Study Loans- Germany

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 can be taken by any student at a German university or college, regardless of the study subject. The maximum age is 30 years. As a prerequisite for the award of a “dbStudentenKredit” the bank requires a detailed study plan. All future courses of study shall be listed up and the main intention regarding the later career plans should be explained. In addition, the bank gets some information about the creditworthiness of the students from the Schufa book that lists up the financial details of every German inhabitant. These two categories of information give the bank a certain amount of security.

In the beginning of the studies one can get up to 200 Euros a month for living costs and university fees. Later on the amount of money one can get every month increases to 800 Euros. The rate of interest differs from time to time. Throughout the first year after finishing the studies no money needs to be paid back. Altogether students have 12 years of time to reimburse the total amount of money the student loan (Studentenkredite) provided. Of course students also have the option to pay pack everything right now.

The Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau (Credit Institute for Reconstruction), was founded after the 2nd World War with the aim to support the rebuilding of the German country. Since April 2006, the KfW development bank also offers a study loan for all students during 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: Studienkredite)situation in Germany and visit my blog about Studienkredite. Various possibilities of student funding in Germany discussed further.

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