my debt story and question

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   hello everybody,

i am a long time reader, first time poster. you guys have a really awesome community here. here is my student loan story. 

from september 1999 - april 2001 i racked up around 15,000 in student
loans. these took the form of two loans with rbc, and one with the
government (i think this is because of changes made in 99/00). i also
accumulated 12,000 through a line of credit during my years of
schooling. i finished full time shool in april 2001, started working
full time, and started paying the loans back. at this point i owed on 4
loans, including the line of credit. 

to summate the loans (i THINK i have the labels right):

7500 rbc federal (1999)

2800 rbc provincial (1999)

5200 csl (2000)

12,000 line of credit

while working, i paid faithfully (sometimes double) from september 2001
until january 2003, when i was laid off. my payments were around
400/month. interest relief was denied. i started receiving ei benefits,
and did not pay the loans from february 2003 - march 2004, when i found
a new job. i made a payment in march to rbc.

in april 2004, i learned i would be receiving an inheritence, and
stopped paying my loans entirely (except the line of credit) because i
felt that i would be wasting money on interest when i would be making a
large lump sum in the coming month or two.

rbc and csl called, but i just didn't answer. when the cheque came in
august, rbc had put both loans in collections with collect com. collect
com didn't contact me as the loans had only been in collections for a
month. i called them immediately and settled both loans with them, paid
the csl in full, and paid the line of credit in full. 

i believe my rbc loans were marked as r9. the csl was behind, but they
very rarely called and i'm not sure if they were with some sort of
internal collections - no hrdc nightmares or anything like that.

i would have already filed for an online credit report, but i live in
nova scotia. i have to stop being lazy and go down to the post office
and mail off my request. 

my understanding is that since rbc sold the loans, they are marked as
closed, but still have an outstanding balance that they will not act
on. i think this is because i settled at a discount with collectcom -
5200 out of 7500 on one, and 2000 out of 2400 for the other. i know
these loans will look bad on my credit report, and i was wondering if
it was possible to start dealing with the royal bank to pick up these
loans again. would this be beneficial to my credit rating?

i am debt free right now, and i generally save and make cash purchases.
my consumer credit is excellent. i have one credit card for 3000. it is
attached to my chequing account at the credit union. i usually live
pretty close to the limit (credit and debit are the same account),
which i understand isn't the greatest thing to do. 

i'm afraid my credit is shot because of the r9 rating from the two rbc loans. any suggestions? 

i am very lucky to have been able to clear up these loans. through
reading here, i realise the government seems to have a very distorted
view of how our student loan program should work. there are a lot of
people here being pushed around by the system that absolutely don't
deserve it. johnny you have my total respect and admiration. 

cheers,

harry