Student loans company problem

[physicsgraduate]

Hello everyone

I wondered if someone had some advice on what i should do, the problem is the following.

I was out of the country for nearly two years and suffered a succession of financial problems, work came and went as did accomodation. As a result of all the stress i neglected to contact the Student Loans company about deferment. It is very expensive to call them from Holland.

Well I actually sent them a fax about this time last year explaining my situation and asked them to contact me via email or reply to the fax number, but they didn't, they just kept calling my parents.

Now I am back in the country and i want to sort it out but i worried that it might have gone to the debt collectors. Can anyone tell me what to expect after this time?

CHeers, S

[lookinforinfo]

It may depend on when you were at Uni. as there are two different schemes in place. From what I understand, it is not so much the DCAs you have to
worry about, but the draconian charges that are levied by the Loan company
when you don't keep in touch.


Two phone numbers you might try for advice
Student Financial Advisory Service 029 2041 6170

Student Debt Line 0800 138 1111

[physicsgraduate]

Thanks.

So it's likely i will still be able to at least defer it from now on? I'd like really to have to pay nothing of the charges i will no doubt have incurred throughout the past year, my loan is relatively modest in comparison to some these days as i took one out every year between 1990 and 1994. I've always been late in defering in the past and usually got away with it, not for this long though.

I'll get onto those numbers tomorrow and hopefully I will be able to releive myself of the stress I'm feeling over this.

PG

[lookinforinfo]

I can see why you are a physics graduate and not a graduate of english l
for nowhere did I suggest that you will be able to defer the loan. And I
imagine that there will be charges already applied to your account since you
will have been out of contact for a while [though hopefully they did get your fax even if they didn't respond].

I understand that if you repay the charges that have been applied, you can
then defer your loans again, but I am not certain if that is the case. Should
it be correct, might be an idea to apply for the deferment before the time
expires just this once. Yeah-I know it's a difficult concept...but hey, if it
puts your loan repayment back another year, it has to be worth it.

Another thing you could do is check your credit file with Experian and see
if there is anything on your file there about your Student Loan.

There is some info on here-http://www.slc.co.uk/index.html [look under
loans/repayments] but no mention of what happens when you miss a
deferment date. I believe the death penalty has been abolished though.

[physicsgraduate]

Well I took the brave step of phone the ****s up today and its been passed on to a collector, can't remember the name. The guy I spoke to was not very friendly and kpet winding me up by reminding me of my legal obligations, so we ended up arguing and in the end I hung up telling he is going to get dick all from me. I have about a years backpayment to make and i can still defer the rest which ain't so bad, but I need to negotiate on how much I agree to pay back each month. I have just less than 800 to pay and they weren't having my first offer of 10 quid a month. I'm bleeding signing on at the moment, I can't afford any and really don't see why I should ahve to pay any! Bloody tories scrapping benefits the year i went to university. Anyway I am going to consult the CAB about this. How much can the expect me to pay, I'd say no more than about 50 pound a month which is what i should have been paying. I might also try to persevere in my bluff that i sent them a copy of the form from holland and its not my fault they never received it. Otherwise I think I might declare myself bankrupt because I really can't be bothered with this kind of sh*t I hate these scumbags.

[lookinforinfo]

Can you defer the other years before you have cleared all the £800?
And of that £800, how much of it is made up of charges applied by the Student loan Company and the debt collector. Some of it may be unlawful, and you can get them removed.

[knoxvillain]

I have NCO chasing me on behalf of SLC. Personally if I were you I would send a deferment form in ASAP. This will defer future payments (I assume you're eligible for deferment). I don't believe they will let you defer arrears. So I would phone the DCA and negotiate to pay it back at £x per month.

[physicsgraduate]

So how much out of 800 will they expect me to pay? As far as i know its the total sum of all payments I've missed troughout the past year, I was expecting to have lots of 20 pound letter charges but there are none. I'm still hacked off about it, all i've done the past year is work my ass off and get treated like sh*t by various companies and government who treat me like slaves rob me of my hard earned cash and then at the end of the day i still have some DCA nazis chasing me for money. I'd glady give me degree back to the sh*tty glasgow university physics department in return for a clear debt, old farts. Will look into this anyway. Does anyone know how much time I have to come to an agreement with DCA, I was kind of rude to them on the phone.

[knoxvillain]

My intention is to phone NCO in the new year and offer them £50 a month or something to pay it off over time. I'm trying to save for a wedding at the moment so I don't have the £600 all in one go they are asking for.

[iwannabedebtfree]

knoxvillain dont EVER phone NCO, they are the biggest muppets going, ive recently reported them to trading standards for harassment, only write to them with your financial statement, and ask that they only reply in writing to you, if they do not accept your offer, not much they can do really if they are only working on behalf of SLC.

[knoxvillain]

Fair enough. I'll do that. Letter it is I might stick the "stop f**kin phoning me" letter in with it too. Goodness knows how they got my mobile number but it's annoying. Anyways, don't wanna hijack this chap's thread

[lookinforinfo]

Physicsgraduate, I wouldn't worry about being rude to the DCA-I am sure
they are used to it. In any event, if they are snotty with you, they cannot
expect politeness from you.
The first thing to do is find out how much the SLC have charged you for
being out of touch with them. You can do that by sending them an S.A.R - (Subject Access Request)
along with £10. That will also show if the DLA have charged you, and how much. Send a copy of the S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) to the DCA explaining that you want to find out
what charges have been added before paying, and as you will wish to
dispute certain charges, the account is in dispute until a response is
received and the dispute resolved. With the account in dispute, the DCA
cannot take action against you until the dispute has been settled.

[physicsgraduate]

Thanks for the info. I called them again yesterday and tried to catch them out, farthest i got sadly was that if I refuse to pay my account will be eventually passed onto the legal department. They want me to pay about 65 per month over 12 months, I have offered 10 pound per month. I managed to put of discussing the matter further until 4th january. She said "Ok so we can expect a call on that date to discuss income and expenditure and work something out". I said i was not agreeing to anything and that I would only call them on that date to discuss the matter further. She also said that they were "giving you [me] a year to pay the debt off", so can I assume then that since she has said that I have a year within which to settled the debt thus allowing me time to save the money and try somehow to get it lifted? I also asked about charges and the fact that they are illegal, and she said there was only a ten pound charge for a letter. I will do as you say in the new year and request a subject acces request. I am at liberty to discuss income and expenditure with them, I suppose as I am with regard to the deferment form. It is Smith Lawson and Company that are harassing me BTW, strange that they have the same accronym and the student loans cu***.

[noomill060]

They "charge" £20 a letter.

Ring up and ask if these "charges" are legally enforceable. I did.

The lady I spoke to told me they weren't. (Yes really!)

[noomill060]

SLC is just another part of Student Loans Co.

Student Loans Co is run by the Dept of Education.

Anymore sh*te and write to your MP and the Sec of State for Education c/o the House of Commons.

[noomill060]

Tell them you are recording the conversation.

They love it, especially when you ask about the enforceabillity of their £20 letter charge!

[physicsgraduate]

I just received a letter from SmLC today, a final notification saying.

"
You have failed to respond to our previous request to pay your arrears of 826 pound.

unless you make payment within the NEXT 7 DAYS we hereby give formal notification of our intention to take further action against you for the recovery of all outstanding monies.

Failure to respond to this letter may result in legal proceedings being issued against you.

To avoid this action being taken against you, it is imperative that you contact us upon receipt of this letter to makre arrangements to clear your debt.
"

Now, I called them before Xmas and made an offer they refused. I agreed with the woman on the phone that I would contact them after the new year to discuss the matter further. She noted that they would expect a call from me on the 4th of january. now I didn't call, but i have sent them a letter asking for a copy of my contract and yesterday the 5th I posted an S.A.R.

Now, we agreed on the phone I would call on the 4th, yet although i didn't the letter they sent is dated 29 december. can I take this as harassment?

Anyone got any ideas? Please help. I want to fight them.

they also said they were giving me a year to settle the debt, does that mean I can agree with them to have paid the full amount within a year os must I keep up with their outrageous demands for me to pay them 70 a month. I really can't afford anything at the moment.