With a number of student loan applicants being recent high school graduates, these kinds of loans can be a crash course in credit, repayment and all of those confusing financial terms in between! To help you make an informed decision, we’ve prepared some did-you-knows about receiving and paying back a BC student loan that we have gathered from a few sources.
Student loan facts:
- A student loan is a legally binding contract. It’s important to read the declaration on your StudentAid BC application and any applicable appendices so you fully understand the details of your agreement.
- It’s our understanding that payments on your loan are not mandatory until you’ve been out of school for six months – this period is commonly known as a non-repayment or grace period. Interest begins to accrue on your student loan the day after your interest-free period ends. Learn more about interest and loan repayments by visiting the StudentAidBC website.
- Your monthly student loan repayment is based on the total amount you owe, your interest rate and the number of months you have in your repayment period.
- Not paying back your student loan can hurt your credit. When negative information is reported on your credit report, it may affect your ability to receive other credit, such as credit cards or even a mortgage. If you aren’t sure how to access your credit report, please read our blog post on that topic.
- Generally, student loans cannot be included in bankruptcy until a considerable time has elapsed. To find out more about bankruptcy and student loans, visit the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy.
- If you’re having trouble making your monthly payments, talk to the National Student Loan Service Centre or the lending institution that holds your BC student loan as they may be able to help.
For more student comprehensive loan information, please visit the Ministry of Advanced Education’s StudentAidBC Website.
ADDITIONAL READING:
Getting your first car? Read this before you sign the sales slip
Getting your first credit card? Remember it’s not a free ride
Getting a cell phone? Don’t phone in the contract
Hi,
My daughter is attending Camosun College. She is being billed for medical and dental coverage ($274 per semester) even though she has medical coverage in place through my plan at work. It is a negative option billing, meaning she must opt out. Everything else on her invoice is mandatory. In September she thought shouldn’t opt out, she was uninformed. When she tried to opt out this semester, they said she couldn’t. Which is absurd, if she didn’t attend this semester, of course she wouldn’t have to pay this. I wonder how many parents are unaware of this and are being double billed for medical/dental? Is there anything we can do about this? This money would be useful for books, rent or tuition.
thanks
Susanne
than
Hi Susanne, thank you for posting your question here. We do not oversee post-secondary educational institutions in BC but you may want to start with Camosun Collage’s Office of the Ombudsman. They have information and complaint process on their website here – http://camosun.ca/about/ombudsman/ I hope this information is useful.