How to Apply For a Penalty Waiver on HELB Loans
The most frustrating part in education is graduating but failing to get employed within the first few years after graduation. Students who do not benefit from HELB for all the years in college may be advantaged since they are normally under no pressure to settle HELB loans.
For those who benefit from HELB, pressure sets in when you have to start servicing your HELB loan but you have neither job, nor money. The worst part is that HELB will only give you a grace period of some few months, before beginning to penalize you Kshs. 5000 per month till you commence paying your HELB loan. That means that if you hustle for one year, you have an extra debt of Kshs. 60000 on top of your HELB loan plus accrued HELB interests. This is malice.
HELB has also perfected its game so competitively that if you are to start servicing the HELB loan, the initial deductions will pay for the HELB penalties rather than the HELB loan and interest.
To be safe, you should start remitting something small to HELB via M-pesa after finishing your studies through pay bill 200800 and your ID number as the account number. Unfortunately, a good number of students fail to get even a small amount to commit to this bully called HELB. They are forced to relax till they get employed. Some professionals even start paying HELB when their HELB loans have accrued to KSHS. 1,000,000 yet HELB gave them a HELB loan of only Kshs 200000.
You don’t need to put on a sad face. You can apply for an 80% waiver on HELB penalties. To do this, you must be prepared to pay a lump sum of your HELB loan plus total interest at once. You rather do that than having to pay a single loan for over 10 years.
If you do not have cash, you can take a short-term loan and use it to clear that amount so that you evade that scary HELB penalty. That route can help you save well over 300,000 shillings depending on your penalty.
Procedure
Step 1
Click https://portal.helb.co.ke/auth/signin and log into your HELB student portal account using your E-mail and password. You can alternatively copy the link and paste in your browser.
Step 2
On the tab menu on the top, go to online services and on the drop-down menu, click ‘penalty waiver.’
Step 3
A window opens that requires your phone numbers and email address. Fill the details appropriately and submit. This leads you to a window that has the waived amount and the balance that you should pay for it to be effected.
Choose the mode of payment, whether bank or M-pesa. You will be sent a waiver statement via email, which you will download and print.
Step 4
Pay the amount using the mode of payment that you selected. After paying carry the payment slip and the statement that you downloaded to the nearest Huduma center. (all the HELB account numbers are in that statement.
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For those who prefer M-pesa, carry the transaction code and the statement to the nearest Huduma Centre.
Step 5
You can decide to stop at step 4, but if you want a certificate, you must go to the HELB headquarters at anniversary towers, Nairobi with your statement and your national ID.