I had a student load from back in 2009. I was having a lot of trouble making the payments they wanted so ultimately it went into collections in 2012. There has been nothing happening with it since then, so I was thinking that it would be close to being removed from my credit report - just another year or so. Everything else on my report is great so I was really looking forward to it being removed so I could hopefully get a mortgage. I still pay all my GST cheques and tax returns to my loan every year, so at some point it will be paid off, but I would just like to move on with my life ya know? My degree didn't really help me in becoming employable but that's really not the point I guess. 

Anyway, long story short I got my credit report yesterday just so I could keep track of my progress to fix my credit. To my utter surprise there are two entries there from Canada Student Loans. One with a 2012 date and another from 2016. They are the same loan. In 2015 I went back to school, but I did not get a loan. I enquired with student loans at that time about whether they needed to be notified, they told me if I paid off outstanding interest they would put my loan on repayment assistance, I opted not to do that. I was paying for school out of pocket so I couldn't afford the outstanding interest. I thought that was that. 

Is that enough for them to open a whole new file? The entries in my credit report have different account numbers, but they are the same loan. Have I totally screwed myself by calling them? I have a small loan from my province before they all switched over to national. I was in contact with their collections department when I went back to school and they worked with me to reduce my monthly payments, but it didn't reset my activity date. Any advise would be appreciated. Sigh. 

Rach

On a different note:

Your debt does not sound like it's statute barred.  Furthermore, if you can afford the downpayment on a house for securing a mortgage, you can also afford to make significantly greater payments towards your student loan.

You are really asking for trouble (legal action), by attempting to take on a mortgage at this stage.  Pay off your debt first.  You don't want to find yourself in a position where you buy a house,  have a judgement placed against you, and then not qualify when it's time to renew your mortgage.  You would lose your house and deposit.

I am in my mid 30s and I just feel like I can't get ahead because of this stupid mistake I made at 18. I don't want to get into a situation where I could potentially lose a house I just bought, but going back to struggling to make payments that would be double what my mortgage could be (even with the loans added to it) is so depressing. I feel like I can see the way out so clear, but that I'll never get there. 

Anyway, thanks for the response. I appreciate your time. 

I called in to the CRA and made arrangements to rehabilitate, they were very flexible on the monthly amount to repay and quite happy to help.  They first suggested a repayment amount that was auto-calculated, and when I hesitated they were more than willing to negotiate a lower monthly amount to pay back over the timeline.  You just need to ask.

They were also sure to mention that I could call in (in advance) if I knew I was going to have trouble making a payment before the loan was rehabilitated - I didn't end up needing to, but the option was there.

In the end I even ended up being able to afford more than the amount I had negotiated which allowed me to get the loan back to NSLSC faster than originally planned.

Based on some of the research I've done during this process, Royal-NCO is right - you might end up sued if you try to apply for a mortgage without dealing with this loan first.  It seems the feds are much more likely to sue.  Besides that, any prospective mortgage lender that reviews your reports will be unlikely to work with you.

Not to be all doom and gloom, on you - I was confronted with this same reality last year.