| # | First Name | Last Name | Please provide a comment or personal story. |
|---|
| 1251 | DALE | LAFRANCE | corruption!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
| 1252 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I have had my fair share of horour stories with Student Loans, and I am asking to help make post secondary education not such a nightmare for future students. We are the Future.. and you're putting us all in debt over our heads. |
| 1253 | Brent | Hauser | I think that the 8.75% interest rate I pay is way too high considering I chose to better myself by going to university rather than sitting on welfare or choosing not to work. I am more than happy to pay back my student loan but I agree that the interest rate should be equal or lower than what the government borrowed it for to lend me.
Brent Hauser |
| 1254 | Teresa | Metters | Money lenders should not be making money from student loans. |
| 1255 | Tamara | Peters | Quite honestly, I have never had such a negative experience in my life. I got student loans for the first two years of my post-secondary, but not the final two. Two years in a row, I had paperwork lost that resulted in my loans changing to repayment status immediately. The second time that the paperwork was lost, the resubmitted paperwork was entered incorrectly and once again I was in immediate repayment status. On none of these occassions was I notified of this fact until three months later, when I was phoned to pay inordinate sums of past due interest! How is this fair? I sent the correct paperwork in and since I heard nothing, I assumed that things were in order and everything was fine, only to find out months later that things were not fine. I also know from talking to my friends that I am not the only one who has ended up in this position.
To top it all of, I have never been treated so poorly by people as when I have phoned to request information or to follow up on things. If I spoke to people that way in my job, I would not have my job for long. That is not acceptable! |
| 1256 | Dallas | Dowson | CSL does not send out any paperwork when one is in Interest Relief. I was waiting for the notice to arrive in the mail, or by email, but nothing came. My only indication that my interest relief had expired was a withdrawal of what amounts to a weeks pay from my bank account, which, of course they will not refund. They should at least send out a letter, as BC Student Loans does, to tell people they need to renegotiate their interest relief status. |
| 1257 | colleen | Lindsay | Come on people we all have horror stories
lets unite with professionalism and a unified force and get this problem solved!!! |
| 1258 | Anonymous | Anonymous | National Student Loans debt to date: $10,000 and growing. |
| 1259 | Anonymous | Anonymous | Student loan debt led to my bankruptcy, loss of my business, and a huge load of personal and emotional distress, that just goes on and on an on, thanks to the hounding of those bottom-feeding scum suckers known as 'collection agencies'. |
| 1260 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I have 3 student loans that are in repayment. Due to difficulty in finding a well paying job I am unable to come up with the huge monthly payments they expect me to make. The collections agencies are rude, pushy, threatening and all together nasty. They are not willing to make compromises. I am on maternity leave and my income is minimal but I am still expected to make crazy amounts as payments. It has been a horrible experience and I regret taking loans every day of my life. I am 26 years old with bad credit and a huge debt hanging over my shoulders. What a way to start my life. |
| 1261 | Dienaba | Diallo | I regret having taken a student loan in the first place. Lack of information, inadequate support and incompetent staff at the student loan bureau make it difficult for anyone ot pursue studies successfully. I feel like I am being treated like a thief even though I have to repay this debt. I applied for interest relief when it was time to repay my loan and I had to fax in the interest application four times. Every time I sent it in, I would call and be told that it had not been received. I also mailed in a copy a total of five times. I requested a copy of my credit report and while I was sending in the interest application, the student loan people were reporting that my payments were late. I have absolutely no trust in them anymore and event though I have not completed my studies, I will pay myself or not go to school at all.
It's not worth it because taking a student loan can mess up your whole life and no one can help you fix it. |
| 1262 | stephanie | lourenco | Even when you pay your student loan and the bank provides proof the government is still unwilling to help!!! |
| 1263 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I have already pay back all my student loan. However, during my repayment period, I experienced many difficulties including inaccurate statement, high interest rate, financial difficulty, etc. The worst thing is nobody could help me! |
| 1264 | jeff | Lozier | MAny complaints |
| 1265 | Tammy | Davidson | I recently got out of a consumer proposal and found out my loans were not included in it. I am now trying to find a way to pay back the loan without a high interest rate. I agree with everything this website has to say. |
| 1266 | Marcia | Sweeney | My family and I are going through a financial crisis as a result of my Student Loan Debt. When I applied in 1999 for a ns student loan and national student loan, I was only able to receive a partial loan as according to the government, my parents were making too much $$$ and should be able to pay for a portion of my tuition/ living expenses.As a result, my parents ended up co-signing for student lines of credit for me, so I could attend university. Before completion of my degree, I was involved in a major car accident which caused me great pain and suffering--my inner neck muscles have shut down and I am in chronic pain. Despite this I graduated in 2004 with a 4 yr BA in French. Since then I was put on narcotics which I have no medical for. Because of the symptoms resulting from the narcotics, it is very hard for me to get a job where my skills and experience can be utilized. I cannot sit for prolonged periods, and cannot due the computer work and government work I am trained for. I have just been dismissed from being a caregiver because my drugs I am on impair my judgement. I am unemployed and cannot receive EI because I was dismissed, nor can I receive interest relief on my loans. Since 2002, both my parents have been retired and have housed me temporarily, and have been paying some of my interest on my loans. And any monies I make go directly to my parents as they had to re-morgage our house to help pay some of my debt. Now, because they have helped pay for medical treatments for me and have also helped to pay the interest on my loans, they are at risk of losing their house, that they have worked so hard for to get. I am an only child and all this burden is on my shoulders, as well as the pain of not being able to utilize my education for employment due to my health. I have been denied CPP disability benefits and cannot file bankrupcy as my parents are co-signers and would be responsible for my debt and would lose everything. I honestly don't know what to do and cannot afford a lawyer. I couldn't predict that I was going to have a car accident and my parents were not aware that the student credit lines had no disability protection. I feel litterally screwed, and wish nothing more for Christmas then to have my student loans and lines of credit foregiven as due to my health, I cannot utilize all I worked for. |
| 1267 | Steven Wallace | Lowe | The poor have a right to equal access to Post-Secondary Education. |
| 1268 | tong | liu | I have a bad student debt. I did not have ablity to pay in last few years. If I can get reduce payment or interest relife, I am going to pay. Need your help.
Thanks
Tong |
| 1269 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I think lower interest rates and a 6 month interest free grace period is the least the government can do to help students. |
| 1270 | Sasha | Stairs | Young adults are pushed right through high school to go get a secondary education...it is drilled into everyones head....Yet when the time comes there is no solution on how to afford the rising prices of school, except to get a loan. It is made sooo easy to get these government loans...to "help" you...yet when your education is finished it rises its ugly head to the high interest, lack of (and plenty of wrong) informtion from web sites and NSLC call site. It becomes very frustrating very fast to try and pay these loans. I went to school to do something i loved, but the income I make couldnt support the loans i had to take out to take the schooling , so I am now working in a call center which pays more than what i thought would be my future career. It completely defeated the purpose of me going to school...When i cant even do the career i worked so hard for because of this debt. The system is completely unorganized, and in alot of ways VERY unfair and misleading for young adults trying to start their lives and getting burned by the very thing that promises to help them achieve that. |
| 1271 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I have been working at paying my debt down for years. I have never gone into default. I have moved out of Canada to try to earn more income. And the reduction in my debt after having paid thousands of dollars is almost negligible. All I want is a fair chance to pay back what I owe. At this rate, I will be a slave to the institutions and their interest rates for all of my prime adult years. I won't be able to have a family with my partner. The anxiety and stress related directly to the inability to dig myself out despite the fact that I have a decent job and am a hardworking person is slowly breaking me down mentally and emotionally. I studied hard, I earned myself an M.A., decided to leave a Ph.D. program, and have been working hard since leaving school. For all of this, I have nothing but debt and stress to show for it. I deserve more. I deserve a fair chance to find my way to financial freedom. I want control of my own life. |
| 1272 | Anonymous | Anonymous | N/A |
| 1273 | Brandi | Robledo | I am drowning in $60K of private loans and in $45 of government loans. I need help! |
| 1274 | Anonymous | Anonymous | In Alberta there is a 50,000 max borrowing rate. Even if you make payments this does not allow you to borrow more in the future. So i guess you better know what you want to do for the rest of your life at age 16. Cause heaven forbid you want to make a career change |
| 1275 | Benjamin | Husband | Monthly loan paymeny= $291.00
monthly loan payment that coveres interest= 199.00
less than $100 payment a month on $28,000 loan= a life time of regret!
Like so many I have been declined for interest relief because I make too much money. I don't understand why the government wants to punish those who are successful. Often I think about becoming unemployed just so I can avoid paying more than $25,000 in loan interest. |
| 1276 | Brenda | Husband | I watch me son struggle with money. Wanting to return to school for a better education and not knowing if he can afford to do so. With a bigger loan would it be worth it. |
| 1277 | Kirk | Baker | I always assumed that Student Loans were a way to help students with their College or University payments, but it seems less so when you basically have to beg. Then when you're looking for/ working at your first job, they do little to help you with paying back their loans. Seems much more likely that they're in this deal for themselves rather than the benefit of the public. |
| 1278 | Trent | Williams | It's a rip off. |
| 1279 | Stephen | Atchison | Far too many young kids graduating from high school are being encouraged to pursue University level educations without deeply considering the longterm picture. Many will ultimately incur significant debt loads and far too often: a poor return on their investment in higher education. Many of them will struggle through programs of study that they are suited for and will end up with mediocre grades and poor job prospects.
I suspect that many of them would have been better served had they entered the workforce directly out of high school, or else sought training in a skilled trade that's in high demand, and well paying. Let's face it, unless you are pursuing a very career specific University course of study, that degree will not look all that impressive to employers. Bottom line is that going to University is vastly overrated.
The first question that young people should be asking is whether or not their chosen path will be financially viable, and secondly can they picture what kind of effort and sacrifice it will take to repay those loans in the months and years after the graduate? |
| 1280 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I recently made the decision to go back to school. I applied for student loans as my income is far from sufficient to cover tuition, books etc.
I was denied funding because I make too much money. I cleared an astounding $21,000 last year. I live on my own, have rent, insurance, utilities, and existing student loan payments.
The system doesn't work. There needs to be a review done and it needs to be revised.
Poverty is a vicious cycle; at this point there is nothing being done to correct this. |
| 1281 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I have been making payments for 6 years on my student loans. Unfortunately four years of school was very expensive and I ended up owing nearly $30,000 in student loans. (I saved $15,000 before I went to school and worked the entire time I was at school and have paid for everything.) I make my monthly student loan payments consistently but still feel weighed down with my never ending student loans. Eliminating or reducing the interest rate would greatly help me. |
| 1282 | Dieckman | Dieckman | Well, if you knew my story... My story is about twelve typed pages that I have been trying to have the Federal Government look at in the House of Commons. However, because the information I possess makes Canada look no better than Mexico, Columbia, ... no one seems to want to take the time. |
| 1283 | Anonymous | Anonymous | it is outrageous the way our kids are treated |
| 1284 | m name cannot speak victim | victim of big bro | Sorry this is so long but I suffered a long time.From Eighteen years old until now thirty seven years to be precise.I learned at university one big lesson.A darned expensive 28000 dollar lesson in why not to take out a student loan.When i was in high school twenty years ago I was naive about what it meant to take out a loan.My older sister who had been in the purely grant good old days system had her school covered completely without the penalty of debt.My parents being good parents suggested I go to university to get "ahead" with an education.So did the other students brainwashed by guidance counsellors and teachers.Being a good little teenager I listened to them since I trusted adults wouldn't steer me wrong.But they nor I knew the consequences of what going to university would mean for a teenager from A POOR FAMILY in the lovely new x-generation experimental loans system.My sister made it ,graduated and is a teacher.My stepbrothers had a rich mother who after they received student loans got her to help them pay it back.They are doing well too.But me??? Oh mee.over 20 thousand dollars in the hole with NO DEGREE twenty years later I still pay for THE WORST DESCISION I EVER MADE IN MY LIFE!!!!!A side effect of being born in the seventies and in high school when they just changed the system suddenly as I was about to graduate from highschool.To get a student loan and TO GO TO UNIVERSITY!!!!!!!!!!!And being from a poor family.A failed student loans program GUINEAU PIG EXPERIMENT.If I had not gone to university I would have qualified for a house loan have a clean credit work my way up a pay ladder and would have been able to take what I have been paying in rent to pay off a bank loan for a house.I also wouldn't have had a university related mental stress breakdown.My advice is go buy a house first then go to school if you can do a work and study.Knowledge that is a little belated..Good luck paying rent,eating and paying student loans with no degree and working at pizza hut.I got sick in my third year at university.THIS IS MY HORROR STORY.I had surgery while a student with complications.I was also stalked at university.I was unable to function and unable to return library books.{partly from the trauma of the stalker and surgery and a housing crisis}.This spiralled into a nightmare.500 dollars in library fines kept me from school in september.You don't pay you don't get to register.It wasn't like I could pay it with all the zero resources I had at short notice of the "actual" impact of late books..Extensive letters to the library explaining why i couldn't pay I found difficult with a stress related mental health problem spun out of control as i developed a severe mental illness affects right after the surgery.The letter I wrote {after hours of painstakingly going over the traumas that caused them to be late}I never even got them in because I couldn't think to even get forty cents for a stamp.Mental illness had won.I ended up getting letters from student loans requesting payment.I kept freezing in frustration of helplessness.A horror I don't wish on any well meaning aspiring young mind.If I could have paid the library fine I could have eventually gone back to university and they wouldn't have been due at least until I had enough credentials to try for higher paying jobs than a cashier..But it was too late.I was mentally ill I could no longer manage daily function and was lost in a sea of guilt and shame that was escalated and exacerbated by the overwhelming debt..Paperwork was overwhelming and frightening to me.After years of treatment I came out of it finding out that it was caused by a severe iron deficiency a hospital related infection and a post trauma reaction to a severely unspeakable traumatic event.I started to get better but the loans had sat even though i had gotten help to apply for releif as a disabled person.It hung around my neck like an albatross.I was on a disability pension and to my surprise the letter that I worked so hard to prepare was either ignored or lost.I just gave up I was listless .I couldn't even get through to talk to someone in the student loans.I kept being put on hold.How can a mentally ill unemployed woman pay off 20 000 dollars????I thought.What a cycle.I can't get a job that as well with mental health issues.I was only allowed to earn five hundred a month on disability otherwise they took dollar per dollar off my pension.I also realized I couldn't make any extra money because noone could use me in that condition in the workforce.What about garnished wages too if I was to find anyone to hire me the student loans would take my piddly little extra which would have been my only hope out of my situation.I lost all hope of anything.I went into a severe depression greiving daily about the lost chances at life i had with my now destroyed credit..I was too messed up to hold a job.Then I got the threat from someone in collections phoning me saying that they were going to see if i had made extra money other than my disability pension.Can you beleive they threatened a woman debilitated by mental illness???I cried for a while after the call.I felt frightened.I felt like a fugative.I felt like Canada LET ME DOWN EVEN THOUGH I AM A BORN CANADIAN CITIZEN I FELT LIKE A VISITOR to my own country.I began to wish I had gotten a dual citizenship with the united kingdom where postsecondary schooling is accessable to all classes.I began to ask why did I have to be born the year that I would graduate in this horrible unfair class discriminating system.I walked past store windows looking in at nice things I could never buy.I walked in my poor womans shoes until they were noticeably worn and people were looking at me as a street homeless.I couldn't afford a haircut or makeup or jewelery.That was for those rich people over there....For a HALF FINISHED EDUCATION????Well the horror continued as I lined up for food in soup kitchens and food banks.I wished I could pay it back ..day and night for years i wished.One afternoon amongst other likeminded poverty ridden dishevelled mental patients and survivors I headed to the income tax office only to find that the tax returns were being kept from me.I bawled and whaled aloud in the H and R block .A nice man gave me a fresh chocolate milk.All I had for hope in this world was my little bitsy teeny weeny income tax return of a hundred dollars.For Canada revenue agency a hundred dollars is peanuts.For me it was my whole world collapsed.They seized my income tax because of student loans even though I had told them I had a disability.Another week with no conditioner for my tangled weaves of uncut hair.Another week with no snacks.Counting the days until there was food money.Why??? Because when i was a teenager I took out a student loan.Terrible things happened while i was a university student and the loans didn't forgive anything.Did I beleive I would NEVER BE ABLE TO PAY IT BACK????No.Teenagers are taught to aspire to greatness.At least I would hope that a teenager would TRY???Well try as I did and I failed and if there was one message I could pass on to highschool students it would be DON'T BELEIVE THE HYPE!!!!Especially if you have no recourse if you get into a mess.I would also suggest if I might as a far stretch is that IS IT NOT A FORM OF COERCION OR EXTORTION TO CONVINCE YOUNG TEENAGERS TO GO OUT AND TAKE OUT A STUDENT LOAN???Statuatory financial rape???Why are schools allowed to be so discourteous as to suggest that young people should spend money before they make money???Young people should be told the truth.That student loans is a hostage taking if you are poor.Now what do I do.I am getting old.I am a waste of a grade point average at an honours level.7.75 out of 8...thanks for a vent platform.hope i wasn't as harsh as my life.Why is a student a default if they tried and failed???Why does the big fish swallow the little fish?Is it big business to CON young minds to BUY INTO THE UNIVERSITY MYTH AND ILLUSION OF A HIGHER INCOME FUTURE????False promiseland.Misleading advertising GO TO SCHOOL GET A JOB LAND.I am now a garbage picker.Isn't that great???I hope that I can paint and sell the used furniture I find thrown out one day.To pay off my student loan twenty years later.We live in a wasteful society.PLEASE RECYCLE ME. |
| 1285 | Kellie-Ann | Perry | I graduated in 2004 from community college and managed to get caught in one of those transisitions. I know have to try and keep 4 different Federal/provincial loans seperate, and pay them all at different interest rates. Just to make the step to lower the interest rates to give us a fighting chance, and combine all student loans into 1 payment instead of half-a-dozen, would be a wonderful start. I'd bet that they'd get a whole lot more money actually paid back, on time that way. |
| 1286 | Anonymous | Anonymous | Unreasonable... |
| 1287 | Anonymous | Anonymous | Please, don't ignore this very real need for reform. Canada is too great a country to continue treating students as donkeys for the National Debt. |
| 1288 | Garth | Elliott | I am 40 years old and have been dealing with my student loans for almost 15 years. I still owe over $80000 and I am constantly being pressured to paying unreasonably high (about $2000 per month) payments. It has taken my about 8 years to rebuild my credit, but this is apparently a bad thing (I *should* now be able to borrow to repay these loans). I was told that I would be better off to be a single, unemployed man paying child support. Should I quit my job, get divorced, and leave my family? |
| 1289 | Anonymous | Anonymous | All I wanted to do when I graduated was start from zero. |
| 1290 | Anonymous | Anonymous | Ontario student loan service is useless! Change is needed! |
| 1291 | Jessica | Proulx | OSAP made my life a living hell. They have never contacted me for payments, and I have tried to contact them, and they want my osap number, and when I give it to them they say it is INVALID. But yet my credit is screwed. So they are saying I owe money but my account number is invalid. HMM. Go fuck yourself. |
| 1292 | p | prosser | got a loan-went to school-got a job-paid loan-lost job-got sick longterm-owe three times original amount from interest-no hope.but I'm just 44 and extremely bright??? why! |
| 1293 | Stephen | Kawamoto | I defaulted on a loan circa 2001. By 2004 I was paying them regularly until I got assaulted at a worksite. (I'd gotten training in a different field because at that time the program was still in place, but the Liberals folded that program. Not that it is harder to get into the security field; it's just more costly.)
After my injury, I avoided the local debt collector agency so they passed my name back to the Centre and they put me in the worst-case category, which meant some agency out in Toronto, rather than their branch office in Vancouver. After paying about 180 dollars in 2006, I just moved out of my old place, and disconnected my landline. Currently I room with two other room mates, and only have a cellphone. Hopefully, my collectors won't recognize me by my story, but they are not going to get my new number from my employer. That tactic worked once; it isn't going to work again.
What I am pleased to note is that they adhere to the Privacy Act wholeheartedly because they could Google me and find my new number and address quite easily.
*** BTW, by writing my story, I am in effect giving you permission to Google my name, provided that you take whatever you read with a grain of salt. Since about a year ago, I no longer believe in much of what I did, said or wrote prior to 2004. |
| 1294 | Marc | Gionet | In order to finance my graduate studies I had to receive the maximum amount provided by Canada Student Loan Services and take out an additional $15,000 on a personal line of credit for a one year program. |
| 1295 | Anonymous | Anonymous | OVER 50k IN PRIVATE LOANS, AFTER FOUR YEARS OF PAYING THEY WENT UP 8K! |
| 1296 | Campbell | Craig | My son and daughter both have student loans and are struggling to make ends meet both are working full time. Campbell Craig Kelowna BC |
| 1297 | Charyln | Morrell | I have 2 student loans, one provincial, on national, both demanding high payments on a low, single parent income. |
| 1298 | Anonymous | Anonymous | My experience with these collection agencies has lead to believe that the members of the government have a deep interest in these agencies. Why does the government contract private companies to do this work? Does the government leak private information to these companies? |
| 1299 | Heather F | F | Just a simple thank you to the Ontario government's OSAP program for first giving me $14,000 based on an application that an OSAP officer helped me fill out. And then telling me I did it wrong and taking it away. And then losing my first two appeals. And then telling me that the information my appeal was based on, which an OSAP officer told me to write word for word, was incorrect and invalid. And for not supporting someone smart enough to work full time and go to school full time and support two children as a single parent. Thanks OSAP.
It is not rocket science. Canada wants a skilled, professional workforce, but are keeping many students from attending universities and colleges. |
| 1300 | Patty | Russell | I am a mature single mother of a child with a permanent disability and have student loans over $50,000. Fortunately as a result of these loans I now have a good job. However my future is bleak. Freedom 55 for me means no more student loans. The loan payments are crippling me from the kind of future I have worked so hard for. |
