Ah. I did another search and found the decision online https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN-4141462.pdf Erudio - stopped sending email deferments won at FOS DRN-4141462.pdf

Just did another search but doesn’t look like the decision is online still. Don’t know why it’s taking so long. Happy to help with info if I can otherwise. I have the full decision as a pdf I can share somewhere? I just need to edit it to remove personal details Just by the by, Erudio have accepted the decision and the loan went back into deferment but they are still playing games with me by pretending that their system cannot update my account and put it back into deferment so that I keep getting threatening letters. That’s a whole other thing but my account will be aged out this year so just biding my time til October. Anyway, let me know how I can help.

Just wanted to finalise this story by sharing that I’ve had my complaint to FOS upheld. It’s been an anxiety and anger fuelled time but worth it to win against this disgusting company. Initially it was not upheld because they stated it was my responsibility to update my address and Erudio did nothing wrong. But I added further comment and referred them to similar decisions where complaints had been upheld. The crucial element was that Erudio stopped sending deferment email reminders in 2021 and all those people who hadn’t updated their addresses did not remember to defer because everything was sent by post. FOS basically said that Erudio could and should have done more to contact me once the account went into arrears. They had my email address and phone number but didn’t use it. They stated that it is standard industry practice to trace a new address for people which they obviously didn’t attempt. Funny that once it was with Capquest, the phone calls were plentiful. Anyway, the decision hasn’t been published online yet but once there’s a link I’ll post it on this group. I realise we’ve only got another year or so for these particular loans but I hope I can help someone else by posting here.

Hi, I’ve scanned through your posts and have been through a very similar situation with Erudio and have just had my complaint upheld by FOS after almost a year of back and forth and great stress. I don’t know where you are with this now as I don’t have time to look through all of your posts but wanted to share some info in case it helps you or somebody else. Are you still able to provide further information to the ombudsman for the final decision? as I could possibly help with some information on previously upheld decisions. The FOS should now be fully aware that Erudio changed their processes in 2021 and no longer emailed the deferment reminder, causing many people who hadn’t updated their addresses to miss the deferment window. They claim they sent texts with a link to a reminder but a lot of peoplereporting that they either didn’t receive text or the link didn’t work. FOS are upholding complaints on the basis that Erudio made no effort to contact people by any other method after deferments were missed and accounts went into arrears. These are people who have successfully deferred for 20+ years and FOS state that it is standard industry practice to try and find people’s new addresses in order to make contact. it is clear that Erudio chose to change their processes in 2021 to catch people out and of course it is in their interest not to make any effort to find these people. The only contact you eventually receive is once the debt has been passed on to DCA. I can refer you to a couple of decisions where people either didn’t change their address or Erudio claim not to have received the change of address. The key thing is though that FOS are upholding complaints mainly because they feel Erudio could have done more to contact people once the situation became serious enough to go to DCA. Especially if that person had been successfully deferring for decades. It is also worth pointing out that FOS don’t necessarily look at other decisions when considering your complaint and I’ve had to refer them to previously upheld complaints where the situation was remarkably similar. In fact, my first attempt at a complaint was not upheld but I appealed citing another FOS decision where the complaint was upheld. It then went back to the case handler who upheld it. Erudio appealed but it was upheld again. Erudio appealed again and then it went to ombudsman for final decision and they have upheld it again. I wish there was a way to tell everyone dealing with Erudio that they need to fight it. I almost gave up several times because it was so anxiety inducing. if this is too late for you, and I hope it isn’t, please bear in mind that you can always make an offer to pay off a percentage of the final balance to clear the debt. I’m sure there are people on here who would advise against this but I understand they are accepting as little as 15% of the balance (I was considering offering 10% at one point just to get it out of my hair as I did not want to leave a debt hanging over me). Like I say I only considered this due to my anxiety but my conscience just couldn’t allow it in the end as I’m just so disgusted with how this company operates. My relative was willing to pay 10% to clear the debt but if they did not accept the offer then they would get £1 per month for the rest of my life. I will update my original post about this once the decision has been published. Oh I also got some compensation because of Erudio’s call handler’s disgusting phone manner. They tried to convince me that I hadn’t done things correctly because I had just had a baby at the time and probably had baby brain and misremembered my actions. Incredible.

I know they’ve always been terrible and I’ve found them utterly disgusting to deal with, I was referring on this occasion to how they decided to communicate with people in 2020. Prior to this, and for a number of years, they sent deferment reminders by email, in 2020, they only sent by post. I would think in an attempt to catch out people who hadn’t updated their address with them. Seemingly as this person did in this FO decision. I have read the thread before that you linked to, after reading that and looking further into it I was reluctant to take my complaint to FOS but after reading this latest decision from October 2022, I thought I might in fact take my complaint to them. I thought others who have been reading threads on this website might also find it helpful/hopeful if they are in a similar situation which is why I posted it. I’m glad this person was successful as a result of this website. It’s been very helpful, thank you. ,

Hi, Erudio appear to have changed their processes for deferment in order to catch people out and are looking for any small offence in order to make student loans immediately payable. This appears to be happening especially to those who have loans from 1990-1998. I recently found a financial ombudsman decision which might help others who are currently fighting similar problems. https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN-3629000.pdf

Hi there. I finally have a response from Erudio regarding my complaint about this. I included scans of my completed deferment forms for this year and last year but they are saying they won’t accept them and that the debt is now with Capquest. I had a missed call from Capquest this evening (ignored it and blocked the number). They want me to set up a payment plan. Erudio say this is their final correspondence on the matter. I know not to engage with Capquest thanks to your advice but I wonder what your advice is for next steps with Erudio. Is this when I go to the financial ombudsman? Thanks so much.

Thank you. You’re an excellent and wonderful person. I’ll update this as things happen. I’m so glad I found you.

Thank you. So far I’ve maintained that I did defer and I have copies of all my deferments at least back to 2011. I’ve only missed this one year.

Thank you. I took out student loans in 96-98 with the student loans company. I’ve been deferring ever since as I’ve always been under the earning threshold. This was changed to Erudio at some point but I never really took much notice of it. Only now am I finding out what an awful awful thing this was, I wish I had questioned it at the time. Today I received 3 notices of sums of arrears. I was completely shocked but also certain this was a mistake as I was sure I had deferred last year. As it turns out, it’s entirely possible that I didn’t defer but I cannot be sure because I am now locked out of my online account. they have already given my loans to Capquest although they have not notified me of this at all and I’ve received no communication from Capquest. I called Erudio, because of course, I thought this was definitely a mistake. The first person, abrupt and rude and said they couldn’t talk to me and I had to phone Capquest. I phone Capquest, holding for 30 mins before they tell me I can’t hold any longer and they’ll get the loans specialist to call me. Nothing so far. So I called Erudio back to hopefully get more information from a more helpful person. Went through it all with her. She said they have no record of a deferment for last year. My account was terminated in November 2021 and it was passed to Capquest on 6 June 22 (with no notice to me obviously). It’s hard to be too brief with this but I’ll try. I moved back to the U.K. in June 2020, I was 5 months pregnant. I was in temporary accommodation until September 2021 when I finally got social housing. At this point my baby was just about to turn 1. So it had been a reasonably stressful time with pandemic pregnancy and being a single mother. I finally thought to update my postal address with Erudio on Feb 22 (apparently, again I can’t check this as I’m locked out of the account). My email and phone number have remained the same this whole time. Even when overseas I was on my U.K. phone number. Erudio say that they sent everything to me by post, notice to defer etc to my old overseas address. I had a redirection set up but nothing came through obviously. But I cannot prove not receiving letters and they say, of course, that’s it my responsibility to keep on top of the account. I can accept that to a degree, but man, the last 2 years have been TOUGH and though I’ve coped pretty well, if this is the only ball I’ve dropped then I’m actually amazed. Unfortunately, it’s most definitely the most expensive and traumatic one. At the same time, I feel like Erudio had ample opportunity to contact me to let me know the account was ‘in arrears’ and according to CAB website, they should have notified me before passing it to Capquest anyway. At this point, they have admitted they have had my current address for 4-5 months. I had been expecting to receive a deferment notice for this year but instead I apparently have a £9000 debt and a loan default. Last year I was still on maternity leave so definitely ok to defer, this year I am on universal credit with only sporadic work available due to lack of available childcare. this has knocked me for 6 today and having done some googling, I’m finding similar stories. Especially amongst people who are very close to their loans being written off. Also on this website I discovered that Erudio and Capquest are effectively the same company, which was eye opening. I hope that’s enough and not too much information. I just want Erudio to take back the loan and let me have my deferments. It’s highly unlikely that I’ll be earning above the threshold before the loans reach 25 years. But if I can’t prove that I applied for one last year, what can I even do about it? I’ve already emailed the complaints@ email but not sure wher to go with this. Thanks so much for this website. Fingers crossed you may have some advice for me. I feel awful.