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Hi! I'm new here, I'm 36 and single, and also have had my frustrations with loans. I received Ontario ($3,600) and Canada Student Loans ($16,000) from Scotia Bank back in 2000. I ended up graduating from my course, but couldn't find a half decent paying job in it unless I moved to Southern Ontario. I tried to make payments, I did, and for a while I was doing it. It was $65 a month for the OLS and roughly $200 for the CSL. I had managed to get a job at a call centre, and asked for Interest Relief. I was making about $900 a month, but had to pay $450 in rent, etc. When I received the letter that I didn't qualify, I phoned and the clerk told me I made $10 too much to qualify. I still tried to pay them, but after a while, I ended up having to leave my job and I stopped paying them. I ended up on Social Assistance (a.k.a. Ontario Works). I closed the account with Scotia, because I wasn't happy about the fees I was being charged.
Admittedly, yes, I did move around a lot due to a bad luck with apartments and landlords, but always tried to keep everyone up to date with my address. I was unemployed until 2002, when I got a job as a stockperson at a retail store working for minimum wage. Due to other debts, I ended up claiming bankruptcy in June of 2004, and was told that I had to wait another 6 years before I could claim the loans.
I ended up leaving my job in January of 2005, due to health issues. I was on sick leave from EI, then I went on Ontario Works. In February, I got my first collection letter from the Government about my student loan. I called the number and found that Nordon had my OSL, but when I tried to find out about my CSL, nobody could help me. So for the 3 1/2 years, I have been making a $25 monthly payment on a now $4810 loan. In December of 2006, after 1 1/2 years of fighting, I finally got onto Ontario Disability (ODSP). Now I make a little more than $800 a month ($200 of that is alloted for special diet needs, and I live in geared to income housing).
Now - last week, I get a call from some guy in British Colombia working for Creditors Interchange, telling me that I need to make some arrangements because I am now $23,000 + in debt for my CSL. "Would you be able to ask your family or friends for the money?" Ahhhh. NO! Nobody I know has that kind of change hanging around. I explained to him that I was on Ontario Disability (ODSP), and that I would never be able to work and that would be my income forever. Period. He told me about some exemption I might qualify for, and gave me some phone number for Scotia Bank, who in turn gave me a phone number for Can Learn. I didn't qualify for the exemption, because I got disabled well after before I finished school, not before. Would someone care to explain to me how you are supposed to know when you are going to become disabled? So after I learn that, I wait for this "supposed paperwork" that is suppose to come so I can start making payments, even though I told them it would only be $25 a month. ( His response - "That will hardly do anything!")
On Tuesday, Nov. 6, I get a call from a woman, this time, from Creditor's Interchange, telling me that I need to make arrangements to pay off this $23,000+ loan. We started to yell at each other. I pointed out how much I made a month, the fact I talk to someone from her company the week before and that no, no matter how hard I tried I can't come up with the money, even though she said that "It will be fowarded to our legal division, since you haven't responded to our notices!" I told her "How the hell can I respond when I never received any notices, you've only had my address for a week." Dead silence. "What about a bank loan to pay it off?" she asked. I told about the bankruptcy, and that I had no assets to use for a loan. No car. No house. Just an apartment. Silence again. I told her that $25 was all I could afford, and she gave me the address to send it. The next day (Wed.) I went to the post office, got a $25 money order and sent it (made sure it had a tracking number). Next day, I get a phone call from "her" - asking me if I sent the money. (Even though it annoyed me she called, she was much nicer, once I had stood my ground and not be pushed around.) I told her it would be there the next day.
I am now awaiting the phone call at the end of the month. They never made any attempts to find me until the phone call last week. I have my credit report to prove that, and I've had the same phone number for 10 years, and lived in the same spot for three years.
I still have concerns. Can they still take my GST and Income Tax, even if I am making payments? Can they take money out of my bank account? (It's not the one I put the loan through, it's at a safe bank - so to speak) I used a post office money order so they couldn't find out where I banked. I know the legal action and finding other avenues for the money is illegal for them to suggest, but she said something about the loan being knocked down if I made consistent payments. Is this true? or another line of bs? Is there any other avenue I can take besides claiming the bankruptcy in three years, (when the ten year limit is up)? I'm just tired of feeling like crap that I don't have the money to get rid of these guys once and for all. It's frustrating and degrading. If anyone has suggestions - they would be more than welcomed. Thanks for listening.
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