One Ontario man is speaking out after he discovered his high-interest loan, which he\u2019s been paying for the past five years, has barely budged.<\/p>\n
\u201cI called them to get a hold of them to see what the final amount would be on the loan. I figured it was a couple of hundred bucks that it would be it after five years,\u201d said Terry O\u2019Halloran, of Barrie.<\/p>\n
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Terry O\u2019Halloran says he took out a $4,500 loan after running into health issues. <\/p>\n
O\u2019Halloran runs a small engine repair business, and he had health problems five years ago, leading to a leg amputation. <\/p>\n
He explained to CTV News that he needed to get a wheelchair and make modifications to his home, which was why he took out a $4,500 loan, which he was paying back at about $200 per month. <\/p>\n
As he had never missed a payment, O\u2019Halloran thought his loan would be paid off soon, but he admits he did not have the paperwork for the original loan because it was never sent to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I took out the loan, the photocopier was broken, and they said they would send it to me, but they never did,\u201d said O\u2019Halloran. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s when he found out that his loan was a line of credit, first taken with CashMoney, which was later taken over by LendDirect. <\/p>\n
Attain Finance has since acquired LendDirect.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Halloran said he did refinance his loan once but was shocked to find out three-quarters of his payment was going towards interest, and he still owes $3,697.<\/p>\n
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O\u2019Halloran was shocked to discover three-quarters of his payment was going towards interest. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt $4,500, if you do the math, it comes out to close to $10,000 for a $4,500 loan,\u201d O\u2019Halloran said.<\/p>\n
The criminal rate of interest that could be charged before Jan. 1, 2025, was almost 48 per cent. It\u2019s now capped at 35 per cent interest. However, for those who had existing loans before the changes were made, they are still paying the higher amount.<\/p>\n
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foran Changes to the criminal rate of interest have changed since January 1, but doesn’t apply to already-issues loans. <\/p>\n
In O\u2019Halloran\u2019s case, of the $196 paid each month, $147 of his payment is applied towards the interest, and only $50 is paid into the principal balance of the loan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know there is no possible way to pay this thing, as the interest is going to keep adding on,\u201d O\u2019Halloran said.<\/p>\n
CTV News reached out to LendDirect several times via email and telephone, but did not get a response. CTV News also reached out to Attain Finance but did not hear back from the institution.<\/p>\n
According to the Credit Counselling Society, taking out payday loans, high-interest loans, or lines of credit can create a spiral of debt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact is, the interest rate is so high that they are difficult to pay off once you fall into them,\u201d said Mark Kalinowski with the Credit Counselling Society.<\/p>\n
As for O\u2019Halloran, he says he still has to purchase medical supplies and has other bills to pay, and he regrets borrowing the money.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/W3DRZSH23VDMHGEDVBQ673ISKI.jpg\")
Despite making regular payments, O\u2019Halloran still owes $3,697. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf I pay it back, it would probably take me another five years. That\u2019s going to put me at 71-years-old\u201d said O\u2019Halloran, who added, \u201cthat\u2019s why I feel like I already paid this off, and now I\u2019m starting back right where I started again. I really would like to see the loan vanish.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rules cracking down on predatory lending came into effect in 2025, but they don\u2019t apply to pre-existing high-interest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[712,45,49,48],"class_list":["post-699327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-apple-news","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}