| # | First Name | Last Name | Please provide a comment or personal story. |
|---|
| 1 | Mark | OMeara | The student loan system is a mess. It needs to be fixed. |
| 2 | Julian | Benedict | Government must respond to the thousands of people struggling with an unresponsive student loan programme. |
| 3 | Sue | Digney | |
| 4 | Anonymous | Anonymous | Great ideas! Hopefully some issues will be resolved to allow young people start a successful professional life without major financial burdens. |
| 5 | asterios | moutsokapas | |
| 6 | Mary | Anderson | |
| 7 | Anonymous | Anonymous | |
| 8 | Brian | Kowalski | |
| 9 | Belinda | Thompson | The entire program was a horrible experience from the awful beginning to the ugly end. All education should be free. |
| 10 | Ann-Marie | Morris | I have experienced hardship for over 10 years. I have also paid nothing but interest on my balance. I am getting nowhere. Fix it now you crooks! |
| 11 | Cameron | Layton | I wish I never went to school. |
| 12 | Amber | Armstrong | The student loan program in this country is seriously flawed. My husband has been paying his payments on time for 2.5 years and its still in collections. Why are these businesses still getting a cut? This whole program needs a revamp! |
| 13 | Garrett | Bowman | Still cannot get credit to buy a home because of promblem with student loans WHEN I WAS A FULL TIME STUDENT |
| 14 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I have students loans. I have $450.00 a month interest on these loans. If i had no interest I would be able to make my student loan payments. |
| 15 | Georgetta | Hunchak | When its time to repay student loans the finance companies have no compassion whatsoever. They expect you to live on nothing in order to survive. They make you fill out these financial questionaires, and then when you do, they treat you like you did something wrong because the only enjoyment you have is cabe television. They sit on their asses in their great job and question everything about my life and expenses and they have no damn right to do that. I am paying them what I can, and each month I go without things to pay them back. And do they care, no they just want more and more out of you. |
| 16 | Anonymous | Anonymous | We desperately need changes made to the post-secondary education system. It's not fair that as students we work hard, scrape by financially, then in the end be in debt so far that we can't climb out. It's time for change! |
| 17 | Andrew | Ross | interest paid on defaulted loans should qualify for tax deduction. |
| 18 | Paul | Vaters | Been really impacted by previous decisions, including bankruptcy |
| 19 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I have $80,000 of debt, two disabled children, an inability to relocate so a limited income. Interest relief is running out and when it does I will be harassed, my income will be garnished and I will suffer. I once thought going to school would improve my life. It did the opposite. |
| 20 | Anonymous | Anonymous | Over 50,000 in debt despite numerous scholarships throughout university. At current rate of interest, and as a working artist, I'll be paying this off for the rest of my life, and will likely never own a home. Please respect borrowers who don't default by lowering these carpet-bagger interest rates! |
| 21 | Anonymous | Anonymous | Do not deter Canadians from persuing post secondary education. Create More Manageable student Loan Programs. |
| 22 | Tim | Haskett | I have a collection agency harassing me over a grantre-payment from 14 years ago!!! |
| 23 | Ashley | Breedon | The way this system works is absolutely ridiculous! So much for the "help"! |
| 24 | Tara | Duchene | If I hadn't got a personal loan to cover my student loans, I would have been paying for about 14 years after my education, and that was with a full tuition scholarship |
| 25 | Peter | Winters | I have finally been able to start paing on my student loans but not after having them hit collections while i was supposed to be on interest relief. The effect of this has ruined my credit and i have had to fight with horrible collection agents, who not only abused me but also actually acted as a barrier to resolving my issues. Neither the collection agent nor the lending institute seemed to have access to my file, hence neither one knew that i had actually applied for interest relief. This is the most ridiculous and disorganised system i've ever heard of; and more importantly, even the people that are supposed to be guiding you through this don't seem to know whats going on. I'm looking forward to the completion of Bill c-55 |
| 26 | Carl | Bromwich | My Son graduated a couple of years ago and is now in debt to a tune of over 45,000 dollars.............this so-called "Government Assistance" is just a fancy way to lock our youth into a life of debt before they can even obtain employment and then make money off the educated from day One. In Ireland if youth want to go to College or University then they can go with 100% Government support IF they meet rigid percentages at time of exams (something like 90%).........Free Lodging, Free Books, Free Tuition, and even Beer Allowance...........all FREE..........now there is a country who believes in their Youth........unlike this "sublime dictatorship"!!!!!!!!! |
| 27 | Kimberly | rowland | People, like me, that take out student loans are being punished by the government for educating themselves. The government can steal millions of dollars and get away with it and there are no repercussions, but if I miss a payment I have agencies that call and harass me. That seems fair? |
| 28 | Shawn | Blais | A fee years ago, with no warning whatsoever, CIBC Student loans took over $700 from my bank account leaving me unable to pay rent or bills for the month.
They had my contact information, but did not attempt to call me for 6months. I later found out they did this purposefully, to take advantage of the loophole allowing them to access my account if no contact had been made over 6months.
I found this extremely underhanded and deceitful. Obviously they had my contact information if they had access to my bank account. Had they simpyl contacted me, I would've gladly set up payment arrangements. Very sleazy. |
| 29 | Dale | Marsh | Interest rates are very high, and more care should be taken to not allow questionable schools to have access to student loans. |
| 30 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I agree |
| 31 | Michael | Winsor | It's just disgusting that they're allowed to get away with this. The whole system needs to be shut down, wiped out and built again with realistic rules and guidelines. |
| 32 | Emma-Lee | Chase | Why is our interest reate 8.5%? That is outrageous.
Why are we charged 5% over the Gov't rate of 3.5%?
"Highway Robbery".
NB. Student loan interest partiularly penalized the Disabled Students.
Why? Because they take a lower courseload, and go to school longer, accumulating more debt load, as they must often borrow money to cover living expenses. People with Disabilities often need MORE education to succeed in the workplace, not less. |
| 33 | Anonymous | Anonymous | Getting an Education has become a hinderance rather then a potential future. The ideas I had 18 are not the same as they are now. I thought I was coming out of University with a bright future. I came out with an enormous debt load, My credit gone as I could not fulfil my pament obligation and no future. Thanks for the Student Loan! It ruined the beginning of my life! |
| 34 | Anonymous | Anonymous | Yes, lowering the Interest rate would be good, debt reduction and one loan are all things I want. |
| 35 | Anonymous | Anonymous | This should be gov. suppored program, not a program that the gov. makes money of! what a shame Canada |
| 36 | Ian | Graham | I was TOTALLY SCREWED by the gov. Fed up with their attitude! They constantly screw up things and we pay for it with their don't give a damn attitude. We need to educate our FUTURE with reasonable priced education... not make them life long in debt. |
| 37 | Anonymous | Anonymous | It seems that there is no way to properly pay back the student loan unless one wins the lottery. Students, like myself, graduate from a good university, only manage to get a part-time job because of the economy, and yet we are expected to pay more than we are even making. We need help. |
| 38 | Ronald | Vienneau | Hopefully they will open their eyes on this! |
| 39 | Sean | Haberle | Never in my life have I faced such an inadequate and complicated process, seemingly designed to discount applicants and debters alike from gaining an advantageous outcomes! No petition could ever chronicle the fixes needed to the Student Loan system in this country. |
| 40 | Rick | Glassford | Collection agencies need someone to pull on the reigns |
| 41 | Sas | Nalliah | I dont have engough income to pay the student loan. |
| 42 | Jason | Hollingsworth | Student loan have unreasonable expectations. |
| 43 | Jennifer | Scott | I have four different loans and I can't meet even the minimum of all the payments demanded. One loan, one payment could be much easier to meet and I would be in default any longer!!!!! |
| 44 | Fiona | Cuesta | I am paying more interest than the loan. At this rate I think I will be paying till I reach mygrave if this loan doesn't send me to my grave early with all these harrassing calls and threats from Collect Corp. |
| 45 | Anonymous | Anonymous | Interest relief was continually denied to me, not because I was above the cut-off. It was denied because everytime I submitted an application, the forms would change, thus making my last application invalid.
Combined with other life stresses of having a low-income (in spite of being well-educated), this resulted in a deep depression leading to the break-up of my marriage and separation from my son.
People's lives are not a game. |
| 46 | Anonymous | Anonymous | interest is way too high...I can't even pay my interest! In collections now, and it keeps changing collection agencies, but each agency knows nothing about it moving from one to the other. There's no clue as to who I should be even paying |
| 47 | John | Emslie | The student loan system has been a nightmare for myself and so many others. With numerous student loans so numerous banks and a much higher than prime interest rate all my loans were sent to collection agencies who were quite simply rude, dishonest and harrassing. Should this demeaning situation be the consequence of seeking a higher education? |
| 48 | Anonymous | Anonymous | i am a single mother @ 27 years old who is trying to get a college education and find it very hard knowing that I will finish my courseby teh time i am 30-31 yrs old..with high interest rates and loan repayments.. i dont know when i will be able to ever make any money for myself..I will end up spending the first few years of graduated life paying back loans.. |
| 49 | Anonymous | Anonymous | The fluctuating interest rates are making it difficult for me to get ahead on paying down my loan. Basically, it's like pissing into the wind. All the $ I pay in interest could be paid on my principle and probably would have paid off my loan by now. There should be NO interest on loans. |
| 50 | chris | devries | The children are our future, lets not saddle them with debt and outrageous interest charges.!!!!! |
