How much do you owe? How much are you paying monthly? What range of income do you clear monthly? What does "almost" no assets mean?

I also have issues with CIBC and Metropolitan Credit.  I have an outstanding Federal loan that was recently sent to Metropolitan, I recieved documents from CIBC from Jan 1998 to Oct 31st 2008 from what I read with the exception of 2000 and 2009 (bad years) payments requested were made. Opening bal in 1989 was $9500 at the end of 2008 it was $7632.00. Small difference as a result of intrest relief and payments of about 112.00 per month.  Metro contacted me and demanded that I pay almost 9000 to them or they would take my wages, I filled out the income verification form for them to PROVE that I did not have the money. They knew at the end of the day I had only $150.00 left from monthly salary, this did not seem to work. I was told to get the money from my work pension plan or get a loan. I flatly refused to touch my pension but tried to get a loan for which I was denied. I agreed to a 60day good faith arrangment of 250.00 byweekly but advised them that I would by then be in trouble with other creditors.  I am now close to that and do not want to be there. I am willing to pay and want to pay reasonable amounts per month but I can't seem to get anywhere. They dropped payments to $175.00 biweekly until march which is still a stretch,I was told that I have until March to fax papers to prove that I applied for a loan or they will prusue actions to take my waes. I do not want to beg from peter to pay paul, this makes no sense to me. I have tried and tried to be reasonable but am getting no where. My last converstion with the rep resulted with her hanging up on me because I asked her what part of my trying to make reasonable arrangments, my compliance to them and my situation did she not understand, she started to yell that this conversation was over and she will call in march then hung up on me.

Here's the drill concerning the recent increase in collection agency activity regarding CIBC student loans. Certain agencies involved in the race for higher recovery and marketshare are approaching people more aggressively. Part of this aggressive approach involves suing people, of course. Certain agencies are quick to sue those who owe larger and aged loans, which brings me to the next point.

UPDATE #2

So, I forced Metropolitan to continue with the lawsuit.  We went to a "pre-trial" conference (which was done over the phone) and, as it turns out, if you're paying what you can afford, they can't do much.  My advice is, if you have been cooperative, compliant and paying what you can afford, then go to court and have the judge set and enforce a payment schedule.  Once that's done, you have them off your back for a set period (or possibly permanently).  The credit collectors don't want to go to court because it's a lot of work and expense for them and they know there is little to gain. 

The other thing to know is... even if you have a "judgement" passed against you, it's not all bad news.  Once that happens, they remove the interest rate you're currently paying and apply the "judgement" interest rate (which I think is 0.9%, or less).  Sure your credit is hooped but, if you’re in court, good chance it’s already shot anyways.  Another reason they prefer to avoid court.

If you're going to spend the money on someone to intervene, I recommend meeting with a lawyer.  He will relieve your anxiety and provide you with good guidance.

Anyways, I know how stressed I was during all this, despite having a good idea of how things "should work" (WRT court, justice, etc.).  I hope that sharing my experience brings some calm to those of you in the same boat I was in.  To quote the judge at my pre-trial conference (he said this to the Metropolitan and CIBC representatives when discussing a payment amount), "remember you can't get blood out of a stone".

All the best to everyone.

Dear "Johnny",

I don't do well with demands and a threatning tone (eg. "I want you to contact me. I have some serious questions for you", etc).

This is not my site, warsaw. I asked you to contact me because I wanted to find out what caused the lawsuit. That's all. You're jumping the gun here. If you say I could not stop the collector from harrassing you that is ridiculous. However,collectors don't follow the rules and laws regardless and they do call people just to play politics. In any event, you are all fixed up you say. It is obvious you still owe the debt. Perhaps you should try to build a relationship with CIBC and get er cut down and amortize a settlement for you over time. Get your lawyer to do thast for you.  If you are advocating for attorneys that's fine.  All I wanted to do is figure out who the heck you are and see if you really are one of my clients after you went sort of postal in the one message you posted up there somewhere! Your refusal to reveal yourself to me demonstrates that you may very well not be. Come out from behind your curtain there and show yourself to me.  

Wildly boasting that you're the subject of "intimidation" is truly laughable.  It's the hallmark of the thinly skinned to feign intellectual injury, as your comments ably demonstrate.

1. I didn't say it was "your site".  I did say you are likely an administrator as you clearly read a post that was censored by this site (interestingly, it has now been published after I removed one sentence that contained an explanation for my recommendation - "Update #2"). 

2. I didn't go "sort of postal" in any post. 

4. I stand by my statement that CFW was paid and that the collection agencies continued to call me (at home and work), call people at work and call my employer for 3 years after hiring CFW (and yes, I can support my statements with documentation, recordings, etc.).  Eventually this culminated in a lawsuit (which, 3 years ago, I wanted to avoid - hence going to CFW).  The lawsuit turned out to be the best thing to happen for my situation.