I graduated university in 1995 or 1996 with a fair amount of debt.  I kept up with my payments for about 2 years with the bank, but then moved in with my now ex-wife and underwent some serious financial hardships.  Essentially, the student loans got pretty much ignored completely for a time until it went to collection agencies and they caught up with me.  I made small but regular payments for years before suddenly finding out that the Canada student loan I had been paying was only a PORTION of the total amount.  They had for some reason split the Canada loan and I was totally unaware of the other portion until it had ballooned into an $11,000 unpaid nightmare which hit me just as I was making progress on the others.  Anyhow, I have continued to make small monthly payments on each for the last few years, but am not making much headway.  I still owe about $15,000 in total.

 

I've separated from my wife and between child support, bills, transportation and $350/month to my student loans, I can't afford to pay rent on a 3 bedroom place, and so I'm stuck living with my folks for now.  I pull down about $2500 net / month, but am somewhat desperate to get back to the city where my kids live.  My credit was wrecked by the ex but I am close to getting everything on my report cleared, after a year of paying through the nose.

 

Any options open to me, or should I just commit to some sort of consolidation loan and try to slog it out for the next few years with the bank?

Who are you dealing with collection agency and bank wise?

 

In what province are you?

 

You may want to check some other thread here, as they give you more info as to how the collection agencies are behaving (I'm dealing with a very aggresive one right now, NCO out of Vancouver).

 

After you read through, you can decide if you can go at it alone or if you need to contact someone for help.

 

In any case, we are always here to help and do some brainstorming together.

 

Good luck....

 

I've been trying to pour through threads here and found some forms for debt relief, but had a few questions:

 

A)  If I make regular payments, but through a collection agency, am I in default?  I mean, I'm paying less than the minimum on my large CSL currently, so I'm not sure how that effects my eligibility.

 

B)  How do I know if I've exhausted all my relief options?  I have never applied for interest relief - would I have to do that first?  I almost would rather skip that step as it will only delay the inevitable and I'd like to get it sorted out before I move back to Hamilton.  My fear is doing the relief period, moving back before it ends and then not getting a debt reduction - meaning now I'm paying full rent + the loans, which I cant do.

 

B - Don't bother applying for interest relief. It's not an option. In order to get it, your loans have to be in good standing, aka not in default. All the stuff that could actually help a struggling borrower is not available to them after default.

 

Yeah, I'm a cheerful one, aren't I?

 

If you can get a consolidation loan at a decent rate, I'd say go for it.

 

Buff

 

It is fairly ridiculous that once your loan hits default, you are forever screwed with respect to debt reduction.  I mean, if I could afford to make my regular payments with the bank, then I wouldn't NEED a reduction.

 

Anyhow, I'll be looking into a consolidation loan later this month and pay it all back the hard way.  Thanks anyhow for the help, guys, and keep up the fight.

 

I'm in the same case of yours. Mine just went to collection. A friend of mine that works for OSAP told me to pay the collection for 6 months and call back OSAP and asked for loan rehapation what it is that the OSAP will take back the loan from collection agency and then you could apply for student interest relief. After you're done with your interest relief, apply for dept reduction. Good luck.