HECS Information
Please note: HECS/HELP are the same payment, I'll be referring to it as HECS, although some government information may refer to it as HELP.
As you probably know, the government gives students a loan to encourage people to enter university. This loan, HECS, is then paid back when you are working. However, with some smart planning, you can minimise your HECS debt. Also, studies have shown that a fear of large HECS debt discourages people from entering university, and that the debt itself can lead to crime! The other thing to keep in your head is that HECS is indexed at the rate of inflation. For all those non-financial-boffins out there, this just means that it increases at a few percent a year, but at a rate which is much better than any bank will lend you money.
Most students know next to nothing about their HECS debt, and are content to let it come out of their earnings after university, and for some people this is the only way to repay it. However, there are incentives for paying the money differently.
Firstly, if you pay upfront (usually before a few weeks into the semester), you can save 20% off the amount you would have to pay normally. However, us being poor university students, we can rarely afford it. You don't need to pay the full amount off - $500 is the minimum to receive this discount. This means that if you run into some extra money, you might be able to save yourself same hassle down the track.
The other, more common option, is to make a voluntary repayment once you start work. By doing this, you gain a 10% discount, and again the minimum repayment is $500. This means you would be making both the compulsory ongoing payment, as well as the voluntary repayment, which can be a strain. On the other hand, this will generally end up saving you more money than you would if you put that money into a high interest savings account.