On April 6, 2004
I received a letter from ARC Accounts Recovery Corp. It was a letter stating I
still owed $4760.30 on my Federal Student Loan. Not that much compared to other
student loans but I was a single mother 2 children and living on Welfare. Soon
after receiving this letter I started to get harassing phone calls saying that
I had to start making payments. So I agreed to give them $50.00 a month hoping
they would leave me alone but then they didn’t phoning me just about every week
trying to get me to pay more. Even though I explained my financial situation
they didn’t care that I could barely afford to pay rent and feed my children,
they wanted me to give 150. a month.
But I continued giving 50.00 a month on Federal and 50. on
my Provincial. Then on Feb 11/05 I received another letter from ARC stating
that I owed $4760.30 after almost a year of paying into the loan I was
surprised to see that my loan hadn’t gone down 1 cent…Hmmm. That’s when I gave
them a call and asked what exactly have I been paying for over a year. Of
course they said it was due to my high interest that that is what I was paying
so my account didn’t go down. To me this didn’t make sense so I continued to
give money towards the loan but I started to check my paper work. That’s when I
realized both letters had the exact same amount but had different account #.
I called ARC and started to tell them that there was some
mistake and that I think they were collecting me on the same account. But of
course they told me I was wrong that one was Provincial the other Federal. I
was getting everything wrong and they continued to try and get more from me. I
decided to start giving them $100. a month as I found some work but I was still getting the calls every month
to try and pay more or take out a loan to pay off this loan.
Then on May 30/05 I receive a letter from ARC saying I owe
$3278.68 Hmmm again that didn’t make sense in 3 months my bill went down $1481.
How can that be as I was only giving $50. a month and after a year it didn’t go
down...now after 3 months it goes down close to 1500.
I call them again (ARC) after checking all my receipts and
letters and tell them again something is wrong that I believe I am making
payments on the same account 2 x. Again I am told I am wrong and that I am the
one that is getting my Provincial and Federal accounts mixed up. SORRY but
after a year of paying and harassing phone calls and looking through all my
paper work I knew that I was right… So I called RBC the original lenders. They
check further and see that my account was given to ARC in British
Columbia and the same account to ARC in Ontario…
So I was right the same company was collecting twice on the same
account…Finally after fighting with ARC I am being told that I was right….
After RBC notified ARC they then had the fun of going over all my payments over
the years and interest and figured that the money that I had given OVER since I
was paying twice on the same bill was enough to pay off my Provincial
Student Loan and bring down my Federal Student Loan. On March 23/06 I received
the letter stating that my Provincial was paid off SETTLED IN FULL.
Today I owe my Federal Student Loan $911.46. It was hell for
me in 05 & 06 as I knew something was up. Leaving an abusive EX, living
alone with 2 children on Welfare was bad enough for me but then to receive
harassing phone calls from 2 ARC employees trying to collect on the same
account. It was too much and I almost gave in to all the pressure of what was
going on around me. But thank god I had my children because they were the only
thing getting me through this… My advice to anyone owing on Student Loans. KEEP ALL RECEIPTS AND LETTERS.
Though now the Government HRSDC has taken the Federal
Student Loan what’s up with the interest?? My is all over the place
January - 11.90
February – 11.32
March – 9.61
April – 11.17
May 8.62
June – 8.96
July – 7.79
August - 7.75
September – 6.86
------------- Trudge
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