Just filed bankruptcy...
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Forum Name: Bankruptcy and Proposal Info and Issues
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Topic: Just filed bankruptcy...
Posted By: hulahoop
Subject: Just filed bankruptcy...
Date Posted: 20/December/2004 at 10:35am
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Hi all, I'm new to this website and forum. I filed for bankruptcy at the end of November, be discharged August 2005. Had $32,000 in personal debt, but still have 42,000 in student loans, Canada and Ontario loans with CIBC. I know I still have to pay the SL. After reading over the comments in the forums, I'm starting to wonder if I did the right thing with the bankruptcy. At the time, I was out of work for 8 months and thought it was right. At least it felt right. Fortunately, I start a new job in the beginning of January! Great...but what I do I do now? Credit Counselling Services Toronto suggested a plan to pay back a significantly reduced overall amount on the SL through them after my discharge. Sounds like a good plan to me, but I can't get credit during the plan's period of 4-5 years. Like many, I'd like to own my own place as soon as humanly possible. Are there other options? I've already emailed the Canadian Financial Wellness Group (Johnny) hoping to get some guidance on this whole complicated process. I'll try to call him directly too. Everyone on this forum speaks so highly of him, but I'm still skeptical. Can others help me out here? What should or can I do?????? Thanks, "hulahoop" < id="kpfLog" src="http://127.0.0.1:44501/pl.?START_LOG" onload="destroy(this)" style="display: none;"> < ="text/"> |
Replies:
Posted By: CARGO1
Date Posted: 20/December/2004 at 10:59am
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hulahoop, By contacting John you made a great first step. listen to what he has to say he will not lead you astray. troy
------------- ����The best way to forget your troubles is to wear tight shoes. 
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Posted By: hunter
Date Posted: 20/December/2004 at 11:28am
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Hula
You contacted Johnny, now you are in good hands. If Johnny can't help you, then no one can. Take it from someone who has trusted him and what he can do, and one who is very happy with the results. Hey, I was you too. I was skeptical. Like really someone can and wants to help. But again take it from one who has benefitted from his help. You will be so happy that you found him and he was able to provide you with relief and a whole better life. Run, don't walk, let Johnny help you.  
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Posted By: hulahoop
Date Posted: 20/December/2004 at 12:13pm
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< ="text/">
Thanks
for the prompt replies hunter and troy. You have both apparently
benefitted from Johnny. You also appear to be sincere as "senior
members" on these forums who probably have good experience and
knowledge. However, I don't know who the CFWG or John Leblanc are. For
example, if you do a Google search, nothing shows except for entries
related to CanadaStudentDebt.ca. Can you give me something
else to go on please? Tell me what others have done/would do in my
situation. How will John help me exactly? How do I trust them?
What are their credentials, etc.? Your feedback will prove to be
valuable to me and most likely to others who encounter this site. Thanks. |
Posted By: hulahoop
Date Posted: 20/December/2004 at 12:17pm
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Posted By: hulahoop
Date Posted: 20/December/2004 at 12:18pm
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Posted By: hulahoop
Date Posted: 20/December/2004 at 12:22pm
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Posted By: SolveStudentDebt
Date Posted: 20/December/2004 at 1:50pm
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Hula, I believe that I responded to your email. I hope that you take no offense to what I had stated. As for those non-profit credit counseling services all over the place, you know where I stand on the subject. There is no such thing as a not-for-profit business. They profit greatly. All I can tell you is "enter at your own risk". If you ever plan on rebuilding your credit portfolio with positive information and actions, Non-profit credit counseling services are not going to get you where you want be. They are considered the same as bankruptcy's OPD program. They offer one program - that is debt-pooling schemes. They do not counsel you to offer wellness and recovery. Otherwise, they would deter you from bankruptcy and debt-pooling programs! What they pitch and do is somewhat oxymoronic. Best of luck to you - and Merry Christmas!
Johnny
------------- Solve Student Debt specializes in solutions for students and graduates in student loan default, and those at risk of defaulting. http://www.solvestudentdebt.com" rel="nofollow - solvestudentdebt.com |
Posted By: CARGO1
Date Posted: 20/December/2004 at 2:18pm
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hulahoop, every situation is different, for example my situation was cleared up quite easily thru John. Others here have enlisted Johns services for long periods of time such as I believe Hunter has. ( hope Im correct with this Hunter ). I can tell you that if ever you are going to put your trust in anybodies hands, John Leblanc would be the first person I would reccomend to you. try calling him to discuse your situation, verbal communication is the best way to to get a feel for what a great service he can provide Johns contact info. The CFW Group ------------- ����The best way to forget your troubles is to wear tight shoes.
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Posted By: polyhymnia61
Date Posted: 20/December/2004 at 2:59pm
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Just a disclaimer, in case you are wondering: this is NOT Johnny's site...it was created by Mark O'Meara, a student loan debtor like the rest of us. Johnny was just a member originally...his business is the only one that I know of that specializes in student loans. He has the experience and the connections gained through his experience as a former collector. He's seen the dark side, lol... I am the most skeptical person on the planet (ask Johnny!), but I would recommend him totally. No other credit counselling agency in Canada has a clue about student loans; all they know is consumer debt and will in all odds steer you wrong -- not intentionally, but out of the best of intentions. They are just limited in knowledge and by the services they are mandated to offer... Check the main page...I promise he won't steer you wrong. Poly ------------- Home is where you are allowed to prosper. |
Posted By: hulahoop
Date Posted: 21/December/2004 at 6:54am
| Spoke with John today. Wow! |
Posted By: CARGO1
Date Posted: 21/December/2004 at 6:56am
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good stuff .. feel better? troy ------------- ����The best way to forget your troubles is to wear tight shoes.
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Posted By: hulahoop
Date Posted: 21/December/2004 at 7:10am
| Well... yes and no. I feel a bit dumb after learning about a few things. Like John, I'm also a professional in the "business" of helping people deal with problems, so... it makes it kind of worse. But it's all very good in the end, isn't it? |
Posted By: CARGO1
Date Posted: 21/December/2004 at 7:18am
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well I hope everything works out for you troy ------------- ����The best way to forget your troubles is to wear tight shoes.
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Posted By: polyhymnia61
Date Posted: 21/December/2004 at 8:43am
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Hula...don't feel bad. How are you supposed to know all the options? Not like they are in your face, or in the yellow pages... The issues regarding student loan debtors are very invisible, despite the ruckus we are trying to make... Consumer debtors, however, are great for the business community coz they are SHOPPERS!! Counselling agencies love to court them coz then after they have the debts paid -- they can go out and SHOP again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's all about economics... Cynically, Poly
------------- Home is where you are allowed to prosper. |
Posted By: hunter
Date Posted: 21/December/2004 at 10:28am
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hulahoop
I used to get calls of harassments and threats from the collectors on a daily basis. They would call me about 6 times per day asking the same thing over and over again. They would also call my family. Anyone that had the same last name as me, would get calls. I contacted several cousins in the same city as me and yes they had called them up and had me named as a deadbeat. They even called up my very young neice and told her that auntie was going to jail unless she told them where I was working. They lied to a little girl to get my information. This is pretty low. But hey it worked so that is why the collectors do this. Now, this earlier this year, that the calls were still coming every morning and every afternoon. I called up Johnny, and NO ONE AND I MEAN NO ONE HAS EVER CALLED ME AGAIN.. 
Now, do you understand.
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Posted By: hulahoop
Date Posted: 21/December/2004 at 11:04am
Yes, I do understand. Thanks.  |
Posted By: hulahoop
Date Posted: 25/March/2005 at 5:43pm
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it's been a few months since my last posting... I'm getting kind of
worried. I recently called the CIBC student loan people who transferred
me to a weird person. They said that my Ontario loans are now with the
Ontario government "who will eventually come after me" and that part of
my federal loan was reduced by the government, or something like that.
They also told me to contact them once I'm discharged from bankruptcy
in August 2005. This is a collection agency, isn't it? Initially, I just called to double check that I was still on interest relief on all loans until the end of April 2005. I have a letter, from early November 2005, confirming the interest relief period until April 2005, before I filed the bankruptcy, but I guess I no longer qualify for it. Is this right? What should I do? |
Posted By: BigFatherA
Date Posted: 25/March/2005 at 7:08pm
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Nothing wierd about that hula. With banko and student loans, once the CIBC gets your papers from the trustee, you have automatically defaulted on your student loans. The interest relief is irrelevent because you are under bankruptcy protection. Hence nobody can chase you for payment while you are bankrupt. As a SL defaulter you're correct: you no longer qualify for IR. What the bank did is return the guaranteed portions of your OSL and CSL to their respective governments for payment. Since your OSL was less than the guarantee amount the entire amount returned to the Ontario government and CIBC has washed it's hands of it. After your release from bankruptcy: You now have 3 student loans An OSL with the provincial government A CSL with the feds (HDRC) A CSL with the CIBC (bank risk portion) Each one will be paid a portion of your settlement when your bankruptcy trustee is discharged, and will be on your final statement. You may find that the government sectors won't come looking for you until after the trustee discharge (could be up to a year after your discharge). ------------- BigFatherA Priest & Teacher non carborundum illegitemi est |
Posted By: hulahoop
Date Posted: 26/March/2005 at 4:23am
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Thank you BigFatherA. That is informative. I had no idea (obviously!).
I thought that the IR would be good until April. I heard that I
could've just had someone start making payments on my behalf in May. Or
maybe they meant I could've had someone start the payments right away
to prevent the default. Does this sound familiar? I've read somewhere in the forums that the HRDC people are ok to deal with, but how about the others? Will I start dealing with these nasty agencies that I keep reading about here? I'm hoping that it'll be possible to just start affordable payments once I'm released from the bankruptcy. Thank you. |
Posted By: hunter
Date Posted: 29/March/2005 at 5:47am
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Hula
Just to put it mildly, I was threatened, harassed, belittled, criticized and condemned by collectors for 6 years. They called my family members, neighbors, you name it. They obtained information about me by lying and saying they were from the utility company or wherever. After filing for bk, and the collectors again started their tactics. I had left many jobs all of them were deadend jobs due to the collectors. But at my current job, I was not willing to do this. I finally stumbled across this website thanks to a search engine. I contacted Johnny soon after. It was one of the best decisions in my life. He told me that he could take care of the calls and the threats. I was a little bit hesitant. Yeah who the hell is going to want to help me. Right. I was not a trusting person at that point in my life, but really what did I have to lose. Johnny would now take care of the calls. Anytime a collector would call me, I would give them his name and number. Soon after, I was not getting any calls at home or the office. I was impressed. I was no longer scared to answer the phone at the office. In the past anytime someone had called and asked for me by my name, I said she was not working here anymore. But this caused problems at the office with people that I was dealing with. I can honestly say that Johnny has been my rock. He has been so kind and supportive to me. Not only with the collectors, but he has been a wealth of information to me. There were times when he would call me and ask how are you. That was the personal touch that he offered. When he says that he will take care of everything, you can believe it. I think that last time that I got a call from the collectors was way back in 2004. I only know that when Johnny was on the case, all the calls stopped. If anyone out there is being harassed, you don't have to live like this. I lived like this for 6 years. I was a basketcase. I made my boyfriend's life hell too. Whenever I would get calls, I would take out my stress and frustration on him and the dog. I knew things were pretty bad when ever the dog would not greet me when I came home.  Now that is bad.
I would recommend Johnny a million times over.  
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Posted By: hunter
Date Posted: 29/March/2005 at 5:51am
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By the way, my dog loves me now. I come home and she is happy to see me, and no longer runs away to the bedroom to hide.
I no longer have the stess in my life of the collectors. And I think my dog even loves Johnny too. 
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Posted By: hulahoop
Date Posted: 29/March/2005 at 1:11pm
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Sounds like it was a living hell!!!! I'm glad that Johnny helped you. I
may be asking for his help soon too. I'm getting nervous. Do mean that
the collection agencies were coming after you even after you were
discharged from bankruptcy? |
Posted By: hunter
Date Posted: 30/March/2005 at 4:18am
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Nordon Collections called me several times about my debt that was discharged through the bankruptcy.
They thought that I would pay it. But mostly, it was the collectors that were wanting me to pay my student loans that were not discharged in the bankruptcy. |
Posted By: hulahoop
Date Posted: 23/May/2005 at 8:05am
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I had some more questions on what BigFatherA wrote March 26: "With banko and student loans, once the CIBC gets your papers from the trustee, you have automatically defaulted on your student loans. The interest relief is irrelevent because you are under bankruptcy protection. Hence nobody can chase you for payment while you are bankrupt. As a SL defaulter you're correct: you no longer qualify for IR. What the bank did is return the guaranteed portions of your OSL and CSL to their respective governments for payment. Since your OSL was less than the guarantee amount the entire amount returned to the Ontario government and CIBC has washed it's hands of it. After your release from bankruptcy: You now have 3 student loans An OSL with the provincial government A CSL with the feds (HDRC) A CSL with the CIBC (bank risk portion) Each one will be paid a portion of your settlement when your bankruptcy trustee is discharged, and will be on your final statement. You may find that the government sectors won't come looking for you until after the trustee discharge (could be up to a year after your discharge)." Hi BigFatherA, It seems to be unfolding just like you described. I've received one letter from CIBC National Collections (Toronto) and another from Social Development Canada/Human Resources Development Canada Collection Services (Hull, Quebec), but I haven't received anything from Ontario Government. What exactly does "guaranteed portion" mean? Why is that important? The letter from SDC/HRDC Collection Services said that "As of May 11, 2004, students who enter into a bankruptcy arrangement may be eligible for Interest Relief or other debt management benefits on their Canada Student Loans." Is this a lie? When and how should I start paying my 3 loans? Will it be difficult to negotiate payments with them? My discharge will be August 2005. Recently, I started working again, so my income is up and running. Any other feedback? Thanks. |
Posted By: hulahoop
Date Posted: 23/May/2005 at 10:07am
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another related thought... Technically I don't think I've ever
defaulted on my student loans. When I filed bankruptcy Nov/04 I was on
an interest relief period until end of Apr/05 (last month). Does this
history. help me in any way? Could my loans be transferred back to CIBC
for example? Wishful thinking? |
Posted By: BigFatherA
Date Posted: 23/May/2005 at 5:14pm
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To your first question the "guaranteed portion" is the
part of your SL that the government now owns (the paid the bank).
A loan can be broken into two parts the government half (guaranteed
protion) and the bank half (the risk portion). Not much of a risk
though as its still a student loan under the student loan act. A
small enough loan like an OSL could be all guaranteed portion. How you go about repayments depends on your negotiation skills. You would need to contact your bank student loan center about repaying your risk portion. Your Ontario SL is in the hands of the Ministry of Education and training - Colleges and Universiies, and HRDC/SDC (whatever they call themselves now) has the guaranteed portion of your CSL. Contact info should be on this website. If you are afraid of your ability to either negotiate or dictate terms, you could hire Johnny to do it fo you. As to IR, unless they changed the rules you aren't eligible as your loans ARE returned as defaulted. Maybe someone has newer info than I on that point. . . ------------- BigFatherA Priest & Teacher non carborundum illegitemi est |
Posted By: masy
Date Posted: 24/May/2005 at 5:01am
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Hulahoop, I have a question about your first post at the top? Credit Counselling said they could 'significantly reduce' your SL payments? How were they going to do that?? I've been with them for two years and they haven't done that for me. Every situation is different, but I'm glad you decided not to go with them. For me I am now managing with credit counselling, but it is true what Johnny stated, they are not really 'non-profit'. Although I am with credit counselling, I certainly don't recommend it for anyone who needs to get their finances on track. Credit counselling works better with consumer debt, it's not really designed to help people with student loan debt because the government placed so many restrictions on paying back student loans that credit counsellors cannot advocate for you, and probably wouldn't anyway. The only reason I went with credit counselling was to get the collection agents off my back and have a third party communicate with them. If I had known about this website two years ago, I wouldn't have made that decisision but I don't have the time or energy to fart around with beginning the whole process again, so I'm just going to pay my inflated monthly payments and get on with the rest of my life. |
Posted By: hulahoop
Date Posted: 25/May/2005 at 11:35am
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Hey BFA, Thank you for the explanations. As far as negotiations skills go, I'm still not too sure how I'll do. It depends on how reasonable they are! ;-) I've also just recently looked through the "Dealing with Collection Agencies" section and the CFW site and there are a lot of interesting entries. I still don't have a clear answer on whether these 3 groups who have my lonas are going to be automatically deceitful and nasty if I approach them. Are there any fundamentals with negotiating my payments you (or anyone) can suggest? A person that works for my trustee confirmed that I'm eligible for interest relief on my federal loan only, so I'll call and see. masy, Those credit counselling people were misleading! I guess I originally put my faith in them because it seemed like it's very popular for people (even good friends of mine) to jump to the cc option if you're struggling financially. Although I know bankruptcy isn't the ideal solution, I think it has worked out for me. I'm still not too clear on what else I could have done under my circumstances. |
Posted By: hulahoop
Date Posted: 19/July/2005 at 3:51am
| I'd like to extend the bankruptcy as I can't pay them their fee all at once. Has anyone done that? If so, was there a downside? Thanks. |
Posted By: hunter
Date Posted: 19/July/2005 at 8:28am
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My trustee said that the bankruptcy fee has to be paid in the nine months, or you are in default.
I live in Saskatchewan, so it may be different elsewhere. |
Posted By: hulahoop
Date Posted: 19/July/2005 at 9:30am
| I paid most of what they initially asked me to pay, but my income for the last 3 months increases the amount I have to pay (surplus). I live in Ont. I'll update soon. |