Rising Interest Rates for Student Loans: Bad News for 2023 Baccalaureate Holders

Bad news for 2023 baccalaureate holders: interest rates for student loans are soaring, in line with those for mortgages and consumer loans. If, in 2022, young people could borrow at less than 1%, this year, the best offers are close to 2% for the time being. It is, for example, 1.50% at Crédit coopératif, 1.69% for SG (new name of the Societe Generale Group retail bank), 1.89% for LCL, 1.9% at Caisse d Normandie savings, 1.90% at CIC and Crédit Mutuel.

Over sixty months, the cost of a loan of 15,000 euros has thus gone from 307 euros in 2022, at the rate of 0.80%, to 735 euros this year, at 1.90%. To which is added, for borrowers wishing it, the cost of death, loss of autonomy, disability insurance, generally invoiced at around 1%. Rates could also continue to rise in the coming weeks.

“The higher cost of student loans is linked to the increase in bank refinancing costs [les taux auxquels les banques elles-mêmes empruntent l’argent qu’elles prêtent, qui dépendent de la politique monétaire de la Banque centrale européenne]from 0% a year ago to 4% today”explains Olivier Morin, member of the management board of La Banque Postale Consumer Finance.

Many establishments nevertheless display differentiated rates according to the studies followed by the young client. “Students from the Grandes Ecoles are future executives to whom the banks will be able to sell investments and a mortgage afterwards, the banks have therefore contained the increase in their rates on this target”says Basile Duval, the spokesperson for the comparator Panorabanques.

Up to 120 months

Some schools negotiate preferential conditions for their students with banks. Baccalaureate holders who will graduate on July 4 therefore have an interest in checking whether their training has signed an agreement with a bank. SG thus offers loans from 1.69% to 3.39%, depending on the training. For BNP, the rates are between 1.99% and 2.79% in the event of an agreement with the school, and reach 3.29% otherwise. The Postal Bank offers 2.50% to students from two hundred schools with which it has partnered, and 2.90% to others.

Conversely, Crédit Agricole Ile-de-France (2%) and Crédit Coopératif (1.50%) practice a single rate policy, regardless of the course chosen. At LCL, the rate of 1.89% also applies to everyone, but it is offered up to 3,000 euros only. “Students take out this loan then, in addition, another whose rate depends on the studies followed”, says Julie Selas, career path and credit offer manager at LCL. It stands at 1.99% for students from Grandes Ecoles, 3.20% for those from other schools within the framework of a partnership and the children of clients, and 3.60% otherwise.

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