Understanding my student loan statement

We charge a $40 administration fee each year to cover the costs of managing your loan. You're not charged an administration fee in the same year that you are charged an establishment fee.

Course fees you borrowed from StudyLink that are paid directly to your education provider.

Amounts you borrowed from StudyLink to cover your course-related costs while studying.

StudyLink charges a $60 establishment fee when you open a new loan account. The fee is added to your loan as soon as your first payment comes out.

Loan interest you have been charged less interest that has been written-off.

While you’re living in New Zealand your loan is interest-free.

• Up until April 2020, loan interest was added to your loan and then written-off.
• From April 2020 interest is no longer added to your loan.

If your loan is not interest-free, interest is calculated daily and added to your loan balance at the end of each tax year (31 March).

If your loan started before April 2012, Interest may show in 'Decreases to your loan'. This is because some of the interest charged is included in StudyLink amounts, but interest written-off is included here.

Amounts you borrowed from StudyLink to cover your living costs while studying.

This is your loan balance for earlier periods and includes all loan increases, such as amounts you have borrowed, and loan decreases like payments you have made. You will usually see this amount if your loan started before April 2006.

Any penalties you have been charged including:

• late payment interest (previously called late payment penalty) - may be charged on overdue amounts from the day after a loan payment is due
• shortfall penalty - may be charged if you underpaid your student loan assessment because your return of income was wrong
• underestimation penalty - may have been charged if you underestimated your interim payments (up until the 2020 tax year)
• amnesty penalty - may have been charged as part of an amnesty of student loans for the 2007 and 2008 tax years.

Any remission of penalties is also included here.

Any overpayments we've refunded to you at your request, or other increases to your loan.

If your student loan started before April 2012, these are the amounts you borrowed, and any interest charged by StudyLink from when you first got your loan until the loan was transferred to us. Any payments you made to StudyLink are also included here.

Any amounts transferred to your loan such as:

• a loan transfer (the amount you borrowed from StudyLink)
• interest transfer from StudyLink (interest charged by StudyLink while the loan was with them. This may be written-off)
• an income tax refund to help pay it off
• significant overpayments transferred to another account at your request (to your KiwiSaver for example).

Depending on the transfer type, these may show in 'Increases to your loan' or in 'Decreases to your loan'.

Loan payments you've manually made to us, including voluntary payments.

Loan payments deducted from your salary or wages by your employer. These include:

• repayment deductions - standard deductions from your salary or wages
• recovery deductions - extra student loan deductions to make up for an earlier significant under-deduction
• voluntary deductions - if you’ve asked your employer to make extra deductions to pay off your loan faster.

Any amounts written-off (for example a small balance offset), or other decreases to your loan.

A voluntary repayment bonus was given in the 2010 to 2013 tax years. Any bonus you received will be included here.