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Jun 17, 2019 05:59 pm | LJCQuébec
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In Canada, the average student
debt sums up to $30,000
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- Not paying your debts is not a
crime. Debtors prisons have long been eliminated in Canada.
- If you do not acknowledge the
debt for six years, creditors cannot collect from you.
Acknowledging also includes applying for interest relief,
speaking to a creditor about a payment plan, or making a
payment. Once you do any of these things, the clock is reset to six
years, even if the debt is 20 years old.
- Your debt does not follow you
outside the country. If you work outside of Canada, creditors
cannot find you there.
- When you file your taxes, the
government is aware of where you work, how much you earned, and
this is how they find you and eventually garnish your wages.
- Governmental agencies do not
talk to each other. We have strict privacy laws in that sense.
For example, the government collection agency doesn’t know
you’re back in the country based on your passport records. If
you go to the doctor using your government medical service plan,
they can’t get your address or phone number from the office,
etc.
Based on what I had thoroughly researched, using BC specific
resources, I decided I would go ahead with my plan to avoid paying
student loans. If you are considering going along this path, be sure
to do your research. First, I knew my credit would be destroyed (who
can afford a house anyway?), so I decided to max out my credit cards,
get an upgraded cell phone on credit, and avoid paying all my last
bills of the month. These agencies prey upon students who are
desperate to fund their education, and stay afloat while in school. I
had been under pressure by them for long enough! I closed my bank
account and opened a new one at another institution. Then, I said
goodbye to my family and friends, and traveled Eastern Europe with
the money I had leftover.
Eventually, I settled in South Korea, where the teaching jobs are
lucrative, and there is much to see, do, and learn. I stayed there
for nearly three years, though with brief stints back to Canada where
I visited my family and friends and worked minimally when I was
running low on funds. I never earned enough to pay taxes. I went back
to Canada and got a job I enjoyed enough, making around $30,000 per
year. I held off on filing my taxes the first year, and filed both
returns in the second year, just as the 6 year statute of limitations
passed. All of my GST rebates and income tax refunds went to the
government, who had a lien on any money passing through the
government to me. It was a risk that they might try to pursue some
kind of action, but since I had been recently been accepted into a
Master’s program, I knew that they couldn’t collect student loans
from me while I was a full-time student. I never heard anything. I
paid for my Master’s degree with savings from abroad, and my two
years of work in Canada.
Now in 2019, I filed my taxes for the last two years, and I received
all of my tax returns and GST rebates, meaning according to the
government, I no longer have a debt outstanding. Recently I got a
scare-mongering letter from a collection agency with a legal services
company that doesn’t exist. I know my rights and they won’t be
hearing from me.
Some things I learned along the way that others considering a similar
path should know:
- Be prepared to have bad
credit. Nine years later I am slowly building my credit. If you
have no plans to buy a house or car (like me!) this shouldn’t be
a problem.
- If you want to pursue a
Master’s degree, likely you will have to pay out of pocket. It’s
unlikely you will receive a student loan anytime soon.
- Be prepared to have family and
friends be afraid or confused by what you’re doing. You may get
some angry remarks from those who struggled to pay off their
loans and don’t realize that life isn’t a race to the bottom.
Or, you may get people telling you that you’ll end up in jail!
Or that no university will accept you again! This debt will
follow you for life, you know! These are things I’ve been told
by well-meaning (but grossly uninformed) individuals.
- When they do find you, credit
agencies will try to scare you. They make a living by
intimidating and saying outrageous things to people. They cannot
contact the payroll department at your place of work to directly
garnish your wages. They cannot take legal action on a debt more
than six years old. Finally: they lie to you; don’t feel bad
about lying to them.
Education shouldn’t be a debt sentence. Growing up in a poor family,
I knew the choices given to me were to end my education in grade 12
and work for poverty wages, or take on decades of debt for the hopes
of getting a job that doesn’t exist. I chose neither. Access to
quality, free, democratic education is a human right, and a crucial
part of building a better society. Instead of investing in education,
Canadian and provincial governments choose to spend billions on war
and militarism, and tax breaks for the wealthy. On top of that, these
initiatives are funded by our interest payments. We aren’t going to
change this through individual acts of resistance, or by leaving the
country to avoid debt repayment. It’s time we take our future into
our own hands by coming together to demand free tuition. On top of
avoiding debt and interest payments, we must work together in a
united and militant student movement that fights for the rights of
students as a whole. While some of us can resist in these individual
acts, the real fight takes place in broad, united action. However, if
you choose to avoid your debt alongside building the student movement
for free tuition, I salute you!
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