| # | First Name | Last Name | Please provide a comment or personal story. |
|---|
| 1201 | Lea | Sadler | My student loan payment is more than my mortgage!
I was sent to collections because the National student loan centre forgot to take out one payment for a while. Hard for me to keep track of when I have 4 different loans coming out at different times. I had to pay them 1200 right away or collections would have me. I didn't let it slide and found out from them that they forgot to call me..it was their fault...yet it still screwed my, previously clean, credit rating for 2 years!! |
| 1202 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I had 3 different loans when I graduated and because I could not get a job in my field without moving to a major city like Toronto or Vancouver I found a job in my hometown making minimum wage($6:85), all 3 loans went into collections, 2 of the 3 (Federal/Provinical)sent me monthly statements and would work within my budjet and still do to this day, The third one was a bank loan and once I got the final balance down to $500 I received a call at work saying I had to pay it all that day. I realized after I borrowed the money off my parent and payed the bill that this was not my usual loan officer but a new guy trying to make a name for himself at the office. |
| 1203 | jason | lafitte | student loan program is a joke |
| 1204 | Sean | V | I was suppose to get interest relieve. I would send in the paperwork on time then a day before the app expired I'd get a phone call telln me I had to come up with all this other information today. I kept doing this until they sent my file to NCO and thats a whole other story. I know a ton of other ppl that have had the same problem. Something has to be odne about this. |
| 1205 | Lenkyn | Ostapovich | As i begin my adult life, I should be excited to have the world at my fingertips, but all I see each way I turn is the enormous loan that is constantly a hardship. With the interest rate as it is now, it feels almost insurmountable as just another obstactle I'm currently faced with.
Recent graduates are this country's future and placing shakles on them from the get-go is only shooting future prosperity in the foot! Rather than be embraced and supported, recent graduates are looked upon as burdens who must fight tooth and claw at the bank to try and make a living for themsevles.
regards,
LO. |
| 1206 | Jennifer | Bowman | My first year of school I was denied for OSAP so I had to get a bank loan that I have been paying $100/month since school started. Now I have to pay over $200/month for that one and over $150/month for OSAP |
| 1207 | erik | pedersen | i have to pay over $350 / month to csl. i simply can't afford to pay it. i am out of interest relief options, was refused loan reduction, and have been told i have no more options...pay or go into default... pay them or eat...thats the way i look at it. |
| 1208 | Claudette | Audette | I have a very large loan and would have liked to have had some options available to me when I was done school. I ended up filing for bankruptcy because I had difficulty finding employment and of course could not include my student loans in the bankruptcy. I had no idea that I was going to lose my rights to interest relief. This has caused me much hardship. |
| 1209 | Bevis | Butthead | LOL...suckers, next time do NOT use student loans! :-) |
| 1210 | Anonymous | Anonymous | When I signed up for my student loan with CIBC, I signed because I was told I was paying 4% interest. If students were to pay a loan off on a credit card that would not make sense at all.
However this loan is being treated like a 29% interest credit card which is highly illegal. I have been paying since 1999, in US dollars which until recently was way more in Canadian.
So If I calculate the payments I have made on a 20,000 dollar loan, I have already paid 34,000 dollars off, and yet my loan is now 15,000 dollars. This means that by the time I pay off the
15,000 dollars I would have been paying this loan for 34 years and I will have paid off 136,000 dollars which is like a mortgage.
I bought a car for 15,000 dollars at 6.8% interest and paid it off in 48 months with a constant payment of 300 dollars
This is ludicrous and at this point I believe that CIBC owe me a refund. |
| 1211 | paul | micsko | It is seemingly impossible to pay off a student loan. No matter how many payments you make or to whom you've made them some other agengy calls you and says you owe more. |
| 1212 | Anonymous | Anonymous | My daughter took out a student loan 10 years ago. She attended CDI for about 7 months, but was forced to drop out due to personal problems with her husband. Shortly thereafter, some former students sued CDI for not living up to their promises. In the meantime a collection agency affiliated wit RBC started harrassing her, and one caller verbally abused my grandson, who was 11 at the time, because he wouldn't hand the phone to his mother, who wasn't even there, calling him a liar, because the person could hear her breathing!! They didn't even bother to ask if anyone one else was there who could take the call.
CDI told the collectioncy that my daughter never attended the school, nor did she make any payments. They had no record of her ever being there, yet I had called her there several times.
After a couple of years, with the agency constantly refusing to sit down and discuss the situation, the calls stopped. Last Thursday I received a notice for her, after 5 yrs silence, threatening legal action if she didn't cough up the loan, or make arrangememnts to pay it.
She would like to work things out, even offering token payment, but their payments are far too high for her to handle....unless, of course, they want to give her a good job that pays more than minnimum wage...a lot more. Her rent and utuility bills take up at least 75% of her income, plus travel expenses to work, and winter now being here, it'll be much worse
Since she doesn't live here, if they show up, I'll deal with them.
Thank you |
| 1213 | Anonymous | Anonymous | Student loans are the hidden dark side of education. They make it sound like and easy way to pay for your education, but in reality it is a way to make your life placed on hold. I make about 70k a year and because of my student loans I cannot buy a house, a new car or afford to take my family on vacation. Who knew a measly 50k debt would stop me from getting ahead in my life. I wish they would have educated me more about this beforehand..... I would have worked 2 part time jobs! |
| 1214 | Lisa | Paul | I whole-heartedly agree with all of the proposed changes. This system is exceptionally outdated and structured so that it more often forces people into a compromised financial position. |
| 1215 | David | Jackson | Getting ready to graduate in deep debt after years of trying to pay off loans. |
| 1216 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I attended a trade school back in the late 1980's. I went there because they supposidly had great job placement afterwards, and they taught you what you needed to know, and not a bunch of unnessary classes that only increased the cost of your tuition, like world history or algebra, or any other class not directly effecting the skills you were trying to learn.
Well, the school lied. They had no job placement, the skills they taught weren't even enough to get my foot in the door, and the cost of a 2 year education in how to get screwed cost me dearly.
I tried to pay off the loans, but ended up in bankruptcy in 1994. Then I heard nothing from Dept of Education untill November 2007. Now they calm the loans were not discharged, and my monthly payment will be equal to what I pay in housing costs! Im half a paycheck away from bankruptcy again, and the company I work for is threatening to close its doors like so many in Michigan.
What started out at less than 12K is now a whoping 40k with accrued interest. The new deal for repayment based on income, for a 25 year payment, will mean I will be 70 when they are finally paid off, IF I LIVE THAT LONG!
I see now, why so many students have dropped out of the system, live off the grid, or used the SOS option (sucking on shotgun).
NOTHING is being done by the congress for the victims of the predatory schools. Espically the older and oldest victims that were targed during the heyday of the student loan fiasco back in the middle and late 1980's.
Govermment has removed all the constitutional, and consumer protections, so we have 2 choices- live as 3rd class citizens only slightly higher than that of the illegal gimmegrints, or die.
Unless of course we win the lottery, but I'm not holding out for that. |
| 1217 | Will | Zaver | I received a provincial and federal student loan to attend Trebas Music Institiute's Music Production program, a farce of a program and was lied to by the then Dean of Admissions that they had 80% job placement. The true fact was that the only paid employment I was able to secure was as a audio technician for various A/V companies based in the area, which was basically a glorified delivery boy. After graduating with honors, I was unable to hold down even one of these positions because of my lack of focused training in any of these fields. I beacame clinically depressed because of our financial situation. My wife and I had both relocated to Toronto and were trying to wrestle the higher living expenses on her single income. We applied for interest relief but were denied time and again. The student loans adm. has a wonderful double standard where although they wouldn't take any of my wife's (who was paying off a loan of her own) expenses into account expected her to pay off my loan. It's been 6 years since I graduated and due to my ongoing illness in addition to ADHD, I am only able to work part time as a guitar instructor. We've had one of these "Pitbull Agencies" chomping at our heels for the past 5 years. We've been paying what we can in monthly installments but it never is enough for them. They are constantly threatening us with further legal action. Their latest claim is that due to a recent $600 dollar payment we made to our credit card we must be in a position to pay off the remainder of our debt in full. Ridiculous! It's because we are living off our credit cards to make ends meet that we need to make these payments when we can. I also think these "companies" make it their policy to hire somewhat "unbalanced" people who seem to take great pleasure in screaming threats at you over the phone.
Last year I wrote a letter to the government requesting that they look at my case to see if i was eligible for any loan forgiveness. I explained the situation and that I had done well in my course and had been unable to secure full employment due to my illness and they denied my request. I am very frustrated with the situation and am glad to have found this petition. |
| 1218 | Jenn | Lemcke | I graduated from university in 2003 and cannot forseeably envision an end to my payments until around 2010. Is that fair? Is it fair I can barely afford groceries?? |
| 1219 | Nikki | Mockus | We should re-instate the interest free status during the six month grace period. |
| 1220 | Anonymous | Anonymous | CSLP is a huge rip off and I can't afford to return to school now because of the loan payments! |
| 1221 | Tanya | Walsh | I have a son who is currently accumulating student loans, I do not want him to be burdened with crippling debt when he graduates. The government should be supporting individuals who are attempting to educate themselves. If anything they should be taking a loss on the money they borrow for student loans not make a profit from individuals trying to become productive citizens of this country. Many countries actually pay for higher education, the very least we can do to provide affordable loans. |
| 1222 | Anonymous | Anonymous | We should be supporting our students and young people in getting an education. We should be like Sweden and provide free education to the future of our country. Shame on the government for this archiac viewpoint!! |
| 1223 | Anonymous | Anonymous | A person I know has sadley not been able to work since school, has had zero income for the past 10 years, and has also gone through a bankruptcy and the collection agencies hound him constantly. HELP |
| 1224 | Chantal | Beaulieu | College costs alot of money and is mandatory now days to get a half decent job. By the time that i am done i am going to owe enough money to the government for my student costs let alone to pay interest on top. |
| 1225 | Christian | Nielsen | For the next 10 years I am committed to paying $4.50 per day in interest and I only have loans from tuition. If the government wants the citizens of this country to have access to higher education I don't think they should make us all pay 2-3 times as much if we need to borrow funds from the student loans program. The tax deduction on interest paid amounts to almost nothing and is credited only against the portion of my income taxed at the lowest rate. This system is not fair to students. |
| 1226 | Katarina | Glavas | My husband and I both graduated from UBC 5 years ago. At the end our studies our combined student loan debt was $90,000. We currently work in our respected fields and earn a combined income of $100,000. Despite our higher than average income we struggle with day to day expenses and find ourselves frequently using our credit cards as a means to sustain ourselves. Our montly student loan payments are $1000/month, amortized over 15 years. At this rate, we will be paying our student loans into our 40s. |
| 1227 | Randy | Finley | Stop grabbing money from hard working canadians who have lived in Canada all there life. You treat foreigners who come to this country better. This is unacceptable. |
| 1228 | Tova | Goodvin | I have 3 loans in repayment, one provincial, one federal and one through the bank. My story is not as dire as some; but I owe about $15,000 and with a one income household and trying to keep the mortgage, and all the household bills paid, and buy groceries its really hard to make anything more than the minimum payment every month. But, I did it, a lot in the last 3 years because I thought that would pay off for me in the long run. Well, I found out otherwise. For example, on my federal loan I pay minimum $120 a month, and I usually knocked that up to $200 or $300 whenever possible. Well, between March and Sept 2007 only $333.72 was actually applied to the principal. That makes me very angry that most of the money I put into my loans over the last 2 - 3 years doesn't even count towards the principal. If this is what I have to deal with, I cannot imagine the people with loans upwards of $30, $50, $75 or $100 thousand dollars. My hearts go out to those people. |
| 1229 | Crystal | Phillips | I can't believe a country that requires so many skilled, educated people are taxing the ones who are trying to fill the gap. Disgusting. |
| 1230 | Melissa | Kroeger | It makes me very angry to think about what I have been through with my student loans. There was a "mix up" with my paper work and my records showed that I was finished school eight months before I actually finished; therefore, I was accumulating interest for months without even knowing it and then they wanted me to start making payments while I was still a full time student. It took weeks to get my records correct but I was still forced to pay the accumulated interest. THEN, when I gradulated I worked full time as an RN for six months and payed my loan in full with one payment of $21000.00 but somehow I was being charged interest again without knowing it. Two months after I payed off my loan, I was sent a letter saying I owed $1200.00 in interest that accumulated during my six month grace period. How do you fight this? I ended up paying the interst just to make the problem go away. The government are crooks, stealing money from hard working students who are trying to better themselves and our country. This is not fair! |
| 1231 | M | Groves | Paying off student loans is okay, (although i think education should be more accessible for everyone) it's the interest rates that are ridiculous. I pay $6000 a year--half goes to interest. This isn't a car or a house I've bought, where a business or person should make a profit, this is an education--an entitlement! a necessity towards healthier commmunities and meaningful lifestyles. Why do we allow our government and banks to profit on education?!
Anyway, 500/month
is fairly close to the minimum i can pay on a total of 4 loans. So I am in interest relief, (again) until i can afford these payments. I've been out of school for 5 years, and paid on and off for about 3 years. My loans still exceed 30,000 at this point... |
| 1232 | Linda | White | My sister had taken out student loans to put herself through school several years ago. She was a single mother receiving no child support. It was difficult for her to get a job once she finished school, and the jobs that she was able to get were low paying. The student loans people were always there to get their money, food and the power bill didn't seem to matter to them. She could barely pay her rent and could never seem to get ahead. My sister committed suicide this past March. I was able to get into her phone messages, they were all from a collection agency for student loans. I lay her death at their feet, if they had just given her a chance to get ahead in life she could have paid them back and got on with her life. Now that is not possible, she is gone and I hope they feel their debt is paid in full with her life, I can not tell them how much they owe me, nor do I think they would care. |
| 1233 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I graduated 12 years ago and have only been able to repay a small portion of my student loans.
Not only have I not been able to find work that would pay enough to pay off my loans, I have been a single parent supporting my daughter on my own for the last 6 years.
Even though I've told them I have no money to pay ( I make $1600 a month, net) the Provincial Student Loans creditors & collectors (which change constantly) keep calling!
I've just made a "financial hardship" application in court today to finally request my loans be dissovled and it was TURNED DOWN.
I am slightly daunted (I will appeal) and very disappointed about this ruling as it shows that our government and laws are really not set up to alleviate student loan financial hardships, contrary to what is written, and certainly to what is spoken.
We absolutely need to address the difficulty and disconnect between paying for an education and truly making a living.
I've setup an RESP for my daughter and intend that she will never have to go through this experience.
I offer my services to the Coalition for Student Loan Fairness and will become very active in resolving the loan repayment epidemic in this country!!
Please let me know what I can do, I will be contacting you as well.
Once I settle my loan situation I will let all know.
Stay strong student loan debtors! |
| 1234 | Lacey | Lemire | When I finished highschool I went to a tech school and took a 2 year course. Gov't loans assisted throughout the duration. Upon completion I was able to pay off my loans in ~ 4 years. Once my loans were almost paid off I went to University. Once again gov't loans assisted me. After 4 years of University I am looking at 12 years to pay off my loans, after which I will have paid almost 2x the principal back. I have an excellent credit rating and I have previously paid off government loans. Obviously the gov't doesn't consider me good for it otherwise they wouldn't be charging such and exorbitant interest rate. |
| 1235 | H | Woods | student loans have affected my family negitively. I dont believe in them and i refuse to ever take one out. |
| 1236 | ann | goody | am currently trying to help my son recover from
Relentless collection agencies.Peter had no choice but to pay back the loan as they threatened to put a judgement against his sin # for 15 years which if doing a background check could prevent him from being hired as a teacher. It has put his current plans for a teaching career in crisis. not sure he can finish his year at university as he is paying his own way without any financial help(because he can't get any) . any money he saved for current tuition has been given in lump sum to Total Credit Recovery. |
| 1237 | Anonymous | Anonymous | In memory of Michelle |
| 1238 | Patricia | Lafrance | I'll be paying my loan for the next 20 years which I received beginning in 1994. I had a great average in high school and grauated from university with honours. I had no grants given to me and my single mother on social assistance was unable to asssit with education. I was unable to pay on my loan due to unforseen circumstances and have dealt with a bully collection agency. I went bankrupt in 2003 and my loan was not included. |
| 1239 | Tracey | Geneau (Lamarche) | I have about 40 000 dollars in student loans. People often say to me, "why didn't you save for school?". Well my mother, from no fault of my own, decided I should no longer be in her care when I was 16 years old. So I had no help for school, I had to pay rent and living expenses through my last two years of highschool. All of the money I made went to my survival. The same was true about summer jobs. Once I was finished school, I was not able to find a job that paid more then 10 dollars an hour so I was forced to go back to school to keep up with all of my living expenses and student loans. I had managed to pay 7000 with income taxes and saving, but I doubled my loan going back to school and now I owe 40000. I always had good marks (90 average) and I never got any bursaries or scholarships. They dont even have loan forgiveness anymore. Like it stated above, I have four loans to pay, one of which I never see a statement for so how do I know its being paid? My payments are around 500 dollars a month. So, hopefully my car holds out for a while because with that payment I cannot aford another car or to have kids. It is sad. It would be a huge help to have lower interest rates, just to reduce my monthly payment. Or at least some loan forgivness.
Tracey |
| 1240 | Lynn | Carrier | My husband and I are paying more than $1000 per month in student loans with no help in terms of interest relief even after my husband lost his job. While they were reviewing the application however we became $2000 behind and they were not willing to set up an affordable payment plan. They wanted the entire amount NOW.! As a result, my husband's credit was ruined and along with our huge debt we were forced to take on a private lender to purchase our first home. We are now paying outrageous student loan interst as well as %9 on our mortgage as a direct result of OSAP. |
| 1241 | Zoar | Shteinbach | Interest rate prime+plus 2.5% is very high. It is in the government interest that more people will aquire post-secondary edducation. We all are going to contribute to Canada and pay taxes here. My payments are close to 500 dollars a month with child support payments of 350 dollars. Add to this cost of living in Calgary. This situation put me into situation where I can't affordto buy an apartment not to mention a house or even a car. |
| 1242 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I just got refused interest relief and start my repayment this month. I did a revision of terms and come to realize I cant even afford the interest payments. Not too sure what I am going to do. |
| 1243 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I hv been accepted in niagara college ontario now i need loan my last date of payment is 8th dec,but i live in pakistan n love to study so plz dont neglect me ok hav a nys dy |
| 1244 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I hv been accepted in niagara college ontario now i need loan my last date of payment is 8th dec,but i live in pakistan n love to study so plz dont neglect me ok hav a nys dy |
| 1245 | Gwendolyn | Muir | my governement student loan for january 2008 is on hold right now because I have a student loan with the national bank I just found this all out today..apparently banks will only let you study for a certatin amount of time before you must pay your loan back but I am not finished school yet I am have one more term left...The bank loan I have is not a line of credit, it is old and in those days the government loans were through the banks, so why do I have to pay follow the banks dam rules??!! I am having a meltdown |
| 1246 | Anonymous | Anonymous | They didn't even tell me that they were going to be starting to take the payments directly from my account and when I asked sent a request in to lower my payments they ignored it. |
| 1247 | Anonymous | Anonymous | My main concern regarding student loan repayment is that personnel involved with national student loans are not interested in helping you regardless of what your concern is. Their sole interest lies with the bottom line. My personal history with student loans portrays too many horror stories to detail. I will simply state NSLSC refuses to acknowledge that I am a full time student attending a recognized university in Canada even though I can provide schedule 2 documentation and written letters on behalf of the educational institution. I switched my major discipline in 2004, and NSLSC has not acknowledged this, nor do they intend to. I did not realize this would eventually land my student loans in collections despite many efforts to reconcile with NSLSC. I personally feel it's time for the government to employ a competent agency to handle National Student Loans, and to hold a reasonable level of accountability and/or flexibility regarding contact with borrowers to ensure intelligent and responsible borrowers have the opportunity to clarify discrepancies with their file. |
| 1248 | Brian | Hekker | I have been paying student loans back for 10 years now, I have a small amount left and make every effort to pay them back until they withdrew money on wrong dates from my account causing 160 dollars in NSF's on my account which caused a budget problem then when I couldn't pay them right away because it messed up my budget they harassed me and I lost a promotion at work because of harassing phone calls. |
| 1249 | David | Banati | Our government should be cultivating and promoting its citizens to attain high levels of education. Educated individuals tend to earn more money, which means increased revenue in taxes. Provided that graduates stay in the country, the government should be subsidizing interest rates. If graduates leave, then the gloves are off, charge 50% student loan interest rates for all I care.
Instead of making a profit off of the few that strive to better themselves, support them!
Then again, it may not be in the government’s interest to have too many individual able to think on their own. Who would be left to support our existing politicians? |
| 1250 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I am not very excited about paying my student loans for the next 14 years. I have a reasonably good job, but I still can't buy a home because of my student loans. |
