PSA: pay off the Ontario portion of your OSAP (currently at 7.45% interest)!!!

[st333333]

@debbie_s I doubt it has anything to do with them. The national centre takes care of it all.

 

[debbie_s]

@st333333 Yet someone from Alberta said that all they have to do is log into their provincial website to payoff that portion of their loan… but sure defend the Ontario government for some reason.

 

[asmodea]

@ninasreborn1 Credit also to /@glencoco

who posted their live chat with NSLSC about this 6 months ago.

 

[zachary1215]

@ninasreborn1 While I paid off my student loans a few years ago, I'm glad we are talking about this it's good advice.

I'll be sure to pass this information along to folks I know who are still paying off their loans.

 

[brothermerc]

@ninasreborn1 This has been deleted in protest to the changes to reddit's API.

 

[pjvermont]

@brothermerc How do you calculate the interest rate taking the tax credit into account?

 

[brothermerc]

@pjvermont This has been deleted in protest to the changes to reddit's API.

 

[coloredearth]

@ninasreborn1 Thanks OP, my s/o needs to get on this ASAP.

 

[chiliastie]

@ninasreborn1 Make sure to include extra money for the days it takes the NSLSC to receive the cheque by mail and process the payment.

I had to mail a second cheque for extra interest that accumulated during the 3 weeks.

 

[ninasreborn1]

@chiliastie I think the best route is to add an extra $20 or so to CYA and allow the leftover be allocated towards federal portion.

 

[solareclipse]

@ninasreborn1 Well I know what I'm doing this morning!

 

[shasdy]

@ninasreborn1 How would I know which portion of my loan is federal versus provincial? I can't seem to find this information.

 

[alwayspondering]

@shasdy It says so under loan statement in your NSLSC dashboard

 

[ninasreborn1]

@shasdy Provided you have the Canada-Ontario Integrated loan; the information is on your NSLSC dashboard with a breakdown of provincial/ federal balances and respective interest rates.

 

[grandiose]

@shasdy It should tell you on the nslsc website

 

[zabrinuta]

@ninasreborn1 I paid off both my Alberta and Canada Student loan using their respective websites without writing any letter.

 

[ninasreborn1]

@zabrinuta Based on some of the comments I read in previous posts, the only option we have in Ontario for paying provincial portion is via mail in cheque. Will do more research tmrw morning and double check.

 

[justmethistime]

@ninasreborn1 This is accurate. Ontario loan holders don't have the option to pay the provincal portion online. You HAVE to mail a cheque in like OP has laid out.

 

[keeley120]

@justmethistime Unless it's so old on origination they have seperate loan numbers like me! Woooooo! (?)

edit: for anyone curious, i started university in 2006, got loans back then, went on to grad school and floundered for many years, then was on RAP after that for a while, then did a full time post grad diploma for a year and paused payments and been chipping away at it in earnest starting in 2019.

Automated payments split the payments between the two, but i turned those off and now I can manually pay them each directly via my banking app due to the two different loan numbers. 1st of every month I transfer the absolute most minimum to the federal one, and I send way more than min for the provincial. I was paying min to province when rate was basically just prime, but since hikes started I been throwing money at it. Should be gone in less than 2 years.

I don't want to dip into my new car downpayment to pay it off in full. Even though I could pay it off within 3 months if I did so. But loan on a car is probably close to if not higher interested after I account for the interest rate deductions. And if a new car isn't on the lot, and I need a used car... the interest on that would definitely be way too high to be worth lump summing.

 

[anaparti]

@keeley120 I don't know about that. I started uni in 2006 as well and I only ever got one loan number - student loans in Ontario were already integrated as a Canada-Ontario combined loan by that point.