Who's the best person to speak to re. HECS type stuff

[BrightSparkles]

need advice girls. Not sure who I/we n eed to talk to. An accountant or finacial planner?? I have put heaps of research into which course I want to do and have found "the one". Its 12K and i can do it on a vet help (Hecs) scheme. DH is worried that it will stop us getting loans in the future and that because we are trying to pay debt off that this will stop that.
In my head I have a plan that once I get this (even the first part - cert 3) that I can start doing some extra work - in a salon or from home. I don't have to start paying back the hecs stuff until i start earning over $47K which even now - even now I don't earn close 2 that working 4 full days! so it would be a little while until I can start to pay it back. Any extra we can earn at the moment will be helping to pay off debt we have.
I need to take DHto talk to someone so they can explain it all too him because he needs to hear it from someone other than me. So who is best at this sort of stuff - an accountant or a financial planner? I really want to do this and know I can do well at it but i need his support to do it.

[briggsy's girl]

do you get your taxes done with an accountant? maybe you could ask them to explain how it works
it doesn't impact your access to loans at all - just means you have a bit more deducted with your tax each week/fortnight. in all honesty, i have never been asked about student loans when applying for finance. they tend to look at net income to check servicability - and your hecs/help debt has already come out by then!

[Tuesday's Child]

We refinanced our home loan while I still had my $20k HELP debt and it didn't factor into it at all. The person we spoke to at our bank explained it was because it comes out with your tax. And remember, you only start paying it back once you earn over a certain amount.

[Astrid]

Whilst accountants know about dealing with HECS/HELP debts for tax purposes, they may not be up on what a bank is looking for loan wise. As BG said if they are just looking at your take home pay, then you HECS payment is already dealt with. I would be more inclined to chat to someone at a bank about this. Good luck

[AnyDream]

It's worth checking out more thoroughly because I'm pretty sure the non-HECS/HELP funded places cost a LOT more than the HECS/HELP ones do.

Even if you do the HECS fee, you can opt to make payments throughout your course if you want to reduce the final debt amount. There is normally a discount for voluntary payments or payments made up front. Doing it this way would still be cheaper than paying for a non HECS place.

[BrightSparkles]

It's worth checking out more thoroughly because I'm pretty sure the non-HECS/HELP funded places cost a LOT more than the HECS/HELP ones do.

Even if you do the HECS fee, you can opt to make payments throughout your course if you want to reduce the final debt amount. There is normally a discount for voluntary payments or payments made up front. Doing it this way would still be cheaper than paying for a non HECS place.

The one i'm looking at is VET Fee - HELP.

Thanks eveyone

[BrightSparkles]

When/if you apply for finance does it aske you about any hecs/help loans? Do you list it as a current debt? I'm hoping that this is going to be the last thing that DH is worried about. Our friend that is here tonight told him that he thinks its a good idea... just the last hurdles...

Effectively, my take hm pay will be less until i pay back the debt yeah? because they with hold the tax? If i don't earn over the threshold and therefore don't have to pay back anything at that point, what happens with the tax that was withheld?

Sorry for all the questions.