The 'Dilemma'

To date I have paid off 50.2% of my student loans, or $10 608.73. I lose interest-free status tomorrow and the last thing I want is to pay loads and loads in interest. I do have the funds set aside to pay off the remainder of my student loans ($10 528.27).

The problem? It's in American dollars instead of Canadian.

I don't want to convert that to Canadian right now because the Canadian dollar is still riding too strong and we all know that the Canadian dollar is on a decline right now. Part of me is itching to pay off the rest of my student loans while the other part says to be patient and just wait--I would lose too much in the conversion.

I've always thought I ought to learn about investments, and I have friends who dabble in the stock market with their American currency. I think I should make some sort of investment, but it would have to be long term.

My gut says don't cash in the American and use it to invest. Still, I hate staring at my student loan totals.

T Minus Two Days: Losing Interest-Free Status

I scoured the internet to determine the specific moment in time when I will actually lose my interest-free status on my student loans, and the answer I've come across is that interest begins to accrue the first day of the first month following your last day of classes. So if your last day of classes was April 5th or April 21st, the National Student Loans Service Centre starts calculating interest on your loans on May 1st.

Most people who graduate think that interest doesn't start accruing until the first day of the seventh month after their last day of classes (i.e. November) but this is not the case. Your first payment is due six months after graduating, but interest is being calculated during the entire time.

Student loans are composed of a federal portion and a provincial portion. Loans are generally split as 70% federal and 30% provincial, but this can vary for each person.

The interest rate on federal student loans is prime + 2.5%. Since prime right now is 4.75%, that means the federal portion of my student loans will be accruing interest at 7.25% in two short days. Yikes.

The provincial portion of the student loans will have different interest rates depending on the province.
British Columbia - prime + 2.5%
Alberta - prime + 2.5%
Saskatchewan - prime + 2.5%
Manitoba - prime + 2.5%
Ontario - prime + 1%
Quebec - prime + 0.5%
New Brunswick - prime + 2.5%
Nova Scotia - prime - 1% (yes, that's a minus, not a plus)
Newfoundland and Labrador - prime
Prince Edward Island - prime + 2%

The Beginning of The End (of my Undergrad)

Things are really quite hectic for me right now. I have a zillion essays due and exams are coming up really, really soon. To top it all off, I can no longer claim interest-free status even though I'm still in full-time studies. The reason is that classes for the term are over in Canada (even though they aren't here in the UK) so I have to abide by Canadian class schedules rather than UK class schedules to determine my loan due dates. In the next few days I will be organizing some payment schedules with the help of my family (who continues to receive my mail and check it for me) and my close friends (who help me make general inquiries since it's long distance and there is several hours' time difference). I will post again later once I figure things out.