Erudio Student Loan Advice Please

[annie19781978]

Hello

 

I've had a very worrying conversation with Erudio and now am very afraid of what lies ahead.

 

My have an old Motrage Style loan.

 

To give you some background, due to some tragic circumstances, I have been a single parent since my little one was born and work 4 days per week. Due to my salary I have Working Tax credits to enable me to pay nursery fees.

 

Due to the top up I recieve from Tax Credits (for childcare) I have been approx 106 per month over the threshold for deferment. This has been the case for approx 18 months.

 

SLC have been very understanding of my situation and agreed to a private agreement of me paying 50 per month.

 

Anyway...today I called to make my monthly installments and have been advised that the debt was sold to Erudio so I would need to call them and make payment. I then called this company for them to scare me sh1tless....I explained my payment plan (which they accepted) but have advsed me that that if I do not pay the arrears on my account (which is just over £2000) then I will lose my right to defer ever again, and will also not be entitled to have the loan cancelled when I reach 50.

 

My long term plan was to defer when my daughter goes to school in September (as i will not receive CTC so will be under the threshold) then pay the arrears each month after that)

 

I cant believe this company has been able to buy the loans, and thus treat people like this.

 

My work are offering Voluntary Redundancy and I am now considering taking this so that I can pay my Student Loan and not get my credit rating trashed.

 

Is anyone else in a similar position, or even know if Eurodia are correct.

 

Thanks In Advance

[annie19781978]

Please excuse the spelling mistakes, I am at work and was typing frantically:oops:

[silverfox1961]

Hi and welcome to CAG

 

Firstly, do not phone Erudio. Deal in writing as they would never say things in a letter that they would say on the phone.

 

This from the Daily Hate

 

Government bodies are also likely to sell more debt in years to come. Last November the Government sold a swathe of student loans with a face value of £900 million for £160 million to Erudio, a company backed by stock market-listed debt collector Arrow Global.

 

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2592434/Debt-collectors-set-cash-consumer-borrowing-spree.html

 

Basically Erudio is a debt collector and being backed by Arrow Global they will say and do stuff that is not quite 'legit' but stays just this side of the law.

 

I think them saying they will block your deferral is tantamount to harassment and as such a formal complaint should be sent.

 

If you do take voluntary redundancy, remember that Erudio paid peanuts for your debt and as such, you could offer them a substantially lower amount that that owed.

[annie19781978]

Thanks for your reply Silverfox, I was not even made aware of this company until today. Never even had a letter.

 

I have just called SLC, and the guy on the end of the phone sounded disgusted with the situation, but advised that Erudio may have found something in the T&Cs that SLC did not use.

 

I really dont want to take Redundancy, as I like my job, but may need to if this company can do this.

 

I will sent them a letter as you mentioned though. Thanks again

[annie19781978]

What I dont get though, is that the the CTC I receive is based upon the fact that the Government deems my Salary not enought to cover me working and being able to afford the childcare. If I had no child, or had a partner, then according to Student Loans I would not be recieving enough income to even pay this back yet. This is madness.

[WarrenBuffet]

Annie, do not believe what either the SLC or Eurido (DCA) tell you. So far as Silverfox has already told you they are telling you utter garbage, your debt will be wiped after 25yrs or 50yrs of age, whichever is sooner .

 

There is a similar thread to yours recently so have a read through a few other threads on this page. But i would tell Eurido that state benefits are not for paying debt and any organisation that tells you otherwise is acting illegally. Be prepared for a fight with this crowd and dig your heels in, if they call you do as advised and tell them to only communicate in writing. If you do feel obliged to pay them monthly? do not let them dictate amount and offer 0.50p per month or £1 and no more. Personally, i wouldn't be paying anything and demanding that they let you defer. Do not fear Eurido, they have bugger all legal powers and you should learn to hate them and treat with the contempt they deserve.

[WarrenBuffet]

Have a look at' Sabby 1978' thread three quarters of the way down .

[silverfox1961]

Have a look at' Sabby 1978' thread three quarters of the way down .

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?421306-Erudio-Student-Loan-Advice-Please&highlight=Sabby+1978

[annie19781978]

Since returning to work from Maternity leave the SLC have always informed me that Child Tax Credits is classed as income and therefore I was not able to defer (unlike shabby1978). Prior to having a child I deferred since leaving uni.

 

You would have expected them to realise that the money I have receved for Child Care is spent on just that. When I originally challenged it with Slc,I was told that the Government made the decision , not them.

[WarrenBuffet]

As i say, SLC are equally as bad as the Debt Collectors they sell your debt/loans onto.

 

Just remember that you operated totally within the contracts you signed upto and they still shafted you by selling on to a DCA. Might they have offered you the chance to pay a lump sum of 1 or 2p in the pound that they sold your debt on for? Im sure many would have offered a lump sum payment higher than the figure Eurido paid for their debt

[annie19781978]

Thanks for all the advice here. I'd love to fight them, as ultimatly I do not want to lose my job just to pay these guys, but unfortunatly I do fear them, and what they could do to my credit rating.

 

I've never been in trouble with a DCA, and it's worrying. I'm trying to not let it. But they have advised that I have 3 months to pay this arrears back and i'm bricking it tbh.

 

Thanks for the support though

[WarrenBuffet]

The court case Friday past, where the chap took a retailer to court over destroying his credit history over a dodgy computer and won means that the rules regarding companies maliciously putting black marks against consumers names are being redrafted as i type. Do not pay arrears, send them a "Account in Dispute" letter and settle in for a fun battle, remember they know that the only tool they currently have available to them is the credit file threat. They will only use this as a last resort as it will get your back up and they will not receive another penny from you. Before this they will lie and attempt to deceive you and extract as much money as they possibly can. I would honestly advise you to tell them to Jog On as regards arrears as you have no signed contract with them ....which is the truth.

 

Hopefully dx will pop along shortly to talk some sense into you.

[Pegasus2112]

Hi annie.

 

I have been trying to find out everything I can about people's experiences of Erudio so far, as I am very suspicious of their motives.

 

They are already trying it on with me- last week they sent me 3 letters saying they didn't have enough information to process my deferment.

 

At the start of the week I had sent them the requested documents but I have ended up sending them again recorded delivery to try to prevent Erudio playing any tricks.

 

It seems wrong that Erudio is now demanding £2000 from you

when the Student Loans Company had an agreement whereby you could repay what you could afford.

 

There is no way you should be giving up your job because of this bunch of sharks.

 

I would advise you to report Erudio to the Financial Conduct Authority,

which from today has new powers to regulate organisations involved in Consumer Credit.

 

Earlier today an ITV news report said that the new regulations have been introduced specifically to

'prevent consumers from getting into unmanageable cycles of debt',

 

so I am sure that the FCA would be very interested in what Erudio is trying to pull off with you.

 

Perhaps you should threaten Erudio with the FCA first, but if they won't play ball then definitely report them.

 

There's an active thread on Money Saving Expert about Erudio,

 

where the current last page (currently page 5 of that discussion) mentions the possibility of reporting them to the FCA.

 

Unfortunately I'm not allowed to post a link to that discussion on here, as I'm a new user to this site,

 

but you should be able to find it if you go to the Money Saving Expert website and search forums for Erudio.

[superjaw]

Hi, thanks for the comments on here. All best luck to the OP.

 

This has really helped me too. I agree that the OP on here should fight them. I have fought debtors in the past, and it is well worth it. The letter threats are all they have. I am a mortgage style loan recipient too.

 

Once qualified as a teacher in '99, I couldn't get a job in my area and moved my whole family to London to find work. This was great till the london allowance (drop in ocean) they paid meant I had to start paying my student loan back early. I mean, if the london allowance was meant to increase my income to a level playing field, how come it then meant that I owed more debt? In effect the london allowance left me worse off. Such is life, but I couldn't pay the SLC the amount they wanted. So I developed some arrears. I had no choice. Children have to be fed and clothed.

 

Now they are threatening all the same things the OP is threatened with. I am going to wite the a 'debt in dispute' letter.

 

The cheek of it. I never signed up to this, would have thought twice about retraining with three kids and pushing 40, if I had. I always considered those arrears to be unfair and ill- gotten.

 

Been paying a pound a month until the sell off, but in the earlier days,(days of Blair politics, pre credit crunch) the SLC were much more aggressive at trying to retrieve more money, and I was subjected to many a nasty call from them too, and had to cough up a lot more then, at least while I was teaching full time. As it is, I still owe more than the orginal loans were, due to interest.

 

I now have health issues regarding mobility,a spinal condition, so I think I have a good case for getting it all written off now, not when I'm 60, which I am in 5 years. There's not really any way I can now do even a menial job such as cleaning. I would not be too proud to do this -I'm not at all a job snob, and I have done cleaning jobs before I retrained. It's good honest graft.

 

The only job I would never do is debt collection.

 

I think it is possibly illegal for Erudio to threaten people with the removal of their age- related loan cancellation.

 

The credit file stuff- well all I can say is that my credit file has been TRULLY appalling for the last six years. Life does go on, despite that. We have moved twice- albeit to rented accommodation - but we were credit checked for both of those. Now, I have one thing left on it to drop off. It's going next month. It would be annoying for this debt to now make an appearance there.

 

However, the recent case on the guy with the computer purchase has set an important precedent for challenging anything on there. Also, it's possible it could be on there but that it could have little effect- because a lot of people are going to have them go on?

 

Because of my health, and because of several difficulties in finding long term work when we moved back up north (we had to move back as despite permanent employment there, because of debt accrued in retraining/ moving, plus the cost of the student loan repayments, we just were not making ends meet) my career plans didn't work out the way I wanted.

 

Such is the way life goes sometimes. I was supposed to work full time for 20 years, and then live on my pension, and so on and so on, happy ever after for everyone, including the SLC.

 

As Martin Lewis points out, Student loans are misnamed, They should be called what they are called in other countries- student contributions.

 

That is to say, the student only pays it back if they can,and they pay back only what they can.

 

Again, love and strength to the OP, and anyone else going though this. I love this forum.

Edited May 16, 2014 by superjaw
typos