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I’m 64 and blind in my right eye due to glaucoma
December 23rd, 2009 by adminI’m 64 and blind in my right eye due to glaucoma. I also have a hearing loss which requires me to wear a hearing aid.
In January of 2008, I applied for Ontario Disability, and after waiting several months, I was accepted. I have been living on $767.00/month. I can afford to pay rent because I live in a bachelor apartment in a rent-geared to income senior’s building run by Toronto Community Housing. However, I was finding it very difficult to stretch the ODSP check for a whole month — buying enough food, toiletries, TTC tickets etc. By mid-month, I was usually broke and running out of food and the food I was getting from the local food bank only lasted a couple of days.
So out of desperation, I went through all the Pay Day Loan companies in the phone book until I found one that would give me a cash advance on my ODSP check — the Cash Store. 99.99% of Pay Day Loan companies will not deal with ODSP clients.
At first, I was excited to be receiving some cash in the middle of the month, but the interest they were charging me was crazy. For borrowing $80.00, I owed the Cash Store $115.00. They were charging me 45% interest!!!
What happened to me is what happens to most people when they borrow money from Pay Day Loan companies. They wouldn’t roll over my debt to the following month, so when I got my ODSP check, I would pay off my debt, and that would leave me short, so in a couple of weeks I was back borrowing more money. And since I was doing this anyway, I borrowed more and more money which I had to pay off when I got my next check, and so I got deeper and deeper into a hole.
After doing this for 5 months, I felt like I was out of control and that this process would never end, so I called Credit Canada and got a credit counsellor who helped me get out of this hole. Although I had done a cash advance in mid-January, 2008, and had given the Cash Store a post-dated check as usual for the date when I would receive my next ODSP, I closed my checking account at TD Canada Trust and I opened up a new checking account at CIBC. Then I put stop payments on my post dated checks to the Cash Store and sent the Cash Store e-mails telling them exactly what I had done. Then my credit counsellor got in touch with them and they agreed to a debt repayment plan, so I am now giving Credit Canada $40.00 from my ODSP which is what I can afford to pay off my debt of $515.00 to the Cash Store. I have been doing this since February, 2008, so I have already paid off a decent portion of my balance owing.
The main thing, though, is the peace of mind that I have about doing this. I’m not beating myself up for getting into this mess. I’m proud of my integrity: I am paying off my debt in an honourable fashion. And no one is chasing after me for money and hassling me with phone calls. I’m very grateful to Credit Canada and my credit counsellor for their help.
Julian
