Student Loan Company - general

[noomill060]

Dont think you are able to claim trace fees back, just the £20 for each arrears letter and the interest levied on on them.

[Gooders]

noomill060,

I think there would be an agruement for claiming this charge back if as tobciocc says

I also notice that they've made a charge for trace fees when they had lost my change of address form

However, that said there would need to be proof.....yet again send everything recorded its worth it!!!!!!

Wish I had done the same!

Gooders

[CAGisforME]

Just adding my voice to this.

Please Mods make this thread sticky!!

I've started my own thread about my battle with SLC (just started) and will keep you all posted on how I get on.

[emmaf01]

I just wish the SLC, when they send the info requested in your Subject Access Request, didn't show how useless and incoherant their systems and the info they provide is.

And that the CCA that wasn't signed 2 weeks ago now appears to be signed- maybe its a different CCA?!!

[mlphw]

Originally Posted by The_Badger

Hi Mlphw,

The address I sent stuff to was the Glasgow address for most of the letters - I just used the data controllers address for my Subject Access Request to get the information out of them on my account etc
The Data Controller is the named person under law who must be responsible for the implementation of the Data Protection Act in each company/institution.

So I figured that I might as well go to the organ grinder not the monkey as it where.

For the general letters (like the initial request for payment and then the Letter Before Action) you can use either but I tend to use the Glasgow address anyway.

The Badger

Sorry to be annoying as I know I have asked this elsewhere but am desperate for an answer as I want to get my MCOL submitted against SLC. With the main address being in Scotland does anyone know what I can do ? Is it ok to use the Bristol one ?

Thanks

[The_Badger]

Suggested template for particulars of Court claim.

This is for a none MCOL court claim (i.e. direct with my local court).

Note that this is slightly different from the standard bank claim as its a loan account so the charges are added to the amount owed rather than taken from you directly so the wording is slightly tweaked.

Para 1. I only have one remaining account with the SLC so my wording is for that - for those of you with one you'll have to tweak the wording slightly to cover them all. There should be no reason why you don't chunk them all together anyway since SLC do on their letters.

Para 5: because the SLC's main office is in Scotland the county court in England will have to consider where the case can be heard (Scotland has a different basis for law) but since we started joining all the EEC institutions the UK had to come up with a way of allowing cross boarder legal disputes to sort this out - for civil law (i.e. not criminal) that is the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgements Act 1982 as amended.

The county court will tell you they can't guarantee service as the SLC address is outside their jurisdiction. You can agree to serve the claim against SLC yourself - they issue the claim and then you get two of the copies of the claim form back. One you send to SLC (first class recorded) and the other is for your records.
You then write a letter to the court to confirm the date and time the claim was served (you get this by phoning the royal mail recorded number on the back of the orange recorded delivery slip and quoting the reference number).
Thats why you need part b of para 5.
Some courts will just send it anyway - mine did.

Alternatively you could just use the SLC's address in Bristol (the one for their data controller) but I'm not sure how that would play out in court.


This is only a suggested template as I am not legally qualified so any changes you want to make are up to you.
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1. The Claimant has a [ or number of accounts] student loan account [s] numbered ########### ("the Account") with the Defendant which was opened on or around ##/##/199#.

2. During the period in which the Account has been operating the Defendant applied numerous charges to the Account in respect of purported breaches of contract on the part of the Claimant and also charged interest on the charges once applied. The Claimant understands that the Defendant contends that the charges were applied in accordance with the terms of the contract between itself and the Claimant.

3. The Claimant contends that:
a) The charges applied to the Account are punitive in nature; are not a genuine pre-estimate of cost incurred by the Defendant; exceed any alleged actual loss to the Defendant in respect of any breaches of contract on the part of the Claimant; and are not intended to represent or related to any alleged actual loss, but instead unduly enrich the Defendant which exercises the contractual term in respect of such charges with a view to profit.
b) The contractual provision that permits the Defendant to levy such charges is unenforceable by virtue of the Unfair Contract Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations (1999), the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and the common law.

4. Accordingly the Claimant claims:
a) the return of the amounts applied in respect of charges and interest taken on those charges in the sum of £###.##
b) Court costs;
c) The claimant claims interest under section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% a year, from the date of each offence to the date this claim is issued in the County Court of £##.## and also interest at the same rate up to the date of judgment or settlement at a daily rate of £#.##

5. With regard to jurisdiction the Claimant contends that:
a) The Claimant is a consumer within the meaning of the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982 as amended. The claimant is domiciled within England and Wales and therefore under the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982 as amended, the ######## [insert name of your local county court where you want the case heard here]County Court accordingly has jurisdiction. No proceedings are pending elsewhere between the parties hereto in respect of the subject matter of this action.
b) The Claimant shall, upon issue of this claim, be able to serve notice of the claim against the defendant by means of a signed for recorded first class postal delivery, and / or service by transmission of the claim via telephone facsimile to the fax number stated on the Defendant’s headed letters.
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[princess jane]

More SLC tomfoolery -

rang up last week to check my outstanding balance as I am paying off arrears (lost deferment forms - usual story).

The half-wit call handler asked me to confirm my address, and when I told him, he said that wasn't what they had listed.

I pointed out to him they had charged me £30 in trace fees to 'find' me at that address, so he better find it in his system very quickly.

All went quiet at the other end and he admitted my NEW address had been replaced with one I haven't lived at for about eight years, and he couldn't explain why.

I made him check no correspondence had been sent to the old address, and told exactly what I thought of his pathetic excuse for an employer.

Good news is I only have about five payments left then all my arrears are cleared, and as I am pre-1998 SLC it will be a long, long time before I am earning enough to pay them another penny.

[Halfangelhalftart]

Here's my story re SLC and any advise would be much appreciated: Sorry it is so long!!

My loans are pre 1998. I deferred upon graduation due to being below the earnings threshold. In 1997 I had to undertake an IVA with my then partner and the IVA co told me I had to put the loan in despite the fact I didn't even have to pay it back yet! In 2000 my partner did a moonlight flit to the States and so defaulted on his part of the IVA - as I result mine was defaulted too and was advised that my debtors would chase me as they saw fit. SLC were the only ones to do so. I was contacted by Logic Plc (as SLC were unable to find me - why they were unable to get my details from the IVA company I have no idea - they were able to find my original referee - a friend I have not seen since 1993!!) I made payments as I'm not against paying debt that is mine.

However I then decided to apply to defer as I was still very much under the threshold but the forms were returned to me! I, rather, foolishing cancelled my standing order at this point assuming that the deferral would be approved. Oops.

In Jan 06 I was sent a letter from Smith Lawson demanding payment. What happened to Logic? I wrote to Smith Lawson asking for confirmation re the deferral. They advised me that I was not eligible for further deferment as my maturity date had expired. Pah

On 20th March 07 I received a letter from SLC advising me that my repayments were scheduled to be paid in full by March 04 and that the outstanding balance needed to be paid. I emailed and sent a letter to both SLC and Smith Lawson advising them that I was paying monthly instalments and had been for several years and was not in a position to pay in full.

30th March I received another letter in the same vein, this time stating that I had 7 days to pay or further action would be taken. So, I calmy emailed and wrote to them again, enlcosing a copy of the my previous letter.

They eventually rang me to ask me to increase my payments. I said that that was not going to happen as i was on maternity leave and was possibly going to give up work to raise my son and so would actually be applying to reduce my payments. I was advised that that was unlikely to be agreed. I said i might be applying for bankcruptcy (I'm not) and they said that I would still have to pay them.

Anyway, I was able to come by some money and so wrote to them offering a reduced settlement figure (I owe £913 and offered £700). They replied saying that as student loans are from public funds then they can not accept partial payment in full settlement.

Knowing from previous threads that they are apt to telling a few white lies - is this true??

Thanks for reading!!

Cara

[noomill060]

hal- how much of the £913 is made of their £20 charges for arrears letters?

[Nurselayer]

My advice Halfangelhalftart would be to firstly to send them a letter stating that you dispute the alleged debt.

Next send a CCA request letter to them with the appropriate fee (£1 per loan). Do this next, you will find templates on this site. They have, by law, to supply you with cpoies of the signed agreements within strict time limits. If they fail to do so then the debt is unrecoverable until such time as they do provide these copies of the agreements, oh and they will have also committed a criminal act.

If they do reply to your CCA request with signed copies of the agreement then send a Subject Access Request letter (again you will find templates on this site). Once you have received these you will be able to reclaim any unlawful charges that they may have charged to your account - hopefully this may bring the true amount that you owe into a figure that you find more manageable.

Do not send the Subject Access Request request first - in my experience the SLC is treating these quite seriously and replying pretty promptly whereas they do not seem to be taking the CCA requests into account despite the penalties for non compliance actually being more severe!

For all other readers of this, please note that the CCA only applies to PRE-98 loans!

[emmaf01]

Hi Nurseslayer- nice to see someone else is awake at ungodly hours!

I wish I had seen the suggested POC above- I just adapted the standard POC for bank charges- do you think that will harm my case- Anyone?

[Halfangelhalftart]

Thanks for that. Would definately be interesting to find out how much is charges. I'm not trying to get out of paying it by any means, but their attitude makes you want to tell them to take a run and jump.

Cara

[emmaf01]

Better to be able to pay a lesser amount- thats what I'm hoping for anyway.

[monkeyhouse]

I currently live in the USA and while I have done so the Student Loans Company have sent letters to me here without any problem. Despite them not taking into account the extra time mail takes to get here, I've not had too much of a problem with them, until now.

The year before last the SLC 'didn't receive' my deferment request in the post but they sent a letter making me aware that deferment hadn't been made, so I faxed it to them and it was sorted out (though not without some of their special fees).

Last year I made the deferment request again, this time by registered mail and never heard anything back from them, so I assumed that everything was OK, if I thought about it. Now I receive a letter from the Student Loans Company saying I owe them nearly £700 as I had not made any payments to them over the last year. I have just received another letter from Smith Lawson & Company now demanding just over £800! I should also state that these last two letters have been forwarded on from my parents home back in the UK, they weren't posted directly to me like the previous correspondence.

So why the hell has my address on file changed?
Why the hell is the amount they want increasing exponentially?
Why the hell did the not get my deferment again?
And where is my deferment form for this year?

Those questions are kind of rhetorical, as I've read all the posts on this thread and realise how devious these guys are. Part of me now wonders if they changed my address to suit their needs, rather than it being a mistake. Changing it will have taken a deliberate action though.

I'll be calling them in the morning. Not sure what I'm going to say, I suppose I'll explain what has happened from my point of view and see what the reaction is. Assuming I wont get anywhere at first, I'll ask for the complaints department. If anyone has anything specific you think I should say, then please let me know, I'll be happy to call them again.

Also, has anyone ever had the SLC call them from Leeds? Evidently they called my parents home a little while ago from a Leeds number (and with a Leeds accent). Do they have regional offices? A new one for me and they never said what they wanted nor did they express it as being urgent or I should contact them. I think from now on it is I who needs to keep tabs on them and my account with them, rather than it being the other way around.

I'd love to be all guns blazing but I feel I'm at a slight disadvantage being over here in the US. Obviously I can't go to court and mail costs more and takes longer to get to the UK, but if I can get out of the charges on phone calls and letters alone, that would be just fine!

Thanks for your time in reading this and any advice would be much appreciated.

[emmaf01]

The rule now, as proved by your experience, is never to send them anything which isn't signed for.

Finding out why they have changed your address, might be an idea to CCA and Subject Access Request them.

State that the account is now in dispute.

I doubt you'll get anywhere on the phone to them, most people rarely do, so a written complaint, perhaps to the executives (listed on the website).

Sorry if this is disjoinhted -screaming three year old!

[DJANGO]

Hello! I'm just on here having a butchers.. I've ended up in a "situation" with student loans.. I took out my first loan in 1993, defered until 2002, when deferment letters did not arrive.. Forgot all about it.. and.. last month a get a letter from a debt colletion agency.. I phoned them, they advised I call SLC, spoke to a chap who said my deferment period had expired??? and I agreed with him to pay £25 per month direct debit.... Last week letter arrives from debt collection agency who are going to start court proceedings on 9/9/8.. I phoned SLC and eventually got passed around to the chap I agreed the repayment plan with and he said.."oh but its gone to an agency, not much I can do".. I argued how could he set up a repayment plan when it was already with the debt agency. I asked him for a copy of the original agreement.. he said he'd have to check if they still had it and that it would cost me?? Needless to say the debt agency were horrid, asked for money each month.. I just wonder if anyone can help me?? Surely they don't expire?? How can the SLC come to an agreement with me and then go back on it?? All help/advise would be greatly appreciated!!...... Oh my first post on this forum!!

Django.