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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Forum LockedBeing wary of Credit Counselling

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    Posted: 21/January/2009 at 5:52am
A very good article on "Credit Counsellors"  They may not be good for you.
 
 

Is Credit Counselling a Good Idea? Investigate BEFORE You Act:

Consider that the alternative, bankruptcy, may well permit you to recover a good credit rating much faster than credit counselling. Negative credit items remain on your credit report for up to seven years. This would include the records of your credit counselling and a list of your “bad debts.” Bankruptcy will also remain on your record for up to seven years, but you may well be able to reestablish credit after a couple years. Think about that.

You might consider a credit counselling program now which will stop creditors from harassing you. You can then investigate bankruptcy.

While credit counselling services are generally presented as not-for-profit, unbiased, consumer debt counselling services, they are also often franchises and collect a fee from your creditors for collecting your payments. Not-for-profit credit counselling services may be receiving secret commissions or generous financial support from creditors, the Government, United Way and industry at large. Not for profit does not mean that the employees and/or operators of many of these services are not collecting salaries and growing a business.

The report’s conclusions include the following:

1. Lack of regulation of the industry make consumers vulnerable to receiving poor advice from untrained or poorly qualified counsellors; it seems obvious that, to work in this field, one requires appropriate training.
2. Legislative guidelines on the training of certain consultants (e.g. financial advisors) and making it illegal for those without the required training to suggest that they are qualified to offer such services would certainly be steps in the right direction, if we are to provide the public with assurances that what assistance is on offer shall be provided by qualified actors.
3. Some non-profits may advise only those solutions that bring in funding via commissions or donations from creditors;
4. Questions need to be clarified with respect to the nature and scope of the funding structures of organizations offering budget counselling.
5. Organizations offering budget counselling may face a difficult balancing act as they seek to maintain complete independence vis-à-vis creditors and the need for funding, which could quite logically come from creditors who benefit, directly and indirectly, from the results of effective budget counselling. The right balance remains to be found.

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Another point to consider: The non-profit or not for profit credit counseling groups also coined the definition of their service as "debt consolidation". This is a total misrepresentation because debt pooling groups (aka non-profit credit counseling) do not lend you money to amalgamate prior debt. The definition of debt consolidation is the act of obtaining one loan to merge all prior debt, of which does not take place in any of these debt pooling schemes. The term debt consolidation is nothing more than bait that is casted out to the consumer population who are in need of financial assistance. It is attractive to the unsuspecting consumer population and they (debt poolers) capitalize on that.  Non-profit credit counseling, and their debt management programs (a term coined by the Alberta government; aka a DMP) behave similar to bankruptcy's Orderly Payment of Debt program, and it also carries the exact same negative report on one's credit file. So, the relationship that non-profit credit counseling has to bankruptcy is clearly evident in that particular revelation. 
 
Counseling outside of their debt management program, debt pool, or whatever you want to call it is virtually non-existent. For instance, if you are not able to participate in a debt management program, and you owe student debt, they have been known to tell people to go into hiding and wait out the time until bankruptcy is possible. Or, hide out and eventually the student loans will succumb to a limitation issue, and don;t talk to anyone. This is the worst advice anyone could give a student loan borrower, or anyone for that matter.
 
The revenue paths for these groups is very clear. They work for the creditors because the creditors pay them a commission. They collect money for the creditors and earn their commission from the creditors. What does that make them? (a collection agency, perhaps) If they are working for the creditors only, how is that of any benefit to a consumer? They spend millions and millions of dollars advertising on television, radio, subway stations, on the back of transit buses, etc; so how can they really be not for profit? Another bizarre fact is that some provincial governments advertise "for" them, and actually refer people to them. They should not be allowed to do that.   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Solve Student Debt specializes in solutions for students and graduates in student loan default, and those at risk of defaulting.

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