First I like to thank Johnny before I share my testimonial.

*applause*

I wish this website exisited way back then when I was an ambitious student and glad that this website is here to give the students of the future the other side of owning a SL/debt.

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Today, I'm still with a hugh gapping debt (35+ pro/fed combo), but I'm way better today and I DO want to make AMENDS with my PERSONAL debt, NOT the collection agents or their superiors b/c I don't owe those individuals personally *anything*

I owe an inanimate object that has the power to ruin my credit history and shorten my lifespan....just a piece of paper that says 'you owe $xx,xxxx'.

---short story-----

So it was 1995, I was a family supported single mother (WITH a job)

My little one was only two months old when I took the podium to receive my high school diploma

Rosy picture eh? Gives you a warm fuzzy

Of course, I wanted to my pursue post-secondary education for three reasons:

1) A choice to be a teenage mother would not become my

2) I love school and that continuing my education would be nessassary in order to survive.

3) My child deserves to have every opportunity in this world and that education will provide that future

Great, someone call Sophia Coppola for those sweet sentiments and then call Wes Craven for the nightmares

A loans officer told me SL's were the answer to my financial disposition. I was granted a student loan through ScotiaBank. I received tons of cash because of my single mother status.

I wasn't even finished school (6 month period after you grad. blah, blah,) when I got my first invoice/bill.

Well as you can imagine things just didn't work out after I finished. I was so stupid to think I could get a job in the field I studied. Student loans officers sure know how to tell a fairytale

Best lesson to learn *before* entering a binding agreement with a 'oh-so-edger' student loans officer: Nothing in life is guaranteed.

All I heard was 'get a student loan, it will help you....then you can pay it back in monthly payments'. Sounded so good at the time.

The bad.

I ended up working for a small computer company then it collapsed with in two years. I was out of a job for a while and the bills started to compound. Next thing I knew, ScotiaBank SL collections dept. started to call.

Time passed and still no work, the bank gave up and sold both my debt tickets to two collection agencies. I don't think there we're any bylaws protecting students from abuse back then.

I'll give you a line I got from an agent :

'I know where you live, and I will send a marshall and the Childrens
Aid Society to take your child since you are incapable....'

Funny, the *mean* collection agents talk to you as if your uneducated, when in fact they're the uneducated ones   , BUT when I heard those words from that lady's mouth back then, it scared me so much.

Soon my family was being harrassed too. One agent took it out on my grandmother, that's I realized I was becoming a burden to everyone.

Jumping from contract to contract for work, keeping up with a child was just tremendous. I tried to make payments, and sometimes that just didn't work out.

"Pay in full now!" or "That's too small, you're just paying off the interest" or "You ruined your life...." or "Use your CTB (childrens tax benefit)..." or "Ask your parents for a loan..."

Sounds too familiar?

Things weren't looking up. I even quit a full paying job because I was stupid enough to call an agent from my office desk phone to make some post dated payments.

That phone rang twice a day with the same banter of 'Give me more money' .

Strange how it's the government/banks money, but agents go on as if you took it right out of *their* wallets?

Sometimes agents were good  and allowed me to pay what I could due to my uncertain circumstances and when I missed a payment or had to cancel a cheque, they dealt with me fairly. Sometime they were just mean  and used my disposition against me, as if I was the biggest 'burden to society'.

Things went a miss again. The aggressive agents began to call and I just got worst. I couldn't keep any job down, I had crying spells on the phones, lose of sleep, and all that mentally anguish and verbal abuse didn't help me be a better mother either.

I lost track of paper work, interest just kept on growing, and everytime the phone rang, I coward. Forced to make out cheques I knew I couldn't cover (duress).

One night, after an horrific ego-driven agent used scared tactics to get me to pay out money I didn't have, I deceided to quit trying. My child needed a mentally stable mother, even if she was riddled with debt.

I used avoidance.  It was probably the worst and best choice I made in order to have stability and sanity. Now, I feel it's the right time to start paying off this debt.  It's been 6-7 years respectively and I'm wiser and financially stable enough to do so.

my motto:

 "The road of evil is paved with good intentions. It's called a SL"

Thankfully, when my kid wants post-secondary there's money kept (collage savings funds) No way in bloody h_ll student debt is going to be a life long tradition.

-------------just a thought-------------------

I had classes with this nice guy who worked for Equifax. When he told me he quit his job as a student loans collector, I was stunned and it was written all over my face.

He assured me that the job wasn't enjoyable, nor was he some kind of masocist. Everyday, it's either he gets told off or ppl afraid of him.

He even said that not all agents know exactly what they're doing and wreckless with the information they dish out because they were too mis-informed or just stressed by the telemarketing 'sweatshop' calling centre.

It made him depressed just getting to work, even though he was making some good coin.

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Overall, it's bad sometimes on the other side of the fence but it still doesn't give anyone the right to use lies, misinformation, verbal abuse or brute force tactics to get a payment.

Compassion...everyone makes mistakes, even collection agents.

Hunter .... that's the best advice anyone could offer.  You're absolutely right .... "live first, everything else comes after" .... well put.

yng mom, you obviously have bigger priorities than your student loans, namely your child.  But don't forget about yourself.  I've meet alot of people while in university and I can state from firsthand experience, the happiest ones are the ones who don't allow their debt to consume them.  It's like my friend once said to a particularly nasty collector "Why don't you threaten to kill me?  Oh yeah, then you wouldn't get paid so **** off!"  Too funny.

thanks all.

Hunter, that is so true. Live first, you got only one crack at it.

Before I was so ashamed of my problem, but after a few years I realize that problems are part of becoming an adult. It's how you deal with it, right?

My file is like a diary. Agents who talk to me, nice or mean, always note on my single parent status, or like one non-politically correct agent put it 'single mom'.

Well, debt is something that will follow most peoples graves, may it be credit cards, mortgage,

Habs Fan:  "Why don't you threaten to kill me?  Oh yeah, then you wouldn't get paid so **** off!"  Too funny."

That is too funny! But I wouldn't try it....*cluck-cluck*

yng mom .... I agree that approach is not for everyone but as hunter said it, some people quickly get tired of being harrassed.  The friend who made that statement has become so laid back that I don't think he takes anything seriously anymore.

As for the collection agencies calling your boss just use the following line of reasoning .....

1) If you call my boss, the best thing you can do is cause some slight embarrassment.  The worst thing that you can do is get mee fired.

2) If I get fired, then I have no money.  If I have no money, then you do not get paid.  I will then phone your boss, telling him/her that I was starting to pay but now I can't thanks to your moronic collections agent.  I will contact you in another year when I find another job.

REMEMBER ... THE COLLECTIONS  PEOPLE ARE LIKE BANKS .... THEY JUST WANT MONEY.  I actually used this line or reasoning with a bank while I was working part time during my university years and it worked to a charm.  After explaining the situation, the bank quickly agreed that contacting me at work might have negative consequences for me, and in the end, their bottom line.

Any collection agent with half a brain .... and unfortunately most do, will see the logic behind this.

The important thing for you to remember is that you will have to start with payments ASAP after explaining your/their situation.  This is just a possible solution.  It may not be the perfect one but its worth a try.

Good Luck.

 Yng Mom,

 Call me sometime tomorrow at 902-464-8727. Which province do you reside in? If you are on the west coast, you can call me up until 6 30PM (your time).

 Johnny