Repay a student loan – Payment options
Once you have finished your studies, you will enter into repayment after a 6-month non-repayment period. At this time, you will have payment options to consider:
- your interest rate options
- increase or decrease your monthly payment
- your payment date and frequency
- choose the bank account for your payments
Your interest rate options
Current status: Suspension of interest on Canada Student Loans
Until March 31, 2023, no interest is charged on Canada Student Loans and Canada Apprentice Loans.
Your student loan has a floating interest rate by default. You can switch to a fixed interest rate after entering repayment. If you switch to a fixed rate, you cannot switch back to a floating rate.
Interest rate options for your Canada Student Loan:
- a default floating interest rate equal to the prime rate, or
- a fixed interest rate equal to the prime rate + 2%
Log in to your National Student Loans Service Centre (NSLSC) account to change your interest rate option.
Use the repayment estimator to see how interest rates affect your monthly payment.
If you have a provincial part to your loan, it may be at a different interest rate. Contact your province or territory for information about your rate or visit NSLSC.ca.
Increase or decrease your monthly payment
If you have a full-time student loan, you can customize your payments online in your NSLSC account.
You can:
- Increase your payments to reduce the amount of interest you pay, and time it takes to pay back your loan
- lower your payments to make them more affordable, or
- extend your repayment time up to 174 months to make your payments smaller
Note: By lowering your payments or extending your repayment time, you will pay more interest on your loan.
Part-time student loan borrowers who want to change their monthly payments can contact the NSLSC.
If you need more help in repaying your loan, you may be able to get Repayment assistance.
Payment date and frequency update
Change your payment due date by logging into your NSLSC account.
You can also set up weekly or bi-weekly payments by adding multiple days of the month as payment dates.
Update your banking information
The easiest way to avoid missing a payment on your loan is by setting up pre-authorized monthly payments. Pre-authorized payments are taken out of your account automatically. Log in to your secure NSLSC account to update your banking information.
If you do not set up pre-authorized payments, you need to make other arrangements to pay your loan.
Make payments outside of monthly payments
There are other ways to make payments, to learn more visit the Make additional payments page.
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