Letter of Notice of Intent to Register Default from Thesis

[physicsgraduate 51]

Anyone heard of these guys?

 

Apparently my Student Loan was sold to them without me knowing about it.

 

It's apparently in the terms and agreement they are allowed to do this, I suspect not without informing me though. Just more counter ammo for my case, it's going to be a long battle this one....

 

"You loan formed part of a previous government student loan debt sale to LTF who are the debt owners, however the SLC retain the administration of the collection of the debt on their behalf"

 

"In accordance with th terms of your loan agreements we reserve the right to appoint such agents as we deem neccessary in the collection of outstanding debts, and in this respect Capquest are now dealing with the collection of your outstanding arrears"

[soulcatcher 5]

In 1998, the government sold a tranch of loans to Finance for Higher Education Ltd, a holding company set up purely for the sake of investing in public student loan debt. It seems that your loan was included.

 

Tricity Lombard Finance were appointed to "oversee the administration of the portfolio" for FFHE. They're not debt collectors and they don't own your debt. (But if you get any problems with your loan account, I don't see why you couldn't approach them.)

 

Just to confuse things, FFHE was established (and may well be owned) by NatWest. LTF does not appear to be a company in its own right (it may be a trading name), but is owned by The Royal Bank of Scotland Group.

 

SLC should have told you about the sale in 1998, although I don't know if they're required to. If asked, SLC may say (incorrectly) that the loan was sold to LTF, as this is who they deal with.

 

Hope this helps. If you want any more info, let me know.

 

SC

 

HOWELLS ANNOUNCES RESULT OF STUDENT LOAN DEBT SALE

[HELPLESSVICTIM 1]

Hi Folks,

I'm new to this so please bear with me.

 

I have received a letter today from H L Legal asking me to contact Telogram Ltd.

The letter asks that I contact the telogram contact centre by the 11th of Nov on telephone number 01252 576376 to establish whether the informationour client hols is relevant to yourself and we will then be able to bring this matter to a conclusion.

 

I am aware that some one has taken out to catalogues in my name at least 3 years ago at an address I have never stayed at. I have ignored all previous correspondence, even though they have tried to contact me through relatives.

Should I contact them or ignore it.

 

Thanks

[physicsgraduate 51]

I've been posting here on and off regarding a battle the past year I have been having with the SLC and SmLC.

 

 

My current situation is this.

I am now working and in a position to pay all of it back,

however asides from the fact that I don't want to,

I don't have time to deal with it at the moment.

 

 

I am working abroad and my parents are way too slow at forwarding my mail.

I just managed to defer my loan (not the part I owe them because I forgot to defer for a year)

and now that they know what i am earning they are starting to put the pressure on me again.

 

 

I managed to get away with it until now by requesting a 1974 CCA, they couldn't find legible copies of my documents,

however now they have.

 

 

Only the letter or deferment came along with a letter saying now they are in a position to take legal action,

and my parents left it in the cupboard for two weeks.

 

 

Now I have a letter from SmLC that is more than 7 days old giving me seven days to pay or further action will be taken. What do I do?

 

They are saying something about taking legal action action to recover the full loan,

DOES THAT MEAN THE FULL FULL LOAN, or just the bit I defaulted on.

Can they do that?

 

Secondly, can I take this as harassment?

 

I can afford to pay the full amount they are chasing me for in one go but

I am planning on making an offer to pay back over 6 months, as I have other financial commitments.

 

Should I call them and see if they say they are going to take me to court and catch them out?

Should I call them and say alright you win, I'll be making arangements to pay it back?

 

In any case, there are charges they have added which I know are illegal so I want them removed first.

Is there something I can do there?

 

Oh yeah and they sent a default notice over 2 years ago,

but failed to include a copy in the CCA request.

Is it still valid?

Does this then invalidate their position?

 

BTW I took my loan out in 1900-1994 so I am covered by the CCA 1974.

 

Please help someone, I'm panicking because I am worried they might be going to take me to court for the full whack!

[physicsgraduate 51]

Oh yeah BTW I also sent an SAR request, which failed to produce a copy of the default notice I received over 2 years ago.

[maybelline 140]

i think it depends on whether you have the old style loan or the new ones that replaced them, this will dictate what you can and cannot do, mine for example date from 92 so are old style, not sure when they changed, look at any NUS link or google it and that will tell you.

 

it sounds like you can still negotiate with them over payments, you need to work out what your position is, starting from what type.

[Sirensinger 1]

Hi all

 

Just found the fax no. for these sharks on a letter while trying to work out my own plan of action for a situation like physicsgraduate's - it's 0141 306 2083. Their e-mail is: smith_lawson@slc.co.uk in case it helps anyone.

 

To add my twopennyworth - I also missed a deferment date, because I moved temporarily away from home, informed Student Loans of this - pretty sure I told them it was temp, because my accommodation was for an agreed period until someone else took over the room - however, unfortunately I can't prove this, as I don't remember if it was in a phone call or a letter, and if it was a letter, I can't find it.

 

To cut a long story short, Student Loans sent my next Deferment documents to the temp address, but by that time I was back at my permanent address, and as I was hugely stressed by dealing with countless bank charges cases and general debt, I didn't notice the lack of Deferment forms for a few months.

 

Student Loans finally contacted my mother by telephone, saying I was 'untraceable'. She told them I was at my normal address, and had been for some time, which they said they would note. It took them a while longer to contact me there, and by the time they did, they said I owed them a month's money, because they couldn't backdate the Deferment, and they had added £100! in charges - in total they were asking for £260 - not as bad as poor physicsgraduate's situation, but as I wasn't working at the time, and couldn't sign on, it was stressful enough.

 

Having already learned quite a bit from this site re bank penalties, I'm refusing to pay the added charges on the same grounds, and have also said that if they're admin charges, as they say, they must provide me with a detailed breakdown of how they've been arrived at. Of course, they haven't done so. What I'm not so sure about are whether I have any rights regarding the other bit - maybe none, but I'm damned if I'll let them intimidate me into paying up until I have to! I asked them to send me the Deferment forms, which they did, and I sent in documentation to prove that I'd not been earning enough to pay at any point. I'm deferred again now, but I feel the 'not able to backdate deferment' thing is ridiculous - how does missing the Deferment date suddenly render me able to pay, when I can prove my situation didn't change? So I've been refusing to pay any of it, whether or not I get away with it.

 

Of course they are threatening and threatening, and so far I'm arguing that it's their own fault they sent the stuff to the wrong address - I've challenged them to prove I told them my change of address was permanent. They've said 'It's your place to make sure you pay on time anyway', and I've responded that if they can't prove I said I was moving permanently they'll have to take me to court for the money, pointing out that I earn so little that they will end up with £1 a month anyway, because I'm skint. My thinking is, if they're going to get it out of me in the end, they might as well work for it. But I'm wondering if I can use any other arguments.

 

Anyone got any ideas, or had this situation themselves?

 

Good luck to everyone else dealing with these horrible people - they have been so rude to me on the phone it's unbelievable, although I have to say I've enjoyed being equally rude back!

 

Sirensinger

[lookinforinfo 2,236]

Physics Graduate, I am no expert on Student loans despite my three children

all recently going through Uni. though their contracts were not the CCA ones.

 

However, as I understand it, you would have had a separate loan for each year. If that is the case, and they cannot produce the executed agreement for 1990, then that contract is unenforceable. However it is also likely that whatever payments you have made will be set off against that year.

And the difficulty may be preventing them from continuing to reduce the 1990 debt whenever you make a payment in the future.

[poorgirl 11]

I have come to the end of the loan agreement period and I am getting up to 3 recorded messages a day plus letters threatening legal action from the SLC asking for payment in full which i cannot afford . A lot of the remaining debt is charges.

 

I am paying them £70 per month towards the arrears. However, they are still requesting an income and expenditure sheet and threatening me with legal action. I am paying regularly as I said £70 per month. I suspect that they want the amount in full.

 

I have two questions:

 

1.Can I challenge them because I am paying a regular monthly amount towards the debt of £70 despite the period to repay the loan having ended?

2. Can I challenge the charges?

[noomill060 1,723]

poorgirl-

 

Yes, you can challenge the charges as they are quite unlawful and they will remove them, plus interest.

 

Do not get into a letter writing duel with them, though.

 

What you need to do is follow the tried and tested CAG method of reclaiming unlawful charges (only in this case it will be for the REMOVAL of unlawful charges from your debt as well as the return of any charges paid by you)

 

What you should do first is

 

1) Stop worrying

 

2) Start a thread of your own (poorgirl v SLC)

 

3) DO NOT TALK TO THEM ON THE PHONE, EVER-EVER-EVER

 

Once you have your thread set up, I'll give you all the info you need to sort them out, but dont do anything just yet.

 

The proceedure is basically this:

 

1) Get a list of all the charges going all the way back, if you havent already.

 

2) Ask for it all back, plus interest

 

3) Demand it all back, plus interest

 

4) Take them to Small Claims

 

5) They poo themselves and cough up before the hearing date.

 

 

In the meantime, I suspect you would like to stop them hassling you.

 

Start your thread and I'll tell you.

 

 

Check out my thread for proof that these scumbags can be put back in their box:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/students/78206-noomill-student-loan-company.html

[daveydavey 1]

sirensinger they probably won't take you to Court, they'll just harass you on & on for years, & Smith Lawson (collection dept of SLC) will continue to make shouting, rude & aggressive calls for arrears created through no or little fault of your own. The SLC may also repeatedly add £20 charges for computerised standard letters.

 

Have you tried the formal complaints procedure ? You can email complaints. You will probably have to go to a stage 2 or stage 3 complaint before it gets taken seriously. See the 'student loan deferment conspiracy thread' here :

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/students/100018-student-loan-deferment-conspiracy.htm

 

l

[physicsgraduate 51]

EDIT TITLE: meant to read "withOUT consent"

 

OK, an interesting thing has transpired in my case, so i thought I would stick it in another thread.

 

Firstly, all loans pre-1998 have recently been passed on to Thesis Servicing, who now deal with them, although deferment forms are still issued and dealt with by the SLC.

 

Today, when I asked Thesis to send a copy of my deferment form to my email address the girl on the phone said, "Certainly, would that be the address... bla bla bla.?"

 

But the strangest thing is, it wasn't my address! It was similar, but it wasn't my email address!

 

So it looks like the SLC have been passing on information about me that is false, and to my knowledge I also don't think I have ever given them my email address, nor gave them permission to pass it on to anyone.

 

Wold anyone care to comment on the legality of that?

Edited December 17, 2008 by physicsgraduate

[noomill060 1,723]

There is no legality for SLC to process your data onto Thesis.

 

The SLC credit agreement didnt give any consent for this. The have fkd up on this one!

[physicsgraduate 51]

Really!!!

 

You mean it was illegal for them to transfer any of my details onto Thesis?

 

What then should I do?

 

Apparently the processing of the deferment is still done by the SLC, but Thesis are dealing with my default amount. I failed to submit a deferment for about a year due to my circumstances. If I can use this to shaft them I will, because I should have been eligible for deferment anyway.

[noomill060 1,723]

No, it wasnt illegal, its just that you didnt give consent. Subtle difference.

 

We're all in the same boat.

[physicsgraduate 51]

Either way, this should help me shouldn't it?

 

Shall I write to them and request that they hand the case back to the SLC?

[physicsgraduate 51]

I just spoke to someone at thesis who explained to me that the government haven't in fact broken the law here, and that it is written in the contract that they have the right to do this.

 

I don't understand all this, it's doing me head in.

 

I still haven't received my deferment form from them, apparently thesis have requested one three times, but the SLC are saying they have received nada!

 

Thesis are going to contact the SLC and find out what is going on and call me back.

 

Anyone care to enlighten me as the truth here so I can put them in their place again?

 

Anyway, on top of all this apparently in order to get my deferment processed now, I have to take the form into the job centre, who then now send it to a centraloffice to get stamp, they then send it back, and then to me, who then has to send it to the SLC.

 

So it kinda goes like this. Thesis > SLC > me > job centre > central office > job centre > me > SLC > thesis !!!!

 

And none of this can be done by email or fax....

[noomill060 1,723]

"I just spoke to someone at thesis who explained to me that the government haven't in fact broken the law here, and that it is written in the contract that they have the right to do this."

 

They would say that, wouldnt they?

 

Its not written on any contract that YOU signed with SLC that YOU agreed they they can do this with YOUR personal data.

[physicsgraduate 51]

Well, I just dunno here mate. I appreciate your advice here and my guess is that you are probably in the right on this one. I'll look out the contract over Xmas and see what it says, I have many copies now, and some of them are legible!

 

I think it is probably a grey area thing, but nonetheless I intend to contest it if necessary.

 

Anyway, the guy from Thesis was very helpful in the end actually. He contacted the SLC who apparently had failed to send a form out the first time they requested it for some reason, and one has now been sent out on the 17th, last time I called other than today.

 

He also agreed on the phone to extend the threshold by another three months from today, so that I wont be charged anything further because my deferment was late.

 

Honestly, today I thought I was going to burst a blood vessel in my brain, I started seeing stars at one point, seriously. I don;t deal with this kind of bull very well, nor any kind of capitalist brownian motion for that matter...

[DoingThingsRight123 1]

Is it so hard for ppl to maintain an account these days.

Pay back what they owe on time and when they owe it.

Sure there should be a better way to fund education - but at the end of the day I knew the only way I could afford it was to take out a loan, which means maintaining my account and making payments.

At the very least I still know the debt is there and that I borrowed it.

It's a sad state of afairs when there are more forums and threads about dodging debt, complaining to x,y and z.

Where if you had taken the responcibility to manage your debts you wouldn't be in the posistion in the first place.

and as for removing charges, admin fees etc. I think this thread amongst others is proof that if they were not there. A high number of people would be happy just to forget about paying back what they owe.

[Giveitback 1]

DTR, like you, I couldn't have gone to uni without the loan, and I agree, it's really hard for people to maintain an account.

 

By "people", I mean the SLC. I'll happily pay back the loan when it is due, but at the moment, it's not. Strangely though SLC are really good at losing documents that I send to themm, ignoring letters and generally breaching their contractula obligations.

 

Since I started sending everything recorded mail, less letters have gone missing, but before I did, I was assured that "since every letter is scanned on arrival, there's absolutely no chance that my letter ever arrived". I could understand if this happened on one occassion, but it seems more like a monthly occurrence.

 

During one harrassing call, I was told a letter hadn't arrived. I replied that I knew it had, and could even detail the date, time and who signed for it. I was greeted by silence then a mutter that there might have been a mistake. (No admission though that a mistake might have been made on another occasion)

 

Sure, there may be some people on here who are looking for a loophole, but I'm certain there are more who have had to deal with a company that really has no idea what it is doing.

[physicsgraduate 51]

This is the 3rd or 4th year they have done this, which is why I always keep copies and send the form by recorded delivery. I always have to chase them up for the letter for some reason, which they seem reticent to send out every year.

 

Will I just ignore it this year and carry on as normal, seeing as my back is covered anyway? Will I just ignore them from now on?

 

I defaulted on payment of part of my loan with them about 7 years ago, and I have now successfully ignored all the letters from Thesis for more than 6 years. It's just the same letter every time, occasionally an email, and they don't have my current phone number which is handy. I was abroad and had a lot of problems at the time and so neglected to defer for a period of just over 1 year. When I came back they wouldn't back date the deferment, and I had no money.

 

If I have been acknowledging the loan though in the past 6 years by deferring though, can they still take me to court for the sum I defaulted on?

 

Should I just ignore them altogether for another 6 years? Seems quite easy to do lol

[silverfox1961 4,625]

Hi

If the Student Loan is from before September 1998 then yes, the defaulted part would be Sb however, if the loan was after that date, these loans are no longer covered by the CCA 1974 and (as far as I am aware) do not become Statute Barred.

 

I would be sending SLC a letter regarding the deferment forms as if it continues, you may forget one year and then another sum will become due.

 

It is their responsibility to ensure you receive the deferment letter.

[WarrenBuffet 252]

I would argue that its not Statute Barred if you have been deferring the loan/s. Im abit confused though ..... Who are you actually dealing with is it Link or SLC?

 

As you are no doubt aware SB is 6 yrs without payment or acknowledgment and if you have been deferring then the start date is from the end of the end of the last deferment period ie: 12 months after they last say you deferred. The 6yr clock begins ticking then or 5yrs in Scotland. However, if at any time they take you to court and obtain a ccj in the 6 year period the clock is restarted again from date of judgement.

 

As for taking you to court surely that would be the SLC as they are the original creditor, but if its link just ignore them and do not respond as Link are a bunch of #&4!!.

[silverfox1961 4,625]

What I was referring to was this bit

 

I defaulted on payment of part of my loan with them about 7 years ago, and I have now successfully ignored all the letters from Thesis for more than 6 years

 

It may not be Statute Barred if the loan was after September 1998 when the rules changed.