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I recently had a call from the bank that holds my Canada student loan and has held it for the last 12 years. They told me they had mailed me a new term of agreement that would allow me to pay off my student loan in 3 years. My monthly payment has gone from $145 a month to $480 per month. I asked them why this sudden increase and they said that at some point I was given interest relief and now I had to "catch up." I told them this was quite unreasonable since I could not possibly meet their expected new payments. They told me they would send me some form to ask for 6 month relief assistance. I asked if that was my only option and the rep told me that was my best one. I go the feeling he was being a bit vague here on purpose. I don't have the forms they sent me yet so I haven't had a chance to look them over actually.
I am wondering if the bank can suddenly just change the terms of agreement, if I am required to sign or if I can just say that I like the terms I currently have. I think what has happened is that my 15 years of repayment is approaching and they want to get the total loan so they are recalculating. What I can't figure out is why it has taken them so long to figure this out. I have not missed a paymen and I intend to pay what I owe but under reasonable terms.
At one point in the past I did ask for some relief and they lowered my payments but I thought they had just extended them for a longer period of time. I thought I was on track to pay the loan off but now I find out, I am not. Every year I have received a letter from them stating my total balance and my interest paid and my amounts owing monthly so I had no idea this was coming.
I would like to call them back and tell them that I am not going to sign this new terms of agreement but I would like to know whether I am legally required to do so, if they will just ignore the fact that I don't. I don't know what options I have here but I do know that I can't possibly make these payments for 3 years. I am doomed to failure if I sign such an agreement. Has anyone else had this happen to them? Any advice would be very helpful. Thank you!
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