June 2012
Hi guys,
RE: TERI (THE
EDUCATION RESOURCE INSTITUTE), who filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in 2008.
Here is my experience, and please read ALL of it … in the
beginning, 1999, I thought I was the only one having problems, but after
calling dozens of people, and fully disclosing and sharing information with 8 other
graduates, WE ALL had the same problems with these loans, regardless of province
or graduating years; I was not the only one.
In the end, all 8 of us DEFAULTED for the exact same reasons. Now, it wasn’t about lack of revenue for some
of us, but it was because of their and their associates’ business model. Read on …
Now, to answer the question, the loan is an AMERICAN loan
and cannot be upheld in a CANADIAN court of law ... they will try to uphold it,
they will scare you, they will threaten your credit, they will harass, but they
CANNOT cross international borders ... the law in Canada is different than the
law in the US. PERIOD! TERI is based out
of Boston, Massachusetts (MA) therefore, the loan is based on MA state law, not
Canadian or provincial law.
Even if you defaulted or declared bankruptcy, they will
threaten, and will sue, but in the end, the judge here in CANADA can only
uphold the CANADIAN law, NOT A STATE or AMERICAN LAW. REGARDLESS of what THEY SAY!!! THEY CANNOT CROSS BORDERS!
So, let them take you to court and they WILL lose – Google
TERI lawsuits/bankruptcies and find out for yourself.
DO NOT SUBMIT TO FEAR/THREATS BECAUSE OF YOUR LACK OF
KNOWLEDGE … GET INFORMED!
AND DO NOT GET THE FILE “TRANSFERRED” TO YOUR
PROVINCE. Once transferred, then and
only then, will the CANADIAN law be applied to the loan(s) … DO NOT TRANSFER!
I see this loan in 2 ways after being in business for
more than a decade following graduation.
First, it is a privilege to have access to money as easily as TERI’s
loans for education, but it comes at a huge cost, and I mean huge (from my $20k
of borrowing and another $2k for guarantee, it was predicted that I would pay
back more than $80k by the time I finished – and believe me, they will try and push
the 20 year barrier); and abusing the system only makes the system harder for
others; look at TERI today, it is not guaranteeing money at the moment – oh,
and they themselves filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008). Do you care?
Probably not! Second, business is
about making money and a penny saved in today’s economy, is like 2 pennies
earned. Defaulting on your student
loans, although immoral and unethical, is NOT illegal. You have a right to default. Depending on your province, there exists
statute of limitations as short as 2 to 6 years (Alberta is 2 FTR). Therefore, after 6 years in default, THEY
CANNOT DO ANYTHING. So, not only can
they not cross the border to pursue you legally, but they can’t even enforce
the loan. 2 whammies … They will try,
but they can’t. And trust me, they will
say anything, and I mean anything, to try and get you to shift, swindle your
mind.
I love sharing this information, because it will save
someone a lot of headaches in the future for “misunderstandings”. And that’s what they’ll say, “We’re terribly
sorry, but you misunderstood what we said.”
NO … I DIDN’T!
My story …
I know that the thread is old, but, if someone happens to
come along, even in 2012 or later, then maybe this will help ... in summary,
I'm PISSED that I signed for this loan ... I didn't have to, but I did ... what
a mistake! Thinking it was going to help
create a credit history … wow, what a nightmare. And I’m very happy I defaulted … no regret,
no shame … just upset at this fraudulent business model that TERI is associated
with. But in the end, I settled with
TERI, putting the default behind me. I
have been honest, I have been fair, I paid 24 consequence monthly payments, following
graduation, and after the BS, I finally said enough! Shame on you and your associates TERI!!! Shame on you … oh … and after reading further
reviews on the net, TERI filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in April of 2008 …
what comes around goes around I see. Here
is the link …
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20080407006476/en/Education-Resources-Institute-TERI-Files-Chapter-11
And you know what, today’s society is getting smarter,
and this nonsense about the student default rate being so high for so many
reasons … well, let me add a comment, STUDENTS KNOW THEIR RIGHTS AND QUESTION
EVERYTHING TODAY … AND WHEN YOUR SCREW SOMEBODY … IT GETS AROUND.
A couple of examples for why I’m pissed.
1)
“One
time” guarantee fee, is for each TERI loan.
The loans are not cumulative like the CSL loan, rather, independent of
one another. Falsely implied during
disclosure; I expected 1 guarantee fee for ALL loans, not several, and was
surprised at the second “one time” charge.
Never got a third for obvious reasons.
2)
6
months after graduation, my loans swelled to a whopping $27,000 US including
the guarantee fees (just a comment, shows the growth of compound interest at
12%), when I began repayment.
3)
My
repayment term was changed from 10 to 20 years, without consent when my loans
were sold to another lender after graduation.
I requested it be changed back to 10 years; new lender said terms have
changed, it’s 20.
4)
I requested
buying out the loan originally, and they said I couldn’t; it was like a
mortgage, in it for the long haul, in my case, 20 years without consent. My consent was 10 years.
5)
I often
received my statement, late, after deadline.
21 days minimum from the US to CANADA, yet, only 5 days from CANADA to
the US.
6)
I made
24 consecutive monthly payments on both loans (that means 48 money orders),
first class mail, with Canadian Post US money orders; they ALL have a serial
number and are completely traceable from CANADA to the US. We could see who cashed it, which bank and
branch, what day and time when requested from the Post Office. And after 24 consecutive payments, ONLY 16
were applied to the capital and interest of the loans on the day they received
the payment in the US.
7)
4
payments were NEVER CREDITED, yet, WERE CASHED, YES, CASHED. PROVEN with the traceable money order! Because these 4 monthly payments were never
credited, interest accumulated for 30 days until the next payments
arrived. So, not only did I lose the 4
payments totaling $1,280 US, but my loans increased by approximately $1,120 US over
the same period (yes, $280 US a month in interest), resulting in $2,400 US of additional
responsibility plus compound interest I might add on the interest added to the loan.
8)
4
payments were credited 30 or more days AFTER receipt. PROVEN with the traceable money order! Once again, another $1,120 in interests
accumulated. All I got were excuses when
I contacted the lender on all occasions … “It was in Canadian currency and had
to be transferred” they answered. “NO,
they are not in CAN, they are in US … it says it right there on the money
order!” I replied. OR “We never received
your payment!” they affirmed. “NO, you
cashed it on such and such date”, I confirmed.
Just excuse after excuse after excuse.
9)
Now,
if you’re not a math guru, let me explain - I’m getting screwed. By the time 24 months passed, I paid more
than $7,600 US (loan 1 = $160x24, loan 2 = $160x24), and my capital INCREASED
beyond the $27k US because of THEIR errors on 8 payments (that’s a total of 16 payments
because I have 2 loans remember)! NOT
mine!
10)
So, I
defaulted on the loan, demanding an explanation from both TERI and the lender,
and refused to pay until my loans were corrected. Unfortunately, in the beginning, I only made
phone calls, and they went unheard … until, I got a lawyer involved. My 8 other friends FTR, complained about the
exact same things. One month went by, then
2, 3 … and nothing for months thereafter.
Finally, 6 months later, I got a response … creditors.
11)
By
this time, the 3rd lender bought/transferred the loans and only had a
“total” of the loan on their computer – NO history of transactions. When, I got a lawyer involved and requested
all historical transactions, they strongly persisted that I owed “x”. When we contacted the previous lender, they
refused to help because the loans were no longer their responsibility. After more arguing, finally, the lawyer broke
through and received a historical summary after our own threats of litigation,
proving what we had been talking about all along – as far as their records were
concerned, not only did I have a problem but, I “only” paid approximately $700
towards each loan ($1,400), what a joke; and to be honest, the person explaining
the sheet, confused it herself on so many different levels.
12)
Because
the lenders couldn’t explain their actions, I continued to refuse to pay, and
thus, continued to be in default until they found my money. And … nothing. At this point, more credit agencies. I was called a dead beat borrower, and low
life student with hopeless dreams, scum of the earth, pay your debts you loser,
and so many other things. Once I sent
them a history of payments and referred them to my lawyer, the credit agencies
stopped, only to have another start a few months later. I think 5-6 were involved over short period
of time … each time I barked back with evidence and referred them to my lawyer. They do get nasty for the record: just refuse
to talk and request everything in writing.
Any persistent unwanted call is ground for harassment. Oh yeah, you can’t sue, so, block the number.
13)
Finally,
they sued, so I defended. And here is my
counsel’s mistake; he transferred my loans to the province of Quebec, “Where we
had a better fight.” I argued with the
lawyer on several occasions about this move, refusing to transfer the file, and
he went ahead and did it anyway. I was
pissed, and got a bill for $1,600 for a day’s work. I had spoken to several other lawyers from
out of province, friends of mine, who all said the same thing: they cannot sue
internationally. PERIOD! Just throw the papers out! They have no merit.
14)
Quebec
is a different province I will admit, and all I got from the lawyer was, Quebec
is different and he wouldn’t listen to other lawyers. And the result? We lost several judgments
with his actions because of his willingness to be different. In the end, the results would have been
similar to other provinces.
15)
When
we presented ourselves to the judge to finally say this loan is BS after the
unfortunate transfer, the judge overruled and said that the loans now abide by
Quebec law, and that everything in the loan documents will be upheld and
respected because it was transferred, “by transferring the loan, you agree to
the terms of the loan” the judge said.
Also during the proceedings, the judge said, “Had you not transferred
the file, this loan would have no merit in the province of Quebec.” Exactly what other lawyers in other provinces
said.
16)
Now
that we had to fight the loan in la belle province, and once I showed that I
was ready to go to court, and proved that they were committing fraud
(purposeful deceptive business practice) they did everything to try and settle,
avoiding court room drama. And sure
enough, we settled. I offered to pay the
original amount of the money borrowed, $22k US, whipping more than $10k CAN from
the accrued interests, and they agreed – I was very generous some have said, and
I agree. I was a doctor and had the
fortune of becoming a doctor, partly because of their generosity in loans. But I was not prepared to get screwed by
nobody with this BS.
17)
Fortunately,
I was in a position where I saved well above $30k CAN to pay the $22k US at the
time (horrible exchange rate FTR), and I had the money to go to court, and I
was willing to go to court. To be
honest, after the BS, I was prepared to spend $30k CAN in court, rather than
give these guys a dime. In the end, we
settled out of court. When I made the
offer of $22k US to my lawyer, their decision was done in less than ½ second. I could have low balled them, but I DID NOT
STOOP TO THEIR LEVEL and took responsibility of my loan, NOT their “business”
model. In the end, I was happy, I
respected my loan and I got out of their “trap”. It did cause a lot of problems and a lot of
wasted time and energy, and business 101 will teach you that, be the center of
attention by causing $#!^. Regardless of
whether it is good $#!^ or bad $#!^, $#!^ still has to be shoveled.
18)
The
other graduates learned and reacted accordingly to my result, I was the first,
so I led the pact, learning my legal rights, evidently, sharing my story … now,
I did not make decisions for them, but definitely laid the ground work for them
to make better educated decisions. ALL defaulted
FTR.
19)
One of
the 8 friends never even bothered paying a dime to TERI or their lender after
hearing what happened to us. He said he
wasn’t even going to get involved, to hell with them, AND, he borrowed $75k US,
never declared bankruptcy, and it never showed up on his credit report, NOR did
he get sued. He is in Alberta FTR. Statute of limitations has passed long ago
(only 2 years), and has never heard a word since. Now, I’m not condoning his behavior and
argued with him to pay, but, in the end, it was his decision.
20)
I
attempted to put together a class action, but putting it together proved cumbersome,
and I realized that my time was better spent taking care of patients and saving
people’s lives, then waste another minute on this nonsense.
21)
Although
I never really saved much from this loan in itself, adding lawyer fees of $7k CAN
and a lot of time and energy, I was still fair; that can’t be said about TERI and
their associates.
22)
Today,
10 years after being in business, what would I have done you ask? I would have told them to go screw themselves
after the first neglect of financial responsibility, and waited for them to take
me to court. Oh yeah, that’s right, TERI
CANNOT SUE CANADIAN STUDENTS.
23)
This
report was written in 2012, but everything happened from 1999 to 2003. So, I cannot speak for anything that has
changed, or has been affected in other years.
Do your research!
A better educated mind can make better decisions.
Do not let the shadow of doubt and emotion, cloud your
judgment … get informed!