for credit offers and take out student loans to finance their studies. The following looks at what is on offer for student loans in Germany.
BAF'o'G Supports German Students
Not long ago, Germany did not have student fees, the students did not have to pay for their university education. The students only had to finance their living expenses while studying for free. As far as the German state was concerned this could be done by a students parents, either giving or lending the money to the student; or if that were not possible due to the parents financial situation the students could apply for a federal German Student loan called a - Bundesausbildungsforderungsgesetz, or BAf'o'G for short. Anyone eligible for a BAf'o'f loan will take it; but they might still need to apply for a further student loan from a commercial finance company.
If students is eligible for the BAf'o'f loan, he has to pay only the half of the amount back to the government and also the percentage rate of interest is very low for the BAf'o'f . They system is very thought-out because the students get the money as long as they study and the repayment starts when they are at a certain level of remuneration. As if that's not good enough; in effect turning half of the loan into a grant. Eligibility for a BAf'o'f loan is Dependant on parental income and applications are 'means tested'. That is to say the size of a BAf'o'f loan can vary from a 100% loan-downwards; according to the parents' capability to contribute to the students education. Even being awarded a 1% BAf'o'f loan is useful to a German Student, as the award of any BAf'o'f loan also gives them access to reduced costs in some other services.