Link Financial Student Loan Debt

[willofthepeople]

Hi All,

 

Firstly, I would implore any other first-time posters to write any lengthy posts like these in a separate program and copy paste, as I just spent ages writing this, only to lose it all when I hit “Preview Post” as I had been logged out!!! :mad2:

 

You never know, maybe this version is more concise!:

 

 

Been reading this site quite a lot recently due to recent contact with Link. The sheer size and number of threads is a little overwhelming - especially for a "forum novice"!

 

I'm after a little advice on my situation, so here's the rundown:

 

1995/96, 1996/97, 1997/98 - I took out three student loans.

 

1998, 1999 - I deferred payment.

 

After this, things get a bit hazy (it was a long time ago!), suffice to say that I lost contact/failed to defer (between 1998 and 2007, I lived at 13 addresses!).

 

Sometime in 2002 I was contacted by the "Student Loans Company" (I presume by this point, this was actually "Thesis"?).

They said I had defaulted on the loan (a sum of about £4,400), and that interest had been frozen, but that I had to start making payments. As I was on benefits at the time, I set up a DD for £5/month.

 

After this, I must admit, I just forgot about it, and the £5/month has been going out ever since.

 

Last month, I took a call on my mobile that turned out to be from Link Financial.

 

They asserted that I now owed them payment in full, as I had failed to pay off the balance within 60 months. They also stated that the balance was now about £5,600 (not exact figures, I don't have the paperwork to hand) due to interest and charges (I didn't think you could accrue interest on a defaulted loan?)

 

As I had no idea of Link's DCA pedigree, I started off trying to come to some arrangement with them, saying that I would like to arrange to increase my payments and come to some payment plan agreement. This is when all the usual harassment tactics came into play, such as threatening "Bailiffs", "House attachment", "Criminal proceedings", etc. if I did not pay in full.

 

This is when I started doing some internet research on my rights in general, and realised they had no grounds to make these threats. The last contact I had with them, just before I started reading these forums, I told them I may be in a position to pay a lump sum of £1000 when my next invoice was paid. This was mainly to get them off my back for a bit. I am possibly in a better situation than most, in that I could find the money and have done with it (though £5.5K is a lot of money in anyone’s eyes), though that hasn’t made me feel any less stressed about the situation, and makes me really angry when I think of all those who are in much worse positions and have to deal with these heavy-handed thugs.

 

The long and the short of it is that I took the credit in the first place, and do not feel that I should be exempt from repayment. But I have endured 6 years of CCJ’s and bad credit in the past, due to my complete financial ignorance around my student days, and I would rather not go back there.

 

Ideally, I would like to come to an agreed (greatly reduced) sum that I can pay off in full, and walk away knowing that the debt is settled (especially as I balk at the “interest and charges” that they say have accrued).

 

Any advice on how to move forward?

[willofthepeople]

I spoke on the phone with Link today, and they said the following:

 

"it's a government owned loan, the actual debt is owned by finance for higher education, and we're servicing the loan on their behalf, and they're requesting that you pay the full balance. Any repayments offered are not acceptable, it's only the full amount."

 

(A repayment schedule offer) "..will be declined, on the basis they want the full balance repaid"

 

"It will go to the manager if you can't pay the full balance, and they will make a decision on the next course of action on the account."

 

I then asserted that if they took this to civil court, the court would decide what were reasonable repayments for me to make. The response being:

 

"but that's not always the case, obviously if it was always the case, then we wouldn't bother issuing court proceedings against people. Obviously it is entirely up to the court what action they would take against you, if we were to go down that route, but obviously legal charges would be applied to your balance also, making it more costly for yourself…"

 

A few questions:

 

• Is it true that finance for higher education still own this debt? I thought they sold the loans to Thesis in 1999?
  
• Can interest and charges be applied to an account after it has defaulted?
  
• Is it reasonable to demand £5,500 in full, with (apparently) no room for discussion, and without having provided a statement of any kind (which they say I have to request in writing, enclosing a fee of £1 per year of statement requested)?
  

[ashmk]

Link are full of sh*t! Don't trust a word they say and wait for some top notch advice here.

Someone who knows more about your circumstances will be along soon to advise you.

In the mean time stop talking to Link on the phone. If they call you just tell them everything in writing. Link are professional liars and will tell you anything to get you to pay.

[cerberusalert]

If there is a clear period of six years (five in Scotland) where you have made no payment, deferrals or written acknowledgement of these SLs then they are Statute Barred and no enforcement action can be taken.

[cerberusalert]

BTW... to stop the site timing you out and automatically logging you out... tick the 'remember me' box when you first log in.

[willofthepeople]

BTW... to stop the site timing you out and automatically logging you out... tick the 'remember me' box when you first log in.

 

Yes, I did that, but it logged me out anyway...?! I'm over it now though

[willofthepeople]

If there is a clear period of six years (five in Scotland) where you have made no payment, deferrals or written acknowledgement of these SLs then they are statute barred and no enforcement action can be taken.

 

Unfortunately, I had been making the £5/month DD's ever since the default date...

Edited October 4, 2010 by willofthepeople
wrong quote

[cerberusalert]

Was there any continuous period of six years where you didn't make payment, deferment or acknowledgement on any of the loans? If so any payments afterwards doesn't affect its Statute Barred status... nothing can unbar a debt once it has reached becoming Statute Barred.

[willofthepeople]

No, I believe that the last time I deferred payment was in 1999, and then started making the £5/month payments in 2002, until the present day...

[cerberusalert]

It would be wise to send a SAR to the SLC company to see the status of these a/cs & determine exactly what has been paid. You should also get copies of the agreements but in the meantime send a CCA to the DCA... a lot of these agreements from this period were destroyed.