Moved Abroad: Student Loan Problems

[Sliemawarrior]

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

[BenjiBoo]

I've been waiting months for the reply to this post. I'm in the exact same situation (pre 98 and all) and I'm wondering how to proceed. Because of them hassling extended family, who I've not seen for years, I'm getting all types of grief and I want this to stop.

 

I sent a letter (with the official form) to the SLC some 6 months ago stating I was moving abroad without a job and they just kept taking money from my UK account so I cancelled the direct debit. I'm a bit miffed that I now have to make an international call to sort this out. Is there any way to deal with this via e-mail does anybody know?

 

The incompetence that I've endure with these clowns is beyond the joke. Not only did they start taking money from my account while I was still a student way back when, they decided they could only repay the most recent 3 payments.

 

Very angry.

[Sol]

1. I would contact Collections, as it's likely that's the dept. that'll be dealing with your account to confirm addresses, phone numbers etc.

 

2. The last I knew, their charges were £20, so you could request a refund of these charges, unless they can prove the cost is actually £20 to them.

 

3. If you are under the threshold, you can always defer, even it means you never repay the balance. It's written off when you're 65.