Good News, Bad News & Everything In Between

So on Friday I got the letter telling me that my application for interest relief had been approved. Finally some good news. Today I was at work and I get a message to call the National Student Loan Center about my revision of terms. I had sent a not-so-nice letter with it since it will cost me about $900 more to pay off my loan. But I was forced to do it. So I call them up and all they tell me is that my interest relief had gone through, nothing about the revision of terms. So I decided to ask what that meant for the payments I had already made. I was told that the money had been put towards the principle of my student loan and in no uncertain terms that I would NOT be getting it back. I was told that they were not able to do that. I was also told that if they did then my interest relief would have to be taken off, recalculated and then put back on. Oh yeah and I would owe them the interest. WTF? So let me get this straight... My interest relief was approved (which generally means you don't need to make payments and the government pays the interest) but I'm still making payments... Umm... how does that work? Oh yeah and I can't claim the payments on income tax because it's money put towards the principle of the loan, not interest. Then why did I apply? I might as well have just made the payments and then applied for interest relief effective now. At least then I'd have a reprieve in the payments. But obviously I wasn't going to get anywhere with that one... Customer skills were a wee bit lacking with that person... And my stress level shot through the roof.

My second phone call was to the Royal Bank. I must admit it is much nicer to deal with them. They have been good at delaying payments and what not. As soon as I called them they put in a request to get back the three payments that I have made. Unfortunately, the request does take 2-4 weeks but still. That's $660 that I should be geting back. Okay so now my day was getting a little better.

Now I had been playing phone tag with one of the guys from the Student Loan Center. I might have let it go and just been pissed off over it but they bounced my rent cheque the same day my interest relief was approved. So I thought I'd call and bitch about that. After all my application for interest relief was still being processed which means the payment should not have gone out. I got ahold of im this time and he said that despite what I had been told earlier I would be getting the money back. Now I am not sure if that is all three months, or just the last month... but still. Since they really don't seem to know what they're doing... and I just keep getting mixed messages I'm holding my breath until I have the cheque in my hand. Which again, will take 2-4 weeks.

So for the most part it was good news... And then my landlord called to let me know the cheque bounced. Decisions decisions... If I pay my rent off this week then I will have absolutely no money left over. And I do have other bills to pay... some that are at least a month behind. Or my cell phone that is on a cap and will be cut off. Or hey how about groceries. So I'm not sure I really want to go that route... especially since I am not sure when I'll be getting the money back. But that waiting for money is the reason that I really want to get my rent paid off. The longer I leave it the worse I'll be... and having a roof over your head is kind of important. But since my rent is now late does it really matter? For once living in a ghetto building is actually a good thing. Decisions decisions... Or maybe I should just start playing the lottery. I think my odds of winning are about the same as me not defaulting on my loan.