Link Financial Outsourcing - Student Loans debt pre-1998

[Katybintjas]

I assume I should also send it recorded delivery??..

[42man]

Yes...do send it recorded, so that you can give proof to the OFT if they continue to harrass you...

[Katybintjas]

Thank you.

Do I write my address on the letter or leave it - I mean the address the sent the original letter to me at? Surely the reference number is sufficient as they already have an address?

(I just want them to have as little information as possible)

[phil_nottingham]

I would put your address on it (the one they wrote to)

[Katybintjas]

I just saw that message after I posted it and did not put the address in the end. the house number and post code are on the recorded delivery paper to them though. Hope that will not cause a problem.

[Katybintjas]

Hi, I have been looking into this a bit more and this Link seem to have bought about 40,000 of these pre-1998 loans from some other agency that they were sold onto in the chaos of switching from SLC. What I am wondering is this, the more I look at this, the more I see this "statute barred" being used as the legality behind Link not being able to pursue loans. Are pre-1998 loans covered by Statute barred - as in is this made clear anywhere and if it is then surely that is the case many people must be using? If Link is aware of this law then does that mean that as soon as they are quoted this - provided there has been no contact for 6 years (5 years) then they can not really do anything?

I was just thinking that if this is the case then this should surely be made more public as there must be a large number of people actually being contacted in a manner that is simply just not legal?

Just some thoughts..

[cerberusalert]

Are pre-1998 loans covered by Statute barred

Yes, they are the 'old style' student loan.

If Link is aware of this law then does that mean that as soon as they are quoted this - provided there has been no contact for 6 years (5 years) then they can not really do anything?

See http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/oft664.pdf towards the bottom.

[Katybintjas]

Yesterday I sent the statute barred letter and about 10 minutes ago I received the following call.

It registered as "international" - and may have been from an outsourced call centre due to the guy's accent.

He asked for Ms Xx - using a title that could have been relevant to 4 people in the household. I asked who it was without confirming anything and he said: "this is the debt officer from Manchester, do you have any debts?"

I replied by saying "no" and nothing else and he hung up. Anyone else had this, is this more outsourcing by Link? It is all very well with me answering but this looks like it could become a regular problem and it just seems very suspicious and highly unprofessional to not identify a company and then just hang up. Is a debt officer someone that Link go to next to threaten people with?

If they receive the Statute barred letter I sent yesterday will that be enough to stop the calls?

Has anyone else had this particular problem?

[42man]

Have you checked to see if your letter had arrived ? And the only way I would speak to them is by recording the call !! Note down the dates and times they call..

[Katybintjas]

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Edited June 19, 2010 by Katybintjas

[MrHat]

What was the outcome here please?