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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Loan to finance tuition fees

Responsible authority
Prerequisite
Procedure
Required documents
Legal basis
Costs/Benefits
Release note

The Landeskreditbank Baden-Württemberg – Förderbank (L-Bank) (State Credit Bank) offers students a low-interest loan to finance the tuition fees charged by the public institutions of higher education from summer semester 2007. You can get this low-interest loan regardless of your own income and assets or those of your parents. I.e. you are not required to provide any securities and your creditworthiness is not checked.

The repayment phase is generally two years after the last payment or two years after completion of the course of study.

Responsible authority

for the application: your institution of higher education
to process the application and payment: the L-Bank

Prerequisite

Students at public institutions of higher education in Baden-Württemberg are entitled to make an application, if they are

German,
EU/EEA citizens or their dependents,
stateless foreigners or
foreigners and stateless persons who have acquired their higher education entrance authorization in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Additional conditions:

They have to be registered for an undergraduate course or in a consecutive course of study for a Master’s degree.
They must be under 41 years of age when they start their first course of study.

Procedure

First of all, you have to get your institution of higher education or academy of study of the Cooperative State University to determine that you are entitled to the loan. You apply for the so-called assessment (Feststellungsbescheid) at your institution of higher education either in writing or electronically).

If you get a positive assessment, then you can apply for the loan from the L-Bank. You can submit the completed and signed application form together with the first page of the assessment during the enrolment or re-registration procedure to your institution of higher education directly. It then passes the documents on to the L-Bank. Your institution of higher education notes that the tuition fees will be paid by means of a loan from the L-Bank and you are thus enrolled or reregistered, even if the tuition fee instalment is transferred to the institution of higher education by the L-Bank at a later date.

The L-Bank sends you a loan offer. If you agree to the loan offer, send it back to the L-Bank together with the legitimacy check by means of the “Post Identity Procedure” (identification check by proving your identity in a branch of the Deutsche Post AG).

Normally the completed and signed documents have to be received by the L-Bank within four weeks. If all prerequisites have been met, then the loan agreement becomes effective.

The L-Bank transfers 500 the tuition fees directly to your institution of higher education or vocational college. This amount is not paid onto your account.

Note: You have to notify changes in the course of study (e.g. absence of leave semester, change in the course of study or institution of further education, termination of the course of study) to the L-Bank without delay. You might possibly have to submit a new assessment.

Once you have finished your studies, however at the latest ten years after commencing your course of study a grace period will start. During this grace period, the loan is still free of redemption – until the start of the repayment phase – and the interest is still deferred.

Required documents

assessment (from institution of higher education)
for minors: in addition to the above
- authorization that the loan can be accepted by the legal representative or
- approval from the family court that the loan can be accepted

Legal basis

Costs/Benefits

It is free of charge to apply for the loan to finance the tuition fees and in particular no processing fees are charged.

The loan is awarded under the following conditions:

The L-Bank pays 500 euros directly to the institution of higher education for each semester which is entitled to the loan.
The State of Baden-Württemberg has specified an interest rate ceiling of 5.5 percent for the tuition fee loan.
The maximum term of the loan is the normal period of study (less the periods of preliminary studies) plus four tolerance semesters. Study periods, in which the students were granted leave or exempted due to bringing up children, disability or as a result of talents that are far beyond the average or excellent course achievements, will not be deducted from the number of semesters entitled to the loan.
The loan can be cancelled at any time.

The loan is paid back in monthly instalments of 100 euros (after a grace period from normally two years after the last payment). Upon request a monthly instalment of 150 euros or 50 euros can be agreed.

Unscheduled repayments are possible at all times (Minimum amount: 50 euros).
The interest, which is incurred during the payment and grace period, only has to be paid after the end of the grace period. No compound interest is charged for this.
In the case of students who get BAföG, the BAföG loan and the loan to finance the tuition fees is added. If the amount exceeds 15,000 euros, then the amount above this limit is waivered.
If, after starting to work, the income falls short of a specific income limit (for single persons at present: monthly 1,140 euros net), then repayment can be postponed to a later date.

Release note

The German original version of this text was drafted in close cooperation with the relevant departments. The Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst released it on 01.03.2009. Only the German text is legally binding. The Federal State does not assume any liability for the translated texts.
In cases of doubt or if you have any questions or problems, please contact the relevant authorities directly.