Hi, Thanks for this. I have been paying the loan off up to last year, so have been in regular contact and I have been in contact this year. Really, I just want to see my account file to see the charges and notes etc as I believe it will be a mess. So I just send a Subject Access File and they have to respond in 30 days. It is pre 98, can they not send debt collectors around? Is there anyway under the Data Protection Act I can stop them contact previous contacts or sending items of my account to addresses I have not given them.

Hi, I am in a similar situation although mine are more recent. I have loans from 97, 98, 99 & 00. I have moved abroad this year but have always kept SLC in the loop although admittedly I stopped my Direct Debit as I could not afford the payment and did not have a permanent address. I did however give them an email address and mobile phone number to contact me. I wrote a letter explaining all of the above in Jan and had no contact from SLC, it sat on someones desk with no one doing anything. I then receive a call after being traced demanding payment. I believe I have incurred trace fees, despite all my details at the SLC. I have filled in a deferrment form but they are only back dating to June and not Jan. I am worried they might be able to get the local debt collectors as well. I also believe my account has been overcharged with charges for letters, arrears etc. Is the process to send these two letters off to SLC as the first step? I am not above the minimum threshold. Cheers S

Hi All, I have been reading through the various threads with great interest. I have started a new thread, hope that was the correct thing to do and I apologise if I am going over old ground. My situation briefly is that I first took out a Student Loan in 97, so I am Pre 98, although I have a couple the following years of 98,99 & 00. I have been repaying them over the last few years. However, I have moved abroad and now my circumstances have changed. I phoned up and spoke to SLC to confirm I had no permanent address and due to a fall out with my family I would not want any correspondance going to this address. Although I did not leave an address to forward to I left an email address to receive written communication and a mobile phone number. I did not hear anything for five months and then I recieved a trace call demanding payment. They have had a permanent address for the last few months as I now have one. It would seem that they had received my letter and it had been sitting on someones desk but nothing had been done, so I received no reply. I have since filled in my relevant forms and sent off my documentation which they have received but they have back dated only to May and not to January leaving me with arrears. I have three questions: 1. If I dont want them contacting people that I previously had as my contacts, or them tracing me through other people even though they have my details....is there anything I can do to stop them. My letters seem to be getting posted to several places without my consent, my father in law even got one the other day, most embarrassing. Surely, sending my details to any address given to them is not allowed? 2. I believe that I am probably getting hit with charges and reading through the forum it would be highly likely I am being stung for hidden charges. Can you advise the procedure I should follow. 3. The salaries where I live are considerably lower then the UK threshold, can I just defer each year? Will it be written off ever? Appreciate any advise dealing with these people. S PS I clicked the Smith Lawson Company was SLC, because they attached all their correspondance underneath on the email