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 LockedI thought it was my fault... :(

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Buglady View Drop Down
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    Posted: 08/March/2007 at 9:35am
After ten-plus years of having my five student loans in four different places screwed up, mixed up, folded, spindled and mutilated... after years of frustration, despair, and fearing for my sanity when I followed one set of instructions only to be told the opposite by the next bank rep or collections agent... after losing my paperwork or finding that what I had disagreed with the SL agency records...  I was finally diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. I thought that was why I had had such trouble. I thought it was my screwed up brain and inability to deal with paperwork and details that got me into this mess. Not exactly a comforting thought, but at least it was something concrete and better than thinking I was generally a bad and useless person.
 
I started treatment for the ADHD, got some financial planning help, and started trying to clear things away -  it's going slowly but it is going. I should have wondered, though, why I never seemed to have as much trouble with my chequing account or credit cards as I did with my loans. If I'm really financially incompetent, it should be across the board, right?
 
Then someone gave me this link and I read other people's stories. I realize now that I'm not dealing with the mother of all "ADHD Surcharges" but with a system that is inherently flawed. I can't decide at this moment whether I'm relieved or angry!
 
The problems really did start right from day one -  CIBC "lost" my very first payment on my loan ever, because I had selected to pay in person at the branch rather than letting them take money out of my account automatically (I didn't trust them even then!). So I toddled along and made my payment, but unbeknownst to me, they had tried to take an automatic debit anyway. Of course it didn't go through, because I no longer kept any money in my CIBC account, and they proceeded to hound me for six months, once calling me at 5 a.m., about this "failed" payment. I sent them photocopies of my cancelled cheques and MADE them physically count the number of cheques and the dates and compare those to the number of payments I was supposed to have made. I had to do that twice, and then one day I got a call from one of the supervisors telling ME to stop "harassing" the CSRs because there never was a problem. 
 
That was only the beginning. I've had loans go in and out of collections so many times I got dizzy. I've had a CIBC rep take my new address, promise to send me a statement, then turn around and send the statement to the old address (and when it was returned they sent me to collections because they assumed I was evading them). I've had them tell me to borrow money from my parents, and threaten to garnishee 80% of my wages. And I believed them when they told me it was all my fault.
 
I think I know how I feel now. I AM angry! Angry
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SolveStudentDebt Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/March/2007 at 1:05pm
They cannot attach 80% of your wages. This is nothing more than verbal diarrhea.

Would you like some help?

Johnny
Solve Student Debt specializes in solutions for students and graduates in student loan default, and those at risk of defaulting.

solvestudentdebt.com
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Oh, I knew that bit (the 80%) was BS, but I was too tired to argue. If I recall correctly, I think I invited them to give it a try, heh.
 
I have a midterm on Saturday that I need to concentrate on right now*, but I will definitely be in touch for some assistance. I'm really tired of this Red Queen impersonation I seem to be doing these days (got a Revision of Terms from CIBC and my monthly payments AND the 111-month term are the same as the were in 2002... sigh). If you can round up the various ducks and get the dratted things in a row, I'll be endlessly grateful.
 
* Apparently I am insane since I have gone back to school part time - but I'm lined up to get a Master's in Counselling Psychology and get accredited in Alberta within 5 years. IF I can swing tuition on top of the student loan payments... Pass the Ritalin!
 
Kim
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Hi Johnny,
I emailed you through your website last night. Yet another chunk of my loan has turned up in another place and I'm officially giving up. I do not care any more. I can't deal with this on my own.

Thanks,
Kim
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SolveStudentDebt Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23/March/2007 at 7:25am
Hi Kim,
 
I will be available tomorrow if you woudl like to talk. My wife and I just came home from the hospital with our new born baby boy yesterday and I am running behind a bit. Tomorrow I can chat with you for a few minutes.
 
Johnny
Solve Student Debt specializes in solutions for students and graduates in student loan default, and those at risk of defaulting.

solvestudentdebt.com
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Congratulations to you and your wife! What wonderful news. I will have to call Monday as I have another midterm tomorrow and then I am tutoring in the afternoon till 5:30 your time.

Or could you email me instead? - to be honest email is better for me because I sometimes have trouble understanding or remembering information that I hear without a visual reinforcer (slight auditory processing deficit as well as ADHD).
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SolveStudentDebt Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24/March/2007 at 12:04am
Sure thing. No sweat.
 
Johnny
Solve Student Debt specializes in solutions for students and graduates in student loan default, and those at risk of defaulting.

solvestudentdebt.com
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I have had the same thing happen with me regarding lost documents in the mail, I keep giving correct addresses, but I never get mail to the correct address, then I get harrassed saying I am unreachable!! This really frustrated me with Scotiabank (because at one time their departments cannot communicate address changes was an excuse from a VP at the President's Office), so much so that I have given up giving current addresses. I got accused of being lazy..oh, and trying to get interest relief documents with correct addresses?? Forget it, documents took so long that I feel frustrated...Collection agencies do not care about anyone but themselves to make commissions. They don't care if your father-in-law has died of cancer in another country and you have spent money on medical bills and/or emergency flights to bury him...all they care about is their commissions..they have no heart.
 
It is not your ADHD, student loans are a bad thing. I went against my principle of taking on student debt and going to get an education from a private college that has really gotten me nowhere, including free lifetime upgrading (what a joke that is! Every time I try to take a class they are always full or the campus is closed down)...to upgrade I have to find my own courses to pay for again as well as with student debts hanging over my head plus all the interest...with aggressive bill collectors that do not listen when I tell them not to contact me by phone and put it in writing...
 
Anyway, all we can do is document each call, what they say, even record their conversation on the phone with you, then you at least have proof when you talk with a government or bank official.
 
Let's face it, Student Debt is not the way to go...I regret it now.
 
 
 
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