| # | First Name | Last Name | Please provide a comment or personal story. |
|---|
| 251 | JE | Scott | I cannot make the minumum payments. I am working part time and the interest keeps piling on. I am trying to work things out but the agents are rude and do not try to assist me except by telling me that I should give them my children's child tax benefit instead of spending it on them for their needs! |
| 252 | G | McDowell | I was lied to repeatedly by the company the NSLSC used to process interest relief applications.
I was coerced by pressure from teachers and counsellors that "anything less than a degree would mean my life would be hell."
Interest relief applications kept changing faster than I could submit them thus putting me into default.
Any attempt to pay anything less than what the creditors request has been met with refusal or the creditors would not commit the agreement to paper.
Creditors (and the government) can capriciously and arbitrarily assign a debt to you, whether you agree or not. That is beyond criminal. |
| 253 | Michael | Murray | When you consider that most European countries pay for the education of their youth, right through university, it is shamefull for our government to allow students to graduate into a market with very few jobs and payments that most have a hard time making. |
| 254 | Anonymous | Anonymous | constant harrassment by collection agencies |
| 255 | Alexandra | McNicoll | . |
| 256 | cathy | greentree | It's time to look seriously at student debt with an eye toward allowing student with crushing debt burdens to establish themselves in an already saturated workforce. |
| 257 | Matt | Weir | School shutdown 2 months into a 1 year course. Books, tests, and even instructors were not provided. And Canada wonders why all its youth leaves the country, because if the government doesnt give a damn about them, why should we give a damn about the government. My student loan will be in default until I declare bankruptcy at the 10 year mark, and as far as I'm concerned, they won't get one red cent out of me. |
| 258 | Anonymous | Anonymous | repayment of my student loans are seriously making it difficult to manage my life effectively. repayment of my income tax returns has even been difficult because of this... |
| 259 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I am currently receiving a student loan to go to school. I am constantly stressed about money because student loan doesn't give very much and considering I go to university in Nova Scotia, I can use all I can get. I worry all the time about how I'm going to pay for the next semester because of any money I come across, accidental or purposely. You are required to save upwards of 50% of your total income if you're fortunate to get a job for the summer. It's unfair because students are just trying to make their resume more attractive so that they can pay off their loans when they graduate. If we work, we get less money from student loan. If we don't work, we live hand to mouth for however long you're in school, and lack experience that might help you get work when you're done. This system disgusts me and is a great source of discomfort for me. |
| 260 | Alan | Gendron | I had a career going as a fisheries technician with a consulting firm. The Federal Gov't virtually shut down 90% of the west coast commercial salmon fishing industry and implemented severe budget cutbacks. Its unfortunate to have gotten into such a specialized "trade" and then find that the rug has been pulled out from under me after working my way up the ladder for so long. The firm I was working for lost the contracts that kept me employed 8 months of the year and DFO could not use my services citing budget constraints. I am registered in 2 government "pools" and am waiting for some sort of position to open. I have tried to find full time employment in other areas (trades etc.) but have been beset by dissappointments such as low starting wage with no potential for advancement as well as lots of promises made but they still resulted in seasonal layoffs when my services were no longer needed. I am currently eking my way with small residential painting and renovation contracts for little old ladies around town. But all it does is keep my nose above the water level. I certainly cannot afford to pay an additional $800+ a month to put forward for student loan payments. To date I have paid out more than $10,000 thru income tax return / GST seizures and payment attempts when I thought I had a steady job. The original balance of my CSL was $22,000, it is now over $30,000 because of interest. |
| 261 | Vic | Esperanza | Limit the amount of interest that a lending institution can charge. Students are the future of the country and should not be put at a financial disadvantage upon graduation. |
| 262 | Jenette | MacArthur | After 10 years post graduation, I am still affecting with a terrible credit rating and negotiating with the bank re my student loan. If the bank would have allowed me to make reasonable payments in the beginning, this could have been avoided. |
| 263 | Brian | Buydens | Students are accumulating huge debts, and some are acquiring bad credit ratings trying to repay their loans. This is no way to treat people who are trying to better themselves and be more productive members of society. |
| 264 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I agree with all of these hopefully someone will listen. It seems like everything has been geared towards the banks, and there has been little help for students who have experienced unforseen circumstances |
| 265 | Aileen | Letourneau | Good Idea! |
| 266 | Darrell | Hillier | Changes to the program are long overdue. With any luck I'll soon have paid my loan in full, but it's been a rough road. Minimize the stress and anguish on graduates and make these changes now. |
| 267 | Lorraine | Porcello | I am a Canadian graduate now living in the US. I have been trying *in good faith* to make my student loan payments. However, the unwieldy bureaucracy around the Canadian student loan system has made this very difficult. Many of my cheques have been lost, resulting in rude, harassing phone calls from a third party, Resolve Corp. The most memorable of these lost cheque incidents was when a cheque I had sent, pronounced lost by the bank, turned up in someone's desk drawer 4 months later!! This system desperately needs reform. |
| 268 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I am in my 10th year of repayment and have experienced tremendous hardship during my repayment years, where I loss my employment, my mother, and had added financially responsibilities simultaneously which prevented me from repaying my loan. Although, I have been fortunate to access some of the programs available at the time of my loan, interest relief, 10 years later, I still owe half of my loan amount, which 22% is interest payment alone.
While I agree that the government needs to protect itself from program abusers, I also feel that programs should account for exceptional circumstances, be mutually beneficial, and not burden the borrower. |
| 269 | Sarah | Webster | I am a graduate struggling to pay back a 40,000 dollar loan. I'm a hard working, fulltime employee who has never missed or been late on a payment, but my interest rates are killing me and keeping track of my loan, which is divided into 4 separate loans with two different institutions is a constant headache. I'd love to see some changes made so that those of us who are being accountable and responsible with our loans can catch a bit of a break. |
| 270 | Patrick | McLean | I paid my loan for years but I was locked into an uUnconscionable interest rate (10.5 %). All this came at a time when interest rates were extremely low and thus the government was making money out of my hardship. During the time I was paying I was never able to make any inroads on the principal. Boo on the government for operating the loan system the way they are. In a beautiful world, education would be free - that would be the smart and economical thing to do but the government should not penalize those who seek an education. |
| 271 | Melissa | Belfry | I am an honours graduate from the University of Victoria with a BA in Women's Studies and Geography, a Bachelor of Social Work, and a Master's Degree in Social Work and Public Policy and a teaching certificate. I was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarhsip in 2003 to undertake a PhD. in Sociology at the University of Malaya. I am currently a teacher of Theory of Knowledge and the Director of Wellness at The United World College of the American West (after having worked at Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific). I have left Canada with my husband who also suffers under the burden of unreconcilable student debt (he is a teacher here at UWC-USA), and we have no plans to return to Canada, although we love our country and wish we could be at home with our family and friends. We will raise our three children and use our skills in the "helping professions" to advocate for and work with people outside of Canada, because our student loan debt will not allow us to live at home -- at least not above the poverty level. We are the "brain drain" you hear about -- we are economic refugees. I am frustrated and saddened that your party would have us remain so. During the four years we've been in the USA I have communicated with collection agencies but have been unable to get any of them to tell me exactly how much I owe and to whom. Without this basic information, and when expected to pay back loans a rates of interest that view students as a business, I refuse to send my money into the vast, uncompassionate and corrupt system of student loan repayment.
Sincerely,
Melissa Belfry (previously of Victoria BC) |
| 272 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I have had nothing but pain and suffering caused by collections agencies on behalf of the federal and the provincial government. I have attempted many times to ask for relief, because i didn't finish school, caused by an accident, which has not allowed me to continue my education. |
| 273 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I had a student loan that was in collections. Over 9 years ago my mom offered to payoff my student loan if the government wrote off the outstanding interest, the offer to settle was turned down. This year I made a Consumer Proposal (which covered my Student Loan because it has been 11 years since I graduated). Anyway, student loans got 1/8th of what they would have gotten if the had settled years ago. |
| 274 | Anonymous | Anonymous | Any relief wound be a great relief! |
| 275 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I have had collectors call my place of business---threaten my employment---harrass my manager, front desk personel -- and mis-represent themselves -- PLEASE DO NOT ALLOW THIS INJUSTICE to continue !! |
| 276 | Manuel | Couto | Good work! |
| 277 | Anonymous | Anonymous | A system in total disarray that needs help fast |
| 278 | paul | van deursen | 60 years old with a student loan (>30.000) with not a hope of ever paying it back. Wonder if old-age pension is subject to recovery by a collection firm. |
| 279 | Anonymous | Anonymous | Change is long overdue! Students need real help now. |
| 280 | Anonymous | Anonymous | Reinstating the grace period would go a lon way toward helping young, harworkering people get a good start and become productive members of the work force. |
| 281 | Corey | Weir | My student loans have ruined my life with respect to credit, family and my future. It is ridiculous the things that can happen to people who barely make enough to scrape by within the current system. |
| 282 | Andrew | Christensen | I have had many issues with creditors before breaking the law and being bullies. It needs to stop. |
| 283 | Douglas | Adler | I am in arrears. I am only able to partially pay the interest on and not the principle of my student loan. I graduated 8 years ago.
I have exhausted every avenue for forgiveness, reduction and even bankruptcy.
I am under-employed.
I cannot get full-time continuing work with my employer. My employer has a policy of not hiring it's own graduates. |
| 284 | monique | malenfant | time for a fair chance |
| 285 | Elizabeth | Hanes | After never missing a payment for five years,I became unemployed, and I couldn't get a break from CSL or OSAP. Why is it that CSL and OSAP feel the need to punish someone who is already low? Personally, I can't wait to be done with my payments so that I will never have to deal with CSL and OSAP again! |
| 286 | irem | erteki | i am in 60000 debt and with little or no hope of paying it off. |
| 287 | Patrick | Pond | I wish you has this about ten years ago... oh well, new grads, or new students, consider yourself lucky. :-) |
| 288 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I was forced to bankruptcy and my student loan is not cleared off my record. Now they are freezing my income tax return. Education must be free not a death sentence. I am a human being not a slave. I never can afford to pay back this loan with the job I have. Now I have to wait until the 10 years passes so I can declare the 2nd bankruptcy to get rid of this student loan. OSAP destroyed my life. |
| 289 | Roham | Rahmanian | -- |
| 290 | Joseph | Schwartzman | My loan goes back to 1987. Several times I have made reasonable offers, close to the principle, but they always refused to accept them. Additionally they charged high interest rates and the debt went way high so I may never be able to pay the loans back. I have never made a large income so there is no way out barring some miracle. I will die owing this huge debt. My wife is afraid that they would come after her if I die. The only way out is backruptcy but I inherited a house so that is out. And I have a young family so I need the house. For all these years I have had stress from collection agencies. WHAT IS ODD IS THAT THE LAW STATES THAT I DO OWE THEM THE MONEY BUT THEY DO NOT COME AFTER ME. WHERE IS IT WRITTEN HOW FAR THEY WILL GO TO COLLECT? wHY IS IT NOT CLEARLY STATED?There is no peace in this life with this burdon alway on my head. |
| 291 | sterling | tulk | i got screwed over when i moved to ireland for 2 years, and now my credit is ruined |
| 292 | Anonymous | Anonymous | Government should not be making money off the backs of those who want to give back to the economy through a highly educated workforce. |
| 293 | Anonymous | Anonymous | graduated from college in 1992, have never been in the financial situation to pay the loan, I currently owe $15000, with two judgements on my credit, it has ruined my life, am seriously considering bankruptcy to help with a new start in life! Changes need to be done to the system, it doesn't work!!! |
| 294 | Harinda | Katugaha | This is a great initiative. The loan process has limited my ability to pursue graduate studies. Many of these changes will help people around Canada attain a rich education which is a right and not a privilege. |
| 295 | Lindsey | MacDonald | Something needs to be done to help students who are experiencing financial difficulty. There are little options for repayment (all or nothing), incredible interest rates, staff who are misinformed, and lack a relief programs. Interest releif should reflect net income and not gross income because payments should not be based on money we do not directly see (taxes, etc.) Also, some staff are not trained and there is a high amount of miscommunication that takes place. Agents are often unable to assist with payment plans, ammortization periods, and general explanation of loans. A lot of calls are not followed through; however, it is expected that the student (i.e. borrower) does. The student loans program should be set up so that arrangements are made to make it possible for students who have worked hard and finished school to maintain and enjoy a good quality of life. Otherwise, most students end up going to school for many years only to end up making minimum wage salaries (after their loan payments are taken care of)...now is that motivation?
THere is so much discussion/debate on how to keep people from moving away; something should be done to allow students to borrow money, manage to pay it back, and not only give back to society, but also gain something for all their hard work |
| 296 | Talbott | Jorge | Loans have been a personal nightmare. Please don't foist this system on any more people. |
| 297 | Anonymous | Anonymous | My student loans have caused me nothing but grief and dismay. The stress it has caused and the financial setbacks / hardships it has put my family and I are incalcuable. This legacy is approaching two decades - I don't even know how much intrest I've paid but whatever it was the principal doesn't seem to budge. This programme doesn't assist students, it beholds them to such a hardship as to literally take their future - lockstep into a spiral of debt, financial rejection, harassment and untold stress. |
| 298 | Vi | Murty | I've been struggling with my loans for the last 8 years. My situation was particularly hard because I left university without my degree...that made it much harder to get a decent job, but my loan payments didn't change. Please pay attention to our requests - they will help us to get better jobs and deal with this crushing burden. |
| 299 | Alison | Grittner | Paying back my student loans has been a nightmare. I had four different loans, answering to three different agencies. One stopped taking out my monthly automatic payments and I was never able to find the office responsible or discuss the matter with a knowledgeable representative. The beaurocratic nightmare causes me to default on two of the loans because I kept receiving conflicting misinformation on how to make monthly payments. My loans are now all paid off - no thanks to the "help" I received from any of the student loan agencies - and I will avoid entering the quagmire again. |
| 300 | Anonymous | Anonymous | The current system and ten year waiting period is very unfair and discriminatory. Why do businesses can experience bankruptcy and be able to be back on their feet financially, but not students? |
