I am a single mother. I had graduated from high school in 1993, and within the year I was pregnant. I was on social assistance for about two years and then in the fall on September 1996 I went to college, and discovered that I loved learning. And the student loan program allowed me to do that.
By the time I graduated in 2003 with my Bachelor of Education, I had also received an associate of arts degree, certificate of liberal arts and a Bachelor of General Studies. Being in BC (not sure about the other provinces), I was able to receive Loan Remission due to three of my degrees, which forgave my loans. However, I ended up with 25,000+, 26,000+ and 8900+ owing to the National Student Loan Service Bureau, and Royal Bank (the later two - provincial and federal).
Since I have graduated in April 2003, I have been faithful to pay back my loans, $630 each month, while I had a fulltime teaching job. It shocked me how little money went to the principal (for example: one loan 285 month, 110 principal, 175 interest). There were two occasions with the NSLSB where they told me I had missed a payment, and the entire time I have had my account with them set up for automatic monthly payments. If I had not phoned them, they were not going to bother phoning me.
Recently, I have moved and I am now just a teacher on call (substitute) and my monthly income has gone down. Thus, for the first time I have been able to qualify for interest relief. The nightmare this process has been is incredible. The NSLSB has recently changed their process for applying that you only need a one month statement, and no proof of income, just an estimate, whereas the provincial portion of my royal bank loan wants 3 months of paystubs and any other income.
I have high hopes of using up my interest relief in order to get my loan reduced by the debt reduction program. However I have found two different statements about the DR program: the forms at canlearn.ca state that I have to have exhausted 30 months of interest relief. But the canlearn site (I believe - maybe just the BC one) states that I need to use up the 30 months plus another 54 months before I can get debt reduction. I am really confused.
Also I have been experiencing great frustration with the bureaucracy invovled in this process, as each person I talk to at NSLSB or the RBC Student Loans, seem to tell me different things. Thanks to some of the postings I have read on here, I now know to write down the person's name and everything they tell me. It is just SO FRUSTRATING.
My son is in grade six now, and I shake my head sometimes when I realize, he will be graduated university and beyond before I even finish paying off my student loan. Even worse, I am a taxpaying member of society. I teach children, and I do a very good job at it. I am no longer on social assistance, and I have bettered myself. That is what the government wanted... and I feel like I still have to live at a very modest level, or acquire credit card debt.
I have no issue with paying back my loan, after all I did borrow it. But how about at non-interest status,.... or if I have been paying my loan for 6 months faithfully then dropping a .5% in the interest rate? I highly value my education, however, I am not sure about the price tag that the student loan people are putting on it... almost double (amoritization over 14.5 years) what I initially borrowed.
In closing, I just wanted to thank everyone for sharing their experiences. I am the most informed of my circle of friends and acquaintances when it comes to the student loan process... however I learned a lot today, and I will be sending on this website to people I know, for them to access this wealth of information.
My student loan story...
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