Hi.
I have a Student loan from Ontario which came due in 1999. It should be noted that it was a combined Canada Student loan and Ontario Student loan. I have never been in a good financial position to pay on these loans, and as a consequence they went into default. I went to School in Manitoba, and currently still live there. I briefly moved back to Ontario, but left 6 years ago this spring.
A few years back the Federal Gov't started withholding my tax returns to pay back the Canada Student Loan, but the Ontario Student loan was never touched. I do know that it is no longer on my credit report, and my credit rating has been slowly getting repaired over the last few years, and as such I'm hoping to be able to get a mortgage soon as mortgage payments are actually cheaper than rent for me and my family.
Today I received a call from ARC (I think was what she said) Informing me that they were willing to offer me a 'deal' on the 8400 still remaining by letting me pay it out at $7600. I never made any commitments, or accepted any kind of offer, simply stating that i didn't have that kind of money avaliable to me right now. She gave me her number and told me I should call her back on Friday, once she had pulled my credit file.
So, a couple of questions here. First, I never gave her permission to run a credit check on me, is she allowed to do that without it? I know that in my line of work when I need to run a credit check on a customer I require their consent, usually written. The bank needed the same thing from me when they were looking into my worthiness for a mortgage.
Secondly, do I actually need to deal with the collections company? Looking on the internet I came across this site and the information about Statutes Barred loans, and as near as I can tell, this fits the qualifications. It's been much more than 6 years since the loan came due, was before 2002, I've never made any payments, nor have i sent them anything in writing acknowledging the loan or intent to pay it.
Any help would be most appreciated. I've done a lot of work making up for my irresponsibility when I was younger and now that I have a common law wife and 2 kids I don't want to do anything that would mess it up for them.
Thanks In advance.
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