Excellent, thank you. I assume I am quite within my right to refuse to discuss this over the phone?

I don't want that nasty woman calling me every single day again but I can't pay it for a while. If last time is anything to go by, she won't take no for an answer, refuses to enter into any arrangements of paying in instalments and demands I pay the full amount immediately. This is why I refuse to speak to her. Is there anything I can do to request written correspondence only? Is it better to just ignore them completely?

Well, the front is almost but not fully legible. However, they have attached a proper printed copy of the page with the Ts&Cs (ie not a photocopy) as the CCA is completely illegible on these pages. Does it matter legally that they didn't reply within the 12 days allowed on the request letter?

PS. I stopped all payments whilst this was under investigation so still owe them £265, apparently.

Well, an update on my situation. I sent LINK a CCA request letter on 22 October 2010. The 12 working days limit for supplying the information came and went and I heard nothing from them, not even so much as an acknowledgement of my letter. That is, until now. In a letter dated 27 January (received a couple of days ago), they enclosed a statement from SLC from 1998-2009 (note my first loan was taken out 11/11/92 so some 6 years are missing) and a statement from LINK from 2008-2010. They also enclosed (very fuzzy) photocopies of my original loan agreements with my signature and my writing on the date. The letter says this (terrible grammar): In accordance with your section 77 request, we apologise for the delay in responding to your request this has been due to the delay in receiving the required documents. As requested please find enclosed a copy of each properly executed loan agreement that you entered into with the Student Loans Company (SLC) and a copy of your annual statement as issued by SLC. Also enclosed is a copy of your financial history since your account has been serviced by Link Financial Outsourcing Ltd. Then a contact details paragraph etc. At no point did they even acknowledge my CCA request, just ignored it and then this is the first I've heard from them in 15 weeks. That's a lot longer than 12 working days. They also didn't request I send them a payment, or make any arrangement to pay. I have just received a phonecall, on both my mobile and my landline, from LINK. I immediately recognised the woman and pretended to be someone else, so I haven't spoken to them. I don't want to speak to them either given how downright nasty they are but if the last time is anything to go by, they will resume harassing me on a daily basis now. Where do I stand? Given that they took almost 4 months to respond to my CCA request? Thanks!

Thank you, what a quick response! I'm pretty sure there was never a full six years without correspondence. I told them I'd be requesting a copy of all the information they held on me via the Freedom of Information Act and they said there'd be a £10 fee. I decided I'd rather keep my tenner so have been ignorning them but now I know about it, I'll send in the CCA request. If mine has been destroyed, does that mean I could've got away without paying them all these years?! And on the off chance they decided to go the CCJ route, what are the timescales involved? If I've paid it before the court date, will it still go ahead?

I took out two student loans in 1992 & 1993. I deferred them for a number of years and in 2000 I moved house and forgot all about it. They eventually caught up with me by letter in about 2004ish and I called them and negotiated a repayment of £70/month. When the debt got sold to Thesis there was a period where I didn't pay them anything due to a lack of provision of details of how to pay on their part, but I did resume payments eventually. Last year the debt got passed on again, this time to FFHE, and once again I was told to change my standing order details. The details are hazy but I recall speaking to someone from FFHE last year, the standing order form they were going to send me never arrived and there was a brief delay where no payments were made. I started paying FFHE £70/month in July this year. There was only around £500 left so I was due to make a final payment in February 2011. I’ve been happily repaying this for several years albeit with a couple of brief interludes when they passed on the debt and changed their payment details. So I was naturally astonished and furious to receive a phone call two weeks ago from LINK, saying I was in breach of the agreement (because I spoke to someone in May but they didn’t receive a payment till July) and demanding immediate payment of the outstanding balance of around £260. They have contacted me several times since, threatening me with bailiffs and/or court action to recover the debt if I refuse to pay it now, in full. Continuing with my £70/month for the next 4 months is not an option. The woman from LINK suggested I seek advice from a solicitor. I haven’t received any correspondence whatsoever from them since May when I spoke to them to sort out the remaining payments and change the standing order details. Yet they say they’ve been trying to contact me. Well they can’t have been trying very hard – no letters, no phone calls, nothing. I would like to know: How can a debt I have been willingly repaying regularly have been passed to a DCA? Is it binding if I haven’t signed anything? How can I be in breach of an agreement I wasn’t aware of making? Are they not in breach of the Data Protection Act, since I never authorised my details to be sold/passed on? Can they issue a CCJ? How long would it take for them to get bailiffs or take me to court? Would it be before February? How can they suddenly demand this out of the blue with absolutely no prior correspondence when I’ve been paying? Will this affect my credit rating? My intention is to ignore them and just carry on paying the £70 until it’s paid off in February. Surely any court would throw it out as a complete waste of time to pursue a debt that’s almost honoured and where there is hard evidence that it’s regularly being repaid in substantial amounts? I’d just like to know where I stand legally and what I should do next time she calls, which I know won’t be long. She’s calling my mobile and home number. I could understand (a bit) if I wasn’t paying them anything but I am. Is this not harassment?