Interest on student loans to be eliminated in N.L.
Last Updated: Friday, July 31, 2009 | 4:18 PM NT
CBC News
Students at post-secondary institutions across Newfoundland and Labrador cheered as the provincial government announced it will eliminate the interest on student loans.
As of midnight Saturday, no one will be required to pay any interest on the provincial portion of their student loans. Before the announcement, students were paying interest at a rate of 2.25 per cent.
Terry Randell, a member of the student union at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College in Corner Brook, said he hopes the federal government will consider removing interest from the federal portion of loans as well.
“This is going to help me pay off my student loans a couple of years earlier,” Randell told CBC News on Friday. “This is amazing. I think we're really setting a trend here in the province for other people."
Education Minister Darin King said his province is the first in Canada to take such action to help students reduce debt.
There will be no change in the monthly payment schedule, but the loans will be paid off earlier, saving individual students up to $1,800.
With files from The Canadian PressShare Tools
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