I started university in 1993 and moved four hours away from home to acheive that so I lived in residence. My parents were close to the poverty line and had no money to offer as my father has a disability (With no government/worker compensation). After 3 years of school I changed schools and provinces and completed the remaining three years of school.
By changing schools I did lose a year, which didn't seem too important at the time. I lived off student loans and paid tuition off student loans. Not one cent of this student loan was ever given back to me like remission, grants or forgiveness. 1993 to 1999 were pretty much the dark years where there was nothing like this offered. Grants were terminated on or around 1993. I appied for remission after my studies but I was denied.
My CSL was $30,000 and my newfoundland student loan was $14,000 Besides that I had a personal bank loan of $25,000... Total is about 70,000.
After school I didnt get a job right away, so I was on interest relief for a while and the grace period. Anyways, why do they call it interest relief and grace? period? Interest still accrues but you just dont pay it until after the period is over..
So after I started a job and getting paid I started paying the full amount of the loans. As you can imagine, this was pretty steep. Close to 1000 a month. I did this for several years. A few years later paymenst became harder and harder to make because I was paying my student loans, I was basically living off credit cards, and not really realizing it, i was able to make all the payments, i just kept getting shorter and shorter and income wasnt going up.
Eventually I got to the point where I had to start talking to credit counselling agencies and they could not help me, they said I am in such a bad state bankruptcy is my only choice. By this time I was owing an additional 35,000 on credit cards and car loan. So I took that route. Of course it didnt help. now that the bankruptcy is over I have three different people calling me. Hey you need to pay 20,000 by Wednesday. You need to pay 8,000 by Thursday. you need to pay 15,000 by next week. All of these have suggested that I go to a high interest loan to do this and suggested.. well argued with me that my mother making minimum wage should be helping me.
Oh yeah I forgot to mention that I was offered this excellent position in New york but when I was going through HR they asked me about my credit history and i was denied the job because I was considered a risk because I was through a bankruptcy.. hmm more fun...
So here I am paying some money on each of these loans as much as I can afford and they are contacting me telling me I have to pay all this money in full. Just for kicks, I went to a high interest bank to see if I could get 8,000 to get at least NCO off my back. They pretty much laughed. But at least next time NCO starts yelling at me that my credit history hasnt been checked recently and I'm not trying to pay it off, they can see a hit on my credit report from the high interest lender and I'd be happy to get a letter from them to prove to NCO that hey I'm trying. Last time I talked to her, she said I wasnt trying and threatened to take me to legal.. Oh yeah this is NCO who has the HRDC portion of the CSL.. I wont forget to record the next time I tell yah. There's some juicy meat. For this loan I have also been paying $250 per month ever since I came out of bankruptcy, plus a lump payment of $1400 at one point, so I have it down quite a bit. But now since its being paid off they want it all in one lump.. hmm no can do.. sorry...
So I figure my best strategy now is to study up on collection practice so I'm in a better position to speak with them, pay the maximum I can afford but the minimum they need to keep me from legal proceedings and just try to deal with the collectors in a knowledgeable way. Oh yeah and to keep them on the phone as long as I can, have a yarn with them they love that because it breaks there rule of on the phone and off in 4 minutes and moving on to the next collector. Talk with people like me on there and if everyone takes an hour, you can only talk to 8 clients a day, they make less moneyy. Do you think they are going to want to talk to you much anymore? Exactly...
It makes me realize my biggest mistake was going to university in the first place, I should have just took some long year trade or took a year off and then let HRDC pay for school for me, at least then I wouldnt have to pay HRDC back and I'd be MUCH further ahead.
So anyways, my plan is to take it in stride and do the best I can...
Sincerely and Truly... Broke4Life