Understanding your student loan statement
What you need to know
Change in penalty rate
As part of the recent changes to the Student Loan Scheme Act, the late payment penalty rate has been reduced from 2% per month to 1.5% per month from 1 April 2007.
What you need to do
The statements we send you twice a year keep you up-to-date with the status of your loan. Most of the time, if you're keeping up your obligations you won't need to do a thing. However, if there's an entry in the "Repayments due" section you'll need to make a repayment.
Interest charges showing on your statement
Interest will show on your account throughout the tax year and, if you're eligible for an interest write-off, it will be written off after the end of the year. See "Find out more" below, for details.
Paid an overdue amount but your statement says it's still overdue?
If you make a repayment for an overdue amount from a previous tax year, but don't specifically tell us which year the repayment is for, it may be applied to the current year (1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008). If this happens to you please call us. We can transfer the payment to the correct year, and send a new statement with the details.
If you disagree with your statement
Check out the explanation of a student loan statement given below. If you still disagree, get in touch with us straightaway on 0800 377 778. We'll do our best to resolve the matter as soon as possible.
If the statement is from StudyLink and you disagree with your loan balance, you'll need to get in touch with them on 0800 88 99 00.
Other correspondence
You may also receive end-of-year repayment calculations and overdue repayment notices from us. See "Find out more" below, for details.
Information on your student loan statement
Under "Forms and guides", there is an example of a statement for a borrower in New Zealand, and a borrower overseas. The examples explain the different sections and terms referred to. The content below also covers that on the statement.
The student loan statement is split into the 5 sections listed below. If some of the sections or entries are missing from your statement, this means they're not applicable to your current situation.
- Summary of your account activity
- Summary of your repayments due
- Statement of your account activity
- Repayments due
- Summary of interest charged
Summary of your account activity
This section summarises all repayments, loan transfers, penalty charges, interest charges and write-offs on your account. Entries that require further explanation are described below.
| Entry | Description |
|---|---|
| Opening balance | This is brought forward from your last statement. If this is your first statement from us, the amount displays as nil. |
| Loan transferred to Inland Revenue | If you took out a loan in the previous academic year, this tells you the total amount transferred from Studylink to Inland Revenue. The principal and interest components are detailed in the "Statement of your account activity" section. |
| Interest write-off | If you're entitled to interest write-offs, including any issued under interest-free student loans, the total amount is credited to your account. The tax year the write-off relates to is shown in the "Statement of your account activity" section. Interest write-offs reduce your loan balance and aren't available as a refund. |
| Current loan balance | This is the total amount owing on your account at the date the statement was issued. |
Summary of your repayments due
This section summarises any repayments you need to make. If an item in this section has "PLEASE PAY IMMEDIATELY", this means you've missed or underpaid a repayment. Until you make your repayment, you'll be charged monthly penalties of 1.5%. If there are no repayments due, this section won't appear on your statement.
Statement of your account activity
This section provides further detail for the entries that appear in the summary on the first page.
| Entry | Description |
|---|---|
| Debit | These are transactions charged to your account, for example interest or penalty charges. |
| Credit | These are transactions credited to your account, for example repayment deductions made by your employer and interest write-offs. |
| Repayment deductions | If you earn salary or wages and are using a student loan tax code, your employer deducts student loan repayments from your pay and sends them to us monthly. They're credited to your account on the 15th of every month. |
| Interest | Interest is calculated for the tax year (1 April to 31 March). When you receive your May statement, this will show all of the interest charged for the previous tax year, and a summary of the interest charged from the beginning of the new tax year until the date your statement was issued. |
| Interest-free write-off | If you are eligible for an interest-free student loan, this is your interest free write-off for the tax year stated on your statement. |
| Interest adjustment and interest write-off adjustment | Periodically we check the interest that has been charged to borrowers' accounts to ensure that our calculations in the future are based on the right figure. This sometimes results in adjustments to the interest added or interest written off your loan for each of the tax years shown on your statement. |
| Equalising adjustment | Where the interest adjustments or interest write-off adjustments have resulted in an overall debit to your account, we have made an adjustment to ensure that your account remains at the same balance as it was previously. This is shown as an "equalising adjustment". |
| 1.5% penalty charge | If you have an overdue repayment, a 1.5% penalty is charged monthly on the outstanding amount for any period after 1 April 2007. For any outstanding amounts prior to 1 April 2007, the late payment penalties are charged at 2%. If you're making a repayment for an overdue amount you must specify which tax year it is for. |
| Current loan balance | This is the total amount owing on your account at the date the statement was issued. |
Repayments due
This section provides a breakdown of the repayments due, as summarised on the first page. If there are no repayments due this section won't appear on your statement.
| Entry | Description |
|---|---|
| End-of-year repayment | If you receive an end-of-year repayment calculation notice with an amount to repay, you've underpaid your repayment obligation for the year and must repay the amount shown by the due date. Failure to do so will result in a 1.5% penalty charged each month on the outstanding amount for any period after 1 April 2007. |
Summary of interest charged
The interest summary shows you how interest has been applied, and is displayed according to the tax year (1 April to 31 March). The interest for the year is broken down into the dates (see "Find out more" below, for details) when either:
- you've requested a statement, or
- we've generated an automatic statement.
Find out more:
Next steps
- Difficulties making repayments
- Make a repayment
- Using the correct tax code
- End-of-year square-up process
Date published: 25 May 2007
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