How you will repay your student loan

You will start repaying your student loan about one year after you stop receiving student financial aid. This means that you may have to start making repayments on your loan before you graduate. 

Initially you only pay interest on your loan, debited every six months. After this, you will start paying back your student loan principal. 

You don’t need to let us know when your student financial aid ends, as we will receive this information from Kela.

About 1 year after the student financial aid ends

1. You start paying interest

When you stop receiving student financial aid, the interest on your student loan is added to your loan principal one more time in June or December. 

After that, you only pay interest on your loan, debited every six months, on 15 December and 15 June. 

Each interest payment will appear in your upcoming payments in Nordea Mobile and Netbank about two weeks before the due date. The payment will include the student loan interest for six months.

Read more about student loan interest
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2. You start repaying your loan

After interest payments, we will send you a message in Nordea Mobile and Netbank containing a proposal for a repayment schedule.

If you’re happy with the repayment schedule, you don’t need to contact us – all you need to do is start making your repayments according to the plan.

You can use our student loan calculator to estimate your monthly loan payments and see how different repayment periods affect your loan costs. 

Your monthly loan payments will include the instalment (which amortises the student loan principal), interest and fees.

Try our student loan calculator

Flexible loan repayment


Your student loan has flexible repayment terms. You can apply for an instalment-free period and other changes easily in Nordea Mobile and Netbank. 

You can change the following in your loan:

  • repayment method
  • amount of your instalment
  • name of the loan
  • payment account
  • payment date. 

You can also switch from the Nordea Prime rate to the 12-month Euribor rate.

We will process the changes in 1 to 3 days and contact you if we need more information.

Changes to the repayment schedule – payment holidays and other flexible features

If your circumstances change after we have agreed on your repayment schedule, you can later adjust it flexibly.

The first change to the repayment schedule is free of charge if you apply for it within six months of the date on which the repayment schedule was prepared. If you apply for a change at a later date, we will charge you the normal fee stated in our tariff. See our tariff.

The state guarantee is valid for 30 years from the first time you draw down your student loan. This means that you have to repay your loan within this period.

Apply for changes to your loan in Nordea Mobile

  1. Log in to Nordea Mobile.
  2. Go to the Overview tab and select ‘Loans’.
  3. Select the relevant loan.
  4. Tap ‘Manage loan’.

Apply for changes to your loan in Nordea Netbank

  1. Log in to Nordea Netbank.
  2. Go to the Finances tab and select ‘Loans’.
  3. Select the relevant loan.
  4. Go to ‘Manage loan’.

Interest assistance and student loan compensation

Kela’s interest assistance for low-income students

Low-income students can apply for interest assistance from Kela. If Kela grants the interest assistance, you will receive support for paying the interest on your student loan every six months. The interest assistance can be paid to your personal account or directly to your bank. If the interest assistance is paid to your bank, you don’t need to pay your interest expenses in advance. If the interest assistance is paid to you, you must first pay the interest yourself, after which the interest assistance is paid to your account.

Please note: If you receive interest assistance that is paid directly to Nordea, the interest payment on your student loan will be shown in Nordea Mobile and Netbank until the due date (15 June or 15 December). The interest payment will be removed automatically from your due payments once Kela transfers the interest assistance to Nordea. In other words, you don’t need to delete the payment yourself.

Find out about interest assistance on Kela’s website.

Student loan compensation is a tax-free form of financial aid for students

You are eligible for the student loan compensation from Kela if:

  • you have started your studies at a university on or after 1 August 2014, 
  • you complete your degree within the target time and 
  • your student loan amount exceeds 2,500 euros. 

Getting the student loan compensation is easy: you don’t usually even need to apply for it separately, as Kela will make the decision automatically after you have completed your degree. You will see the compensation in Nordea Mobile and Netbank as a paid instalment of your student loan.

Read more about student loan compensation

Repayment schedule of student loan