hi there,
i finished school six and a half years ago with a
bachelors in women's studies and about twenty-five
thousand dollars in debt.
my degree basically did not assist in advancing my
economic opportunities and i had other crises in my
life that lead to long periods of unemployment, etc.
i was on welfare when student loans took my much needed
money directly from my account. i looked at information
regarding this, but even though it says this is
illegal, they did it anyway.
from that point on i admit, i stopped using a bank
account in order to avoid this from happening again.
i have been seasonally employed for the past 3 1/2
years now, but still live under the poverty-line and
cannot afford payments. my take-home pay for 9 out of
12 months is $1220, then for three months i am on EI.
my rent/hydro/basic phone/bus pass/heating survival
stuff comes to $675 which leaves me with $525 for food
and toiletries and the occasional clothing item, etc. i
don't even do any entertainment except watch the three
channels i get for free on tv.
anyhow, student loans just didn't find me as i lived on
a different province for the last 6 years, which suited
me fine since i didn't have the money to pay them.
in summary, i've never made a payment on my student
loans of about $25,000. two days ago, i got a call from
them telling me they are sending me documents which i
still have not recieved. even though i do not feel i
can pay anymore than like $140/month right now, i do
want to deal with this once and for all.
if i could file for bankrupcy i would. i also have
other debts from that bad period in my life that have
also caught up with me and want like $112 each monthly
from me. there are two of them.
i don't know what to do. i'm not sure what my options
are. if i could round up all my debts together, it'd
probobly be $30-35,000, and i can only afford to pay
out about $140/month.
any suggestions?
sally
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