This website is a testimony to the problems Canadian Student Loan borrowers experienced from approximately 1996 to 2008 and until their loans were paid off.

The privatization of the Student Loans system by the Chretien and Martin Liberal governments broke the system and defaulted thousands of borrowers who were trying to pay their loans. There were even stories of suicide due to the harassment of borrowers.

Read the report that I prepared back in 2007 here. Canada Student Loans-The Need for Change Fortunately the new Conservative government at the time revamped the program and fixed the system for new borrowers, but borrowers under the previous program were left with ruined credit and continued harassment from debt collectors.

I call on the Canadian Government to apologize to the borrowers affected by this fiasco and make amends.

Unfortunately the Liberal government is again clobbering the Education system with their upcoming changes to International Student Visas. Yes, there's a problem, but instead of a well thought out plan, they have pulled the emergency brake on the train causing a derailment. This has introduced unprecedented instability for both private and public education institutions who serve both international and local students.

Universities can't plan. I've heard of courses being cut because the government has no process in place for universities to send the newly required acceptance letters to the government.

This means that students who have been accepted can not attend courses that start in the summer 2024 semester. With cut sections, current Canadian students will have trouble getting courses, and may have to switch to part-time which changes their enrollment status and might trigger repayment of their loans or ineligibility for funding. I've seen this before. It wreaks havoc on the student loan borrowers.

Again, the Liberal government has messed up the education environment. Will the new system needed in a rush for the acceptance letters be the new Arrivecan scandal?

I call on the government to implement a slower phased in approach and delay the requirement of the acceptance letters until a process is in place to submit these letters.


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Berengiere View Drop Down
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    Posted: 19/April/2005 at 11:15am
Here's the situation I'm in.  I went to community college (and got the student loans in Ontario) and graduated in December 1995.  I filed for deferrals for paying back the student loans because I was starting up a new business immediately after graduating and didn't have the money to make the rather large payments they wanted.

When Scotiabank moved their studen loans to a single, centralized location, they lost my paperwork.  I spent the next two years being bounced back and forth between Scotiabank and other agencies, trying to find out what I was supposed to do.

In early 1999, I moved to the US and got a married.  In July 1999, I was contacted by credit agencies about the Canada and Ontario student loans, and my husband and I paid those off.

Now, on Tuesday of last week, I got a phone call from someone claiming to be calling on behalf of Scotiabank, saying I still owed money, with some story about the unsecured portion of the student loans.  They amount he claims I owe is less than $5000, if you include the "fees and interest".

Is this legit?  I don't ever remember reading anything on the consolidation papers about there being an unsecured portion of the loan. 

The guy called again today and said, when I mentioned the Fair Collections Act (because my husband wants him to supply proof that I do, indeed, owe the money), that it doesn't apply to him because it's a Canadian debt, despite the fact I'm a legal US resident (got my green card and everything).

All that being said, the reading I've done says that they do indeed have to follow the Fair Collections act, but I'm unsure of what's going on with the time frame.  Do they have a leg to stand on?  It's been 8 years since the loss of paperwork put me into default, and 8 years since the first two collection agencies tracked me down and I paid them in full. 

What should I do?  I've already looked through all my financial papers and couldn't find my copies of the consolidation papers.  I suspect they were in the box of documents that got destroyed when there was a flood in my parents' basement.
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Berengiere View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Berengiere Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19/April/2005 at 11:16am
Ack.  Make that 6 years since the collection agencies first called me.
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polyhymnia61 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote polyhymnia61 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19/April/2005 at 8:20pm

Odds are, your loan WAS split into three.

You went to school the same time I did, and I was surprised like you after Metropolitan Collections approved me to make payments into their CURE program for $400 a month. I thought I was finally making decent payments for the federal portion and rehabilitating the loan after I was thrown into collections for much the same reason as you.

Soon after I made that agreement, I received this "Final Notice From the Crown." Apparently, I was only making payments on $15,000 worth of my $45,000 Federal loan and they wanted full payment on the rest yesterday.

Are we told that upon graduation? NO. Does the NSLC tell us that our loans will be split into Crown and bank risk before being thrown into two collection agencies to be harassed twice as much? NO.

Advice? Beyond contacting Johnny at CWG (see the main page), I don't know because I did everything wrong in response (by taking the advice of the so-called "experts.")

Good luck,

Poly

Home is where you are allowed to prosper.
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Berengiere View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Berengiere Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20/April/2005 at 7:40am
Lucikly, our money situation is such that if we need to, we can pay it off in a lump sum - if they can prove to our satisfaction I do indeed owe the money. It'll mean we can't do the full repair of our disintegrating 40+ year old kitchen, but we can do it.

What's really bugging my husband and I is that it's taken them almost 8 years to track me down and start asking for the money, six years longer than it took the two different agencies for the government secured portions.  It's not like I've been hiding or anything.  Heck, I didn't even change my name when I got married.
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Berengiere View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Berengiere Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20/April/2005 at 7:44am
Oh yeah.  I called the NSLC about it, trying to find some help, and the guy I spoke to said he couldn't help me; that the laws had changed twice since my student loans were consolidated and it was my responsibility to get all the information and deal with it.
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polyhymnia61 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote polyhymnia61 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21/April/2005 at 2:53am

Call Johnny, Berengiere. I'm sure this is something that can be cleared up simply.

Poly

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Berengiere Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23/April/2005 at 6:33am
And the saga continues.  At 9:06 this morning, I get an "out of area" phone call from a guy who says his name is Brij, asking me what the problem I'm having with his collections agent is.  I tell him there is no problem, and that I'm waiting for him to send me the proof I owe the money.

To make a long story short, he got rude and abusive with me on the phone.  I told him that from now on, I wanted all communication from him to me to be in writing.  He immediately accused me of trying to take the easy way out.  I said no, that it was on the advice of a lawyer I wanted all of this in writing.  He imediately started getting more obnoxious and yelling and trying to talk over me, saying he didn't care about my lawyer and I hung up.  I didn't want to be subjected to hs yelling and attempted bullying.  Ten seconds later, as I'm writing up an email to CFW, there's another call, this time it's registering as an Ontario call and shows a phone number.  We didn't answer it.

My husband and I are wondering why he objected so much to my wanting everything in writing.  I mean if it was legit, why object to everything being in writing?  The other credit agencies I've dealt with had no problems putting everything in writing for me.
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SolveStudentDebt View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SolveStudentDebt Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24/April/2005 at 10:50am

 

 The collector does not make any money unless money is collected. Sending you paperwork and such does not earn them any money. it just prolongs things, and in this process it depreciates their grip on the issue at hand.

 Collectors are trianed to overocme objections and not lewt anything obstruct their way to geting you to pay the debt. If they give in to your request for information then they have lost the battle to instill fear and urgency.

 Call me tomorrow (Monday) and I will help you out (866-239-7887).

 Johnny

 

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