Student Loans Company - going to court?

[cashme01]

Hi,

I have a moneyclaim order out against Student Loans Company for £246 worth of charges plus interest. I checked on the Moneyclaim website today as their time to put in a defence is running out (up on Sunday) and I see they have entered a defence. Has anyone else had this experience? More to the point, has anyone got charges back from SLC without going to court? I'm hoping that the defence will just be a bluff and there'll be a letter at home waiting for me offering me my money back, but I'm not counting my chickens!!!

Any advice?

[noomill060]

Hi cashme, Im just about to file a claim against Student Loans as well!

Come back and let us know what drivel they have put in their defence, I expect it will be much the same as every other bank. Rubbish.

[cashme01]

Well today I got home and found two letters - one from Student Loans offering me £256 back (the sum of the charges they took but without the 8% interest I'd claimed) plus the return of my subject access fee, and another one from the courts with the particulars of Student Loan's Defence.

I'm a bit annoyed that SLC is offering to settle without the interest at this stage. Earlier on, that's fine, but now it's nearly got to court, I'm not happy about not getting the interest that amounts to around £100.

What do you advise? Am I pushing it to say I won't settle without the interest? I mean, I'd rather not go to court for the sake of a mere £100. It's more the principle. I don't really know where I stand with the 8% statutory interest anyway. I've been told you can only claim this when you actually enter a court claim, not before. In that case, if I settle out of court, then I can't really claim the interest anyway?

What's anyone's advice?

[noomill060]

Hi cashme,

I'm fairly certain, in fact I know that the 8% is for cases where there is no other interest rate stated in the contract.

As Im sure you probably realise, you only get charged the rate of inflation for your Student Loan, so its only around 2.6% at the moment and hasnt been much higher since student loans have been around, so the SLC would have a good chance of fighting your claim of 8%.

Are they also offering to pay your court costs as well, or is their offer just for the return of charges?

What do they say in defence?

[noomill060]

In advice, I would write back and say you will accept the £256 + court fees and postage + the £10 Subject Access Request fee, and see if they bite.

[nattydred]

Hi,

Well done!!

I have approx £170 of charges applied to my account and approx £50 left oustanding on the total balance.

I have repeatedly disputed the charges as being unfair and excessive with a number of them that I can prove are completely unfounded.

I recently wrote again to SLC explaining (without prejudice) that I would pay off the balance immeditately but was not prepared to pay all teh charges on the basis that they were excessive, unfair and that some were simply wrong. I suggested to SLC that rather than mess around with CC proceedings that I was prepared to pay £1.50 per letter (as being fair given ther automated nature) for each of the 12 letters sent out in order to draw a line under the entire thing.

Not surprisingly they refused this offer.

As the charges have have been applied but I have not yet paid them, I was wondering how I should best go about proceeding?

I am minded to simply write back having paid off the balance and tell SLC that having made them a fair offer that they have refused, they should start proceedings to recover the disputed charges as I am more than happy to defend the matter in court.

What do you think?

What argument did you emply to get have your charges quashed and had you already paid them?

Thanks.

N

[SL56]

Originally Posted by nattydred

Hi,

Well done!!

I have approx £170 of charges applied to my account and approx £50 left oustanding on the total balance.

I have repeatedly disputed the charges as being unfair and excessive with a number of them that I can prove are completely unfounded.

I recently wrote again to SLC explaining (without prejudice) that I would pay off the balance immeditately but was not prepared to pay all teh charges on the basis that they were excessive, unfair and that some were simply wrong. I suggested to SLC that rather than mess around with CC proceedings that I was prepared to pay £1.50 per letter (as being fair given ther automated nature) for each of the 12 letters sent out in order to draw a line under the entire thing.

Not surprisingly they refused this offer.

As the charges have have been applied but I have not yet paid them, I was wondering how I should best go about proceeding?

I am minded to simply write back having paid off the balance and tell SLC that having made them a fair offer that they have refused, they should start proceedings to recover the disputed charges as I am more than happy to defend the matter in court.

What do you think?

What argument did you emply to get have your charges quashed and had you already paid them?

Thanks.

N

I'm in the same position there m8 and theyve just slammed another £52.22 on me saying I have till 02/04/07 to pay or it goes up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do??? I dont know whether to pay them and then take them to court or just not pay them?!?!?

If I simply dont pay will it affect my credit rating? I suspect it will??!!?!?!

[Erica_The_Penguin]

SLC and credit ratings. Any loans with the SLC are not reported to credit reference agencies, they don't appear as an entry on your credit file, nor will any defaults with them.

[Gooders]

Erica,

Where did you get that info from as I am waiting for my credit report and expected a rather disparaging report from the good old SLC/Honours (who bough my original agreement)??

Gooders

PS check my threads aafter 8 April if you want a good laugh!!!!

[noomill060]

Took SLC to Court, they caved in and made an offer of settlement today.

noomill v Student Loan Company

[mpul]

just to clear things up slc and hlc will not effect your credit report at any time but when it enters into 6 months arrears it is passed to a third party debt collections agency and will effect you in the normal way as any other loan