Is there any student education loan in India with 0% interest?
Taking education loan was the biggest mistake in my life. I am from a poor family. So there is no hope of joining an engineering college. Then came to know about this education loan. Thought it to be a relief and went ahead to engineering counselling in Anna university. Due to lack of knowledge, even though I had seats in few govt colleges, I had chosen ECE in a private college.Then started my bad days. Took a education loan of 2.2L from Indian Bank.Even though it may not look like a big amount now, it was a huge amount for our family at that time.When I took the loan the interest rate was around 11.5%.At that time even I didn't get the benefit of interest subsidy i.e. during study we don't need to pay any interest which was later introduced by then finance minister.Being poor, my family found it very hard to pay interest. Somehow they paid first three years of my study. Last year they didn't pay. So the interest amount got accumulated and added to the principal.When i completed the studies, the interest rate came to around 14-14.5% which is more than the personal loan interest.I didn't get any interest subsidies announced later by the govt since it was for those who took loan after 2009.Completed my course in April 2010 and joined an IT company in Sep 2010. Started repaying the loan amount from December 2010.Initially i was able to pay only 5k from my salary since I was the only earner in my family so I had other responsibilities.Sometime when we don't pay, then interest for that month will in turn attract interest i.e. compound interest.I took almost 5years to repay the loan fully. Because of paying to this loan am not able to save any money. Even though working for IT I didn't get settled yet. Not even having a bike. Whenever I used to think about my loan I would be depressed. I will get worried of not joining in a govt college. Loan was a big hindrance for me then.Took 2.2L but am sure I would have paid around 4.5L totally. A big relief after paying completely.So my advice is don't take education loan. It is not for helping us. It is just a commercial product like a personal loan.Sorry for the long story.