Good evening, I am very happy that I stumbled upon this website this evening as I am getting desperate for good advise.

Here is a brief history of my situation,

I joined the military in 1995 right out of high school and stayed about 3 years until I was discharged due to a medical condition that I eventually grew out of.  When discharged, I had absolutely nothing, no college education, no money, no car... no job... nothing. There was a period of 3 months where I had 0 money. If it wasn't for the generoscity of my girlfriend's parents, I woudl have been out on the street. I found a part time job and was sort of able to make ends meet, paying off my bills etc. Then, my previous cell phone provider decided to take me to collections for cancelling my contract, even though I was on an armed forces plan and the agreement was if I left the forces the plan would be cancelled. I was young and stupid, and didn't get it in writing.

That summer, I applied to college and got accepted. :)  I took out a rather large student loan, and used a portion of it to pay off my cell debt. The following winter, my GF had a major falling out with her parents and we were forced to move otu on our own, and using some of our student loan money and credit cards, we purchased some furniture, and house hold goods that we needed.

Again being stupid, during my 2 years of college, my credit card and student loan debt piled up. After graduation, we moved to Calgary Alberta for work and I began to pay off some of my debt. I figured I was paying 700 a month to debt. Money was tight.

While in Calgary, we moved and signed a lease in a DT apartment where we lived for a while. Unfortunately, my GF left me due to issues we couldn't solve over the last 5 years. I was left with a lease on an expensive DT apartment, and 25,000 in debt. I decided to file for bankruptcy.

I moved to Ontario that June, and in my new career I was forced to go away for 6 months.

My bankruptcy was supposed to expire iN January but it was stayed for 60 days as my trustee opposed my discharge, until I can get my trustee some information they require including a T4, a few montly expense forms and some missing pay stubs. If I don't come up with this stuff with in 60 days, the court will adjorne the trustee and re-instate the rights of the credictors, and I will still be bankrupt. If these creditors, including banks, collectcorp, etc decide to sue me, how does this work? What process do they go through?

I have a car that I paid 3,000 for, and some furniture/household appliances. Will I lose my car (I need it for work)? Will they garnish my wages? Will the judge allow them to take my furniture? I take home 2300 a month, living on my own. How much would they take from me?

Honestly, I don't know what to do and I am very depressed. My blood pressure is sky high and I am very stressed. Other then my car, my job and my pride, I have nothing. WHat should I do?

james

Good point... I am definitely working on that and I am able to get most of this info to the Trustee. I may not be able to track down one of my T4 slips on time. Lets hope so!!! But what would happen if I didn't and the Trustee proceeded to close my file and the credictors were re-instated?

I have paid the fees to the Trustee of 1260 dollars. I have completed both required counselling sessions. I have forwarded all the T4 slips I have, and all pay stubs I received.  I was missing 3 pay stubs, and I may not be able to produce these. One would think the T4 slips would state the income anyway.

But my earlier questions, what would be the procedure for creditors to come after me if they are indeed reinstated? Would I lose my car and possessions? Wage garnishee?

The Trustee is KPMG if anyone was wondering

Hi There, it sounds like I joined this group just in time.

Canadian_Ski_Bo, You can only lose your car to the creditor that has the lean. This means if you have a car loan you are behind on they can repo it as part of your contract with them. if you own this car you are ok and no one can take it.

Collection agencies and creditors CAN NOT TAKE YOUR FURNATURE!!! Collection agencies have to have a contact with thier clients "The Creditor" where the have Blanket permisson to sue. Most creditors do not issue this now a days. In order for the agency to sue you, they need to put togther a case for their client showing you have not attempted any type of payment and you are refusing to pay. All creditors want to work with you and take some payment, agencies use the leverage of their reputation to scare you.

Did your banko actually cover your student loans?

 The only way a creditor can enforce an execution order against property, whether it is real property or tangible assets, is to determine such provisions by the PPSA (Property and securities act). For student loans, this really wouldn't apply. It is a different type of enforcement. For consumer debt, then the rules and regulations are within the guidelines of the PPSA.

 After one full year of holding judgment, if it is determined that there are attachable assets, then the creditor can motion for the discovery in aid of execution to be sure.. and then proceed. does it happen? Only for cars, homes, or real property really.

 High risk finance companies do the nasty when they are forced to sue. They will try to take whatever they can. The PPSA only allows creditors to acquire a certain amount of seizure and that is it. They can't take everything, only what is deemed acceptable by the PPSA throught he courts.

 Johnny

I have had collection agencies tell me they will search for any asset that i own and rip it out from underneath me. They have called my home, hung up on my children, harassed me at work, and contact my next of kin listed on my OSAP app. The CA will not listen to reason, they are not interested in the mistakes made by the CIBC. They remind me of vultures swarming around an injured animal just waiting for the weakest point enabling them to strike. I will not deal with them.

I'm getting two calls a day on my answering machine from CollectCorp.  "It's really important that you call us", "you can't hide from your obligations" - oh and my favorite: "I have some options for you".  (yeah right)

I don't plan to respond, I have no job, no income, and no money to pay them.  I probably owe $40-$50 grand (and growing with the huge interest charges racking up).  I have no chance in hell of ever paying it off because I'll never find a job with enough income to pay them $900 to $1,000 per month for ten years.  You want to hear a laugh?  Over the past 6 years I've had to live from temporary job to temporay job and I got paid the same or less than before I got my degree in 1998.    Some of them paid what I earned at jobs in the late 1980s!  I went back to school in 2000 hoping that some additional courses would help, but they just added to my debt. If the class action is successful and they change the rules to five years instead of ten for bankruptcy on student loans, that will be the only way my daughter and I can survive. 

hi all,

Gotta say this whole situation is simply disgusting! Thank you Mr. Martin and the banks for "F" ing us students over!

Let's go after the most marginallized people in our society, they won't be able to defend themselves anyway! I bet that is what those government scum were saying when they changed the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act back in '98 or '99 to ten years from two with NO public consultation and after 3 years of talking with experts in the field as to what would be fair. This is what my trustee told me in a disgusted tone.

This is really unbelievable that some rich government bureaucrat and Member of Parliament is sitting having dinner in their warm paid for house laughing at people like us who are totally discriminated against because of their actions in getting the law changed. If there is any justice in Canada the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act must be changed!!!!!!

"F" the Government for what they have done to us all!

The best to all of you,

RC

If you dont file Canadian taxes, don't reside there - are you legally bound to CSL??

 Lind,

 If you owe money for student loans, you are legally bound to pay them, yes. Just because you are not living in Canada doesn't mean that you do not have to pay.

 If people can pay - then they shoudl do so.

Thanks Jonny for your reply - please allow me to elaborate a bit, then you can let me know if I may aquire your help/services:

It took me quite a while to get on my feet after graduation and being out of the country I was  not eligible for interest relief. The $ owing was rising. I had no place to live and no job back "home" and I was allowed to stay at a friends house out of the country until I got back on my feet with a job. I attempted to contact CSL (Mr.Linders at the time) on how much I could afford to pay to start off (to show intent) but it was not acceptable. Every request I made on how much I could pay was denied. Now I owe a lot more than I started out owing and I cant afford much at all (all I can afford now is food and rent). I don't know how to approach them now and I don't want them to have my address (they're scary people). I will send them money but I don't know how to start becasue they expect it all in full now. They have started to call me at work. If I lose my job I'm back to living out of my car again.

 I can help you, most certainly. I can also solve your crisis, put you back in control of things, and minimize your stress over this taxic (and barbaric) vice.

 Thanks for elaborating. I would enjoy the opportunity to act on your behalf and protect you.  

 Let me know when you are ready.

 Johnny

 The CFW Group

  http://www.cfwgroup.ca - www.cfwgroup.ca

Here is my sh*tstorm.

My loans are dated from 1996-1999. Once I left school I got what I thought was an awesome job with lots of oppertunities and great pay (LOL) I bought a small truck and went on with my life. After the 6 months grace period I got the call about how much I would have to pay per month and my head exploded. I panicked and thought okay I can do this with some help on daily financial  obligations from my then fiancee but it was too much and he proved to only be there for himself, so I struggled with my loans getting interest releif making tiny payments and just being sweet. After doing this for 3 or 4 years they (RBC) sent my loans to CBCL. At that time I was working as a temp. making next to nothing (in the hopes that a full time position would pan out which it did eventually) during this time I tried to placate the vultures by missing truck payments to pay them which had a ripple effect cause than I got behind on rent and insurance and my truck actually went to the collections part of my loan company while trying to prevent my "credit from being damaged" . I made some payments once I got hired and other debts squared away this made them happy but than I  screwed up and missed payments. Once I got on speaking with them again they wwere telling me that they would only accept a full payment and nothing else and they also recommended a specific loan agency to "help" me out and that they would have "No Problem" giving me a loan, by this time I was pregnant with my son so I just wanted to get this all put behind me I went and saw this lady from the loan group. She was very nice and looked at my credit and said that because of my credit she was really sorry and wanted to know who had recommended her and why they were so sure that I could get a loan with them. Now the stress from these financial worries were part of the reason I went in to preterm labour landing me in the hospital while there they continued to call so my partner spoke with them but they would not heed his request to leave me alone for even a few days. Now that I am on Mat. leave I am home to receive all of these phonecalls and now I am being threatened with wage garnishment income tax something? and some other thing I am so stressed I am even considering going back to work after being off for only 2 months which is also causing problems with my partner he really wants me to stay home for the year which I also want but I can't handle this anymore. Any Suggestions?

Thanks  

virgo*girl.....

Most importantly...take care of yourself first!!  DO NOT let these CAs scare you into going back into the work force short of your entitlement to maternity leave...

You don't have the financial means to pay...it's that simple...really...the CAs will try to pressure you, even mislead you (God forbid!!) and probably even lie to you.....

Wage garnishment requires the courts involvement; the creditor has to approve a referral for justice for this to happen.  And, chances are that you being on mat leave will not look attractive or worthy for the creditor to go after since mat leave is not employment.  They like to throw this at you as a psychological threat in hopes you will find the money and pay.

The income tax bit of info they threw at you is in regards to the federal government putting an income tax lein against your income taxes meaning if you will be getting a return...it will go directly to the government to go towards your student loan.  And this is all depending on which type of student loan you have.

Hope this helps....  Take care of yourself first and foremost!!!!

Yes.  My other friend decided to apply rule 1-7 while applying rule no. 8.  He is currently banking $720 biweekly.  To date, he has banked $37,740 while going to school for 2 years.  He did a little overtime here and there.  During an economics class, he mentioned the opportunity costs of going to school was mitigated after becoming a graveyard security guard where he did nothing but watch a fence in Surrey sitting in his car.  He too did not live with mommy and daddy, and told me that those who live at home and not have to pay rent have no excuse whining and complaining about being in debt.  He did tell me that his hardship growing up in Uttara Pradesh and immigrating to Canada at the age of 16 gave him the insight how abundantly we live where many things are free.  From his perspective, while things in India are cheap, many things in Canada are free.  Also, things like vehicles driving a 350 dollar Ford Taurus Station Wagon is unheard of in India, while cheap Ford Tauruses are a dime a dozen here.  What did he do for rent?  He decided to room with 3 other students who grew up in Kerrisdale who cannot clean up after themselves.  He offered to do everyone's dishes every day in exchange for the priviledge of sleeping on the floor with the sleeping bag he got for free on craigslist.  In fact, not only does he not pay rent, they give him $100 each every month for his services.  This extra $300.00 pays for his car insurance and gasoline.  He also told me to mention that he did not buy his textbooks when he was in school.  What he did was go to the bookstore, and buy the used books for his classes and then photocopy all the relevant pages for all his textbooks, adjusting the size of the pages so that two pages can fit onto the 8.5 X 11 and return the textbooks for a full refund.  When there is a shrink wrap, he asks a student in class if they would lend him the material in exchange for taking down notes on his laptop computer and sending that student a free copy via email.  He even offers to sell his notes that he took in class to disorganized students.  He would ask them sometimes to give him their textbooks when they are finished so he can go resell them in exchange for the notes.  This extra windfall money would be used to offset costs to pay any unforseen expenses so that he doesn't have to dip into his $720.00 biweekly reserve.  His 3 roomates buy the ink cartridges since they also get to use his photocopier since he put up the photocopier (despite him getting it for free).  

I thought that because we are in a recession, I felt that some of you could take pieces of this wisdom or share this wisdom with others.  Like the photocopying of the textbooks, is a great idea.  Often even if you buy the book used, and resell it at the end of the year to the college, the price gap is much larger than paying 2.9 cents at discount printers spending hours photocopying each page of all what you need at once. 

I am aware that most of us including myself would not go applying all these steps.  Many of us were not raised in third world countries to suffer like this.  While my Indian friend didn't think of it as suffering, he did mention that he could not bear to suffer paying back all that debt.  While most of us would find paying off debts is a normal way of living. 

Even those with families, I want to say that there is a filipino family I know who work as janitors.  They do cleaning at car dealerships, and they take their family members with them and they sleep in the various accounts that they need to clean, and do not have a home and pay rent.  They work day and night this way, so they have learned to cut corners.  I taught them about the free food from the Sikh Temple, and now they eat all their meals there also.