Ontario Student Loan from 12 Years Ago

Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic

   Hi Johnny,

I have been monitoring this site for the past few months and have gained a lot of insight from it – so thank you.  With that said, I attended college from 1998-2000; with my last day in class being sometime in September 2000.   I received both a Federal and Provincial loan which was funded through the Bank of Nova Scotia.   I had applied for interest relief in 2000 which I had been approved and received monthly statements to let me know that the interest had been paid etc.  Unfortunately, it’s been 12 years and I no longer have those statements.  Long story short, the bank put me in arrears claiming I never even filed for interest relief and put me in collections.  At the time myself and my mom and escalated this all the way to the VP of the Bank of Nova Scotia and they continued to ignore us.  Then in 2003/2004, I ran a few credit reports and my Ontario Loan came up as “Paid in Full” (again, no longer have this report).  I received a few calls from Collections with regards to my CSL back in 2007 and then received a package in regular mail from a law firm in Ottawa to contact them to arrange payments or go to court etc.  I contacted them did a financial assessment and made monthly payments to the law firm until they sent my file back to the NLC…. This loan has since been paid off (total was $5, 500).   Great! 

In July 2012, I received a random phone call completely out of the blue (I have since married) at home and it caught me off guard. It was a man named James calling from ARC.  I wrote down the conversation after it took place.  I answered the phone, he asked for me by first name all cheery like and I said speaking; he then immediately said he was calling from ARC (that was all) and requested me to identify myself by last name and confirm my address which I declined.  I informed him that I did not who he was or what he was calling about but that I certainly would not give personal information about myself to a stranger over the phone and requested that he not call my house again.  He refused to tell me why he was calling other than to say he was calling on behalf of the MTCU.   Again, I reiterated that I would not give him any personal information and said he could send me any correspondence by mail.  He claimed to not have my address.  I said that’s too bad and hung up.  Then one week later I received a letter from them stating I owed $5K from my Ontario loan and demanded I pay the balance in full.    I then received a phone call from James to my office.  It really made me angry – I called him back and informed him that if he called my office again that I would file a lawsuit against him as he doesn’t even know who he is speaking with – I still to this day have never confirmed my name or address; I have never acknowledged the loan.  We have had (2) conversations both which resulted in me saying I don’t know who they are or why they are calling and he yelled at me to get a lawyer.  He continued to call and leave messages on my home phone.  The last message said he would be sending me something in the mail.  

On October, 5^th I came home to a door knocker letting me know a letter was waiting for me to pick up at the local post office in my maiden name (I have changed my name due to marriage).   Needless to say, I am not signing for this letter.    What I would like to know is that the CRA has been taking my GST for the past 2-3 years and this past year they took my $1400 refund and applied it to this loan.   How do I know what ARC is chasing after is even the correct amount?  If CRA has been taking my GST refunds and applying it to this loan I do not owe $5K as their letter states (even with interest).  What do you suggest I do?  I do work FT but do not have the money to pay the balance off in full; however, I will not make any payments to a collections agency.  I am hoping to make payments to a law firm if need be before anything else.  The last thing I knew was that this loan was paid in full and now I am getting calls from ARC?  I am just looking for next steps on who to contact etc. without setting myself up.  Do you think that letter from ARC is to commence legal action for this loan?  There has to be something I can do about this - can I contact MTCU?  