SLC/Erudio 1993 loan - now Dryden PAP letter

[We're going ona Bear Hunt]

I have just discovered this site and forums, and fear I have made a terrible hash of dealing with Erudio with regard to my own and my husband's old Student loans

 

(My own: 1 from 1990 (unsigned by SLC) for £420 but due to 9.8% interest (!!!!) now over £800 and really should have been written off had Erudio not been involved; and my husband's: 4 from 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1996 respectively and over £5,000).

 

We had been happily deferring re-payment of these loans over the years until Erudio took over.

The first inkling that we had that they had been sold to a bunch of debt collectors were involved were the classic "you are in arrears letters".

 

At this point in our lives we were both suffering from health conditions (I had had a nervous breakdown and have since been diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder and my husband has since been diagnosed with IBD) - whether this had an impact on our judgement I don't know.

 

We did initially ignore these, and people were saying definitely not to fill in their deferment forms, so we didn't do that either.

We have historically been a fairly low income household, and I have never made any re-payments on my loan , whilst my husband briefly made a couple of repayments.(I cannot remember in what year.)

We were harassed on a daily basis by telephone calls- often several times a day.

 

My husband's account was then transferred over to Capquest, which did freak us out a little, I have to admit, never having dealt with debt collectors before.

The same situation occurred with the letters and phone calls with Capquest.

They seemed to be not taking any action on my account.

 

We sent CCA requests in June 2015, to Erudio and received the copies at the end of July 2015.

I complained to Erudio in writing about their tactics, their harassment, and asked them to remove the arrears from the account and to consider back dating deferment . I even took this to the FOS - no joy.

 

I complained to SLC and said my loan had been miss- sold - I think I also took this to FOS - also no joy - I was told that I would have been able to access commercial lending operators!!

 

We wrote to the director of Erudio explaining our situation and please could we just defer!!

I believe the response was : Capquest are dealing with your account now - talk to them...

 

At this point I became tired and gave up

- they just wanted all the money and there seemed no scope for returning to the good old days of deferment.

And it seems our accounts would never be written off now as we had broken the terms and conditions

- welcome to harassment for the rest of our lives!!

 

Last year Capquest were still harassing my husband

- his mental health has been badly affected by his physical health

- and he did not work for several months

- he works for himself but did not have the money in his businesses to pay himself whilst he was unwell.

I wrote to them and told them to back off in no uncertain terms.

 

Neither of us claim disability benefits, we claim tax credits, which has kept us afloat.

 

It had all gone fairly quiet on the Erudio front until a few weeks ago when a "remedy of account" package arrived with statements dating back to 2015, for my husband's loans.

Closely followed by default letters for each loan (1993, 4, 5 & 6).

 

And then last week a letter from Drydensfairfax solicitors which appears to be a letter before action.

What is interesting is this :

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Full details of the debt are set out below:

. The amount owed is £5341.45 and no charges/interest are being added at this stage.

. A statement of account is attached.

. The agreement this debt relates to was entered into between you and SLC on 9th Dec 1993 and assigned to Erudio on 22 Nov 2013. A copy of the agreement can be requested using the reply form.

---------------------------------------------------------------

They have stated that the whole amount relates to the 1993 agreement - in which only £800 was borrowed.

The reply form also includes boxes where you can dispute the debt.

 

With regards to my account, I have received the same "remedy of account" statements that my husband has, and, yesterday the same default letter. I believe it to be going down the same route.

We do not have the money to pay these loans and are still under the re-payment threshold.

 

I do not know what move to make next

- as I understand that now they will never be written off, and I don't know what strategy to employ to deal with this new development.

Any advice would be hugely appreciated.

Edited September 30, 2018 by dx100uk
spacing

[renegadeimp]

Read other threads. Your situation is the same as theirs. Very easily sorted. Just take a whole to read other threads first.

[dx100uk]

although its disjointed

read this thread CAREFULLY...

https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?447223-Erudio-and-final-FOS-decision

 

same situation

 

when did you get the PAP letter of claim?

have you replied since then to drydens.

 

dx

[We're going ona Bear Hunt]

Thank-you very much for your response-and your directions on where to find what I need.

I can't tell you how much it is appreciated.

 

We haven't responded to drydens- the letter came on Fri (28th sept and is dated 26th Sept) and says we have 30 days to reply.

 

I have read through the thread - I think I have worked out what I need to do:

CCA request

PAP reply form (CAG version)

And wait...

 

Thank-you for your response.

I am indeed working my way through the posts!

[dx100uk]

No point in cca

1 already done

2 the fact the loans exist is not in question

 

Your dispute reason.....

P'haps.. erudio have Purposefully produced spurious arrears to keep alive loans that should now be age/time expired??

If i read your post correctly??

[We're going ona Bear Hunt]

Hi dx,

I believe that my loan should now be age/time expired as it was taken out in 1990, my husband's however are 93,94,95 and 96, so not quite yet for him.

 

I am worried that if we do not respond that the next communication will be a court claim, and I have no idea how to defend it

- perhaps we have no defence , in which case do we try to settle??

 

We have not, as the person in the other thread did, filled out either slc or erudio deferment forms on a regular basis after they ignored the letters and forms we sent in 2015, in which we gave them income details that would qualify for deferment for 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16.

 

Do we just need to provide them with income details for 2016/17, 2017/18 on an old slc deferment form to Erudio?

I just don't know any more.

 

The drydens PAP letter of claim relates to my husband's account and actually I don't know what the dispute is - apart from there were no problems till it was Erudio…

 

So downhearted ...

[dx100uk]

forget your stuff its confusing matters

this is solely for a dec 1993 loan

its age barred in December

 

I would suspect [as you are the 2nd this week] that arrows have simply sent out a whole tribe of these letters whereb theres been no favourable activity for them in several years.

 

if you go read that other thread it has my musings on drydens and why those letterheads are used.

 

with regard to THIS LOAN only.

you have written to arrows in one form or another from your present address regarding THIS LOAN.

[We're going ona Bear Hunt]

Hi dx,

Sorry, I can see how I've confused things.

All correspondence has come from our current address re the 1993 loan.

The letter of claim details the full amount of £5341, and not just the 1993 amount.

[dx100uk]

what under one number!! of the 1993 loan?

[We're going ona Bear Hunt]

The number they have used is the reference number that Erudio have been using

- Erudio sent four separate letters when they the remedy of account letters and four separate letters about the arrears for each of the loans

- but they use the same reference number at the top of each letter for all the loans.

 

This is the reference number that drydens are using - but the wording is as follows:

The amount owed is £5341.45...

A statement of account is attached.

The agreement this debt relates to was entered into between you and student loans company on 9 December 1993...

 

It doesn't refer to the other years, and the statement of account just has the same ref no and just says

Start balance £5020.93

Total interest £320.52

Current Balance £5341.45

 

Statement date 17/09/2018.

[dx100uk]

well they cant lump them all together as they are sep agreements for each year.

 

its just another pointer to it being an automated rubbish letter, trying to elicit a response.

the issue here is its a PAP letter as far as I can make out, with the usual attached response form

which if we go by typical threads here NOT SLC related, should be replied too.

 

The easiest way to deal with this is ignore, but i'm swayed to use this to his advantage

but that ofcourse continues what I must say has obviously been a long period of pointless letter tennis on you behalf on both your situations.

 

What ideally should have been done was to continue each year sending referral forms but I gather these have not been done.

 

dx

[We're going ona Bear Hunt]

With hindsight, yes I can see that ideally we should have done that

- we supplied them with 3 years

- taking us up until 2016,

when we put in our complaint , which, as you rightly point put out was a series of pointless letter tennis.

 

The last two years were so difficult with my husband's health I just couldn't deal with them anymore and stopped.

 

I'm just wondering whether to send the last two years' deferment forms off to Erudio and reply to drydens

- but not sure how to

- there is no box in the PAP reply form to state that the debt is technically owed but doesn't fulfill the criteria that allows it to be enforced.

 

Do I just dispute the debt ?

If I ignore it, do I run the risk of court proceedings

And would they see that through?

 

I wonder how that would play out

- could you argue that as they had changed the terms and conditions they couldn't then penalise you for not complying with their (new) terms and conditions

And that it was miss sold in the first place ?

Hard to know.

Edited October 1, 2018 by dx100uk
spacing.

[dx100uk]

save me looking back as im on a small screen all day

but you DID receive that reply form attached in post 4 of that PAP thread I pointed too earlier?

[We're going ona Bear Hunt]

Yes, I've got the same reply form from drydens as in post 4 of the other thread.

[dx100uk]

thanks.

 

I think you've got a good case to get these written off.

there is a section on the reply for regarding disputes

simply refer them to your letters already sent and the CEO etc

and the loan is in serious dispute and you deny any arrears.

[We're going ona Bear Hunt]

Ok then, will do that, and see what happens next.

Thank-you so much for your help.

I will let you know what transpires.

[dx100uk]

I gather that previous comms would curtail you from now saying we did send deferment forms if you now claim you did and inc them?

[We're going ona Bear Hunt]

I was thinking the same thing myself...

Erudio denied receiving letters that we sent to them before and when we complained to the ombudsman they said we didn't send them.

From other posts on the forum it seems that they don't always include your letters/communications when you do an SAR too.

Perhaps we should all play by their rules...

[dx100uk]

I think that gives you an opening them to say you did send them?

though ofcourse, you would already have mentioned this in a letter/complaint if you did..

..or might you have not specifically stated nor mentioned then before?

check you letters p'haps?

 

I see an opening here yes..but just also bear in mind, the person that opens your drydens PAP response form wont have a clue nor know or probably not have access to anything before and will just fwd it to erudio anyway.

[We're going ona Bear Hunt]

I am thinking something along the lines of :

Also enclosed are copies of my deferment forms, showing eligibility for deferment.

I am also sending copies of these to Erudio, for their records.

[dx100uk]

Just drydens

[We're going ona Bear Hunt]

OK then - thank-you.

[We're going ona Bear Hunt]

Do you think I should send copies of the tax credits awards that would have been sent with the deferment forms?

[dx100uk]

na let them request them.

 

on the referment forms front

 

print blanks out [use the slc one from this forum]

 

fill them in [written]

scan them

print out the scan..here is the copies of the two forms a sent xx dates

[dx100uk]

thread titled updated