Student Loan Company -General Info

[livity]

I've sent everything to SLC recorded delivery and I've never had a problem with them not receiving letters.

 

Special delivery should nail it if you are feeling flush!

 

You've been lucky! I started on recorded delivery 10 years ago, thinking it might stop their silly games... it does make it amusing though, when they try and pretend they haven't received a letter.

[Erica_The_Penguin]

Hey Badger,

 

Thanks for all the info. you're a star! Just what I needed. The SLC have 'lost' approximately 50% of my letters as well, funny that! Now send them all 'signed for,' can't trust them at all.

 

As they have a habit of 'losing' documentation, not replying, taking documents as deferal evidence but saying three months later they are not valid, applying random charges to my account and then telling different 'stories' as to what those charges are for (I have their letters to prove it)....I now joke to my friends that they are my 'penfriends.'

 

Recently they have tried to charge me about £200.00 to my account for letters going back to 2003. (They just applied these charges with no letter of explanation). Which is weird cos why are they only trying to charge for them now? I believe I might have aready been charged for them and they are trying to charge me again, years later. Anyway apparently they are charging about £15.00 or £20.00 per letter.

 

Will have to ask them for all my statements to check. To be honest they are not very easy to understand.

 

Has anyone else had any luck reclaiming money from them? Not the easiest job in the world as they play hardball.

 

Erica

[Erica_The_Penguin]

Hi, it's me Erica again,

 

About the charges for letters, I rang them up furious that charges had been applied to my account without explanation as I'm sure it breaks the banking code and probably goes against other regulations as well.

 

I demanded a full breakdown of what these charges were for, cos otherwise I would not be paying them!! Someone sent me an amateur computer printout of letters and codes and annotated in ink next to them figures like £20.00 and £15.00. I then rang up and had another rant because if I added up the sum of what they wrote on the statements it didn't add up to what they were biling me for. I also said surely these charges aren't legal!?!

 

Anyway a couple of weeks later I had a standard computer generated letter saying that I owed them £200.00 in charges and yet this time the letter said they were for actually for deferring my loans late!

 

So, the SLC are actually contradicting themselves, only one of their explanations are right. I just think it's funny that they are so desperate to get extra money out of me that they will still keep trying to apply the same £200.00 charge to my account but when I suggested the first reason wasn't legal, they make a new reason up!

 

Erica

[morrie]

I think one of the problems with the Student Loans help on this site is that there are so many different Terms and Conditions flying around including the confusion of the pre/post 1998 saga. It is hard to understand each individuals situation in relation to the T&Cs - for example in my T&Cs there is no provision for the SLC to add anything apart from interest to my loan account - however when a cheque is paid into my loan account they have deducted numerous charges for letters. I am sure this is in no way legal.

 

It has also come to my notice through correspondence with the SLC that they too are highly confused as to which T&Cs relate to my loan. My fight still goes on - could write a highly amusing book about the SLC adventures !

[emmaf01]

I managed to get them to send me the original loan agreements for my (pre-1998) loans. Three are in order but one (for 1993) is not even signed by the SLC. So, as per the CCA, it takes a court order to be enforcable!

 

I've already sent them a lba on the charges from 1998 to the present, so it is mcol soon for these. And I still haven't received the response to my SAR.

 

I'm really looking forward to my court claim for this.

[tobciocc]

I've just had my SAR back, looks like last year they charged 20 pounds for a late payement and a further 20 pounds for the letter telling me I was late. Added to which they cancelled my repayment plan and started sending me the usual chargable letters. As things stand I owe about 360 in arrears, and the same in charges. I have the money to pay the arrears but not the charges, does anyone think I should just pay the arrears and contest the charges. Or should I hold on to the cash???

 

p.s my pound sign has disapeared.

[noomill060]

Hold on to your cash for the time being and start Small Claims action to force them to remove the unlawful charges. Thats what Im doing.

[tobciocc]

And can I do the small claims thingy online.

 

I also notice that they've made a charge for trace fees when they had lost my change of address form, months later this shows up as an error on my SAR. And they still keep the charge on my account ... I hate this company so much, caused me and my family so much stress over the years.

 

Sorry just getting heated thinking about it.

[noomill060]

Dont think you are able to claim trace fees back, just the £20 for each arrears letter and the interest levied on on them.

[Gooders]

noomill060,

 

I think there would be an agruement for claiming this charge back if as tobciocc says

I also notice that they've made a charge for trace fees when they had lost my change of address form

 

However, that said there would need to be proof.....yet again send everything recorded its worth it!!!!!!

 

Wish I had done the same!

 

Gooders

[CAGisforME]

Just adding my voice to this.

 

Please Mods make this thread sticky!!

 

I've started my own thread about my battle with SLC (just started) and will keep you all posted on how I get on.

 

[emmaf01]

I just wish the SLC, when they send the info requested in your SAR, didn't show how useless and incoherant their systems and the info they provide is.

 

And that the CCA that wasn't signed 2 weeks ago now appears to be signed- maybe its a different CCA?!!

[mlphw]

Hi Mlphw,

 

The address I sent stuff to was the Glasgow address for most of the letters - I just used the data controllers address for my Subject Access Request to get the information out of them on my account etc

The Data Controller is the named person under law who must be responsible for the implementation of the Data Protection Act in each company/institution.

 

So I figured that I might as well go to the organ grinder not the monkey as it where.

 

For the general letters (like the initial request for payment and then the Letter Before Action) you can use either but I tend to use the Glasgow address anyway.

 

The Badger

 

Sorry to be annoying as I know I have asked this elsewhere but am desperate for an answer as I want to get my MCOL submitted against SLC. With the main address being in Scotland does anyone know what I can do ? Is it ok to use the Bristol one ?

 

Thanks

[The_Badger]

Suggested template for particulars of Court claim.

This is for a none MCOL court claim (i.e. direct with my local court).

Note that this is slightly different from the standard bank claim as its a loan account so the charges are added to the amount owed rather than taken from you directly so the wording is slightly tweaked.

Para 1. I only have one remaining account with the SLC so my wording is for that - for those of you with one you'll have to tweak the wording slightly to cover them all. There should be no reason why you don't chunk them all together anyway since SLC do on their letters.

Para 5: because the SLC's main office is in Scotland the county court in England will have to consider where the case can be heard (Scotland has a different basis for law) but since we started joining all the EEC institutions the UK had to come up with a way of allowing cross boarder legal disputes to sort this out - for civil law (i.e. not criminal) that is the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgements Act 1982 as amended.

The county court will tell you they can't guarantee service as the SLC address is outside their jurisdiction. You can agree to serve the claim against SLC yourself - they issue the claim and then you get two of the copies of the claim form back. One you send to SLC (first class recorded) and the other is for your records.

You then write a letter to the court to confirm the date and time the claim was served (you get this by phoning the royal mail recorded number on the back of the orange recorded delivery slip and quoting the reference number).

Thats why you need part b of para 5.

Some courts will just send it anyway - mine did.

Alternatively you could just use the SLC's address in Bristol (the one for their data controller) but I'm not sure how that would play out in court.

This is only a suggested template as I am not legally qualified so any changes you want to make are up to you.

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

1. The Claimant has a [ or number of accounts] student loan account [s] numbered ########### ("the Account") with the Defendant which was opened on or around ##/##/199#.

2. During the period in which the Account has been operating the Defendant applied numerous charges to the Account in respect of purported breaches of contract on the part of the Claimant and also charged interest on the charges once applied. The Claimant understands that the Defendant contends that the charges were applied in accordance with the terms of the contract between itself and the Claimant.

3. The Claimant contends that:

a) The charges applied to the Account are punitive in nature; are not a genuine pre-estimate of cost incurred by the Defendant; exceed any alleged actual loss to the Defendant in respect of any breaches of contract on the part of the Claimant; and are not intended to represent or related to any alleged actual loss, but instead unduly enrich the Defendant which exercises the contractual term in respect of such charges with a view to profit.

b) The contractual provision that permits the Defendant to levy such charges is unenforceable by virtue of the Unfair Contract Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations (1999), the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and the common law.

4. Accordingly the Claimant claims:

a) the return of the amounts applied in respect of charges and interest taken on those charges in the sum of £###.##

b) Court costs;

c) The claimant claims interest under section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% a year, from the date of each offence to the date this claim is issued in the County Court of £##.## and also interest at the same rate up to the date of judgment or settlement at a daily rate of £#.##

5. With regard to jurisdiction the Claimant contends that:

a) The Claimant is a consumer within the meaning of the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982 as amended. The claimant is domiciled within England and Wales and therefore under the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982 as amended, the ######## [insert name of your local county court where you want the case heard here]County Court accordingly has jurisdiction. No proceedings are pending elsewhere between the parties hereto in respect of the subject matter of this action.

b) The Claimant shall, upon issue of this claim, be able to serve notice of the claim against the defendant by means of a signed for recorded first class postal delivery, and / or service by transmission of the claim via telephone facsimile to the fax number stated on the Defendant’s headed letters.

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

[princess jane]

More SLC tomfoolery -

 

rang up last week to check my outstanding balance as I am paying off arrears (lost deferment forms - usual story).

 

The half-wit call handler asked me to confirm my address, and when I told him, he said that wasn't what they had listed.

 

I pointed out to him they had charged me £30 in trace fees to 'find' me at that address, so he better find it in his system very quickly.

 

All went quiet at the other end and he admitted my NEW address had been replaced with one I haven't lived at for about eight years, and he couldn't explain why.

 

I made him check no correspondence had been sent to the old address, and told exactly what I thought of his pathetic excuse for an employer.

 

Good news is I only have about five payments left then all my arrears are cleared, and as I am pre-1998 SLC it will be a long, long time before I am earning enough to pay them another penny.

[Halfangelhalftart]

Here's my story re SLC and any advise would be much appreciated: Sorry it is so long!!

 

My loans are pre 1998. I deferred upon graduation due to being below the earnings threshold. In 1997 I had to undertake an IVA with my then partner and the IVA co told me I had to put the loan in despite the fact I didn't even have to pay it back yet! In 2000 my partner did a moonlight flit to the States and so defaulted on his part of the IVA - as I result mine was defaulted too and was advised that my debtors would chase me as they saw fit. SLC were the only ones to do so. I was contacted by Logic Plc (as SLC were unable to find me - why they were unable to get my details from the IVA company I have no idea - they were able to find my original referee - a friend I have not seen since 1993!!) I made payments as I'm not against paying debt that is mine.

 

However I then decided to apply to defer as I was still very much under the threshold but the forms were returned to me! I, rather, foolishing cancelled my standing order at this point assuming that the deferral would be approved. Oops.

 

In Jan 06 I was sent a letter from Smith Lawson demanding payment. What happened to Logic? I wrote to Smith Lawson asking for confirmation re the deferral. They advised me that I was not eligible for further deferment as my maturity date had expired. Pah

 

On 20th March 07 I received a letter from SLC advising me that my repayments were scheduled to be paid in full by March 04 and that the outstanding balance needed to be paid. I emailed and sent a letter to both SLC and Smith Lawson advising them that I was paying monthly instalments and had been for several years and was not in a position to pay in full.

 

30th March I received another letter in the same vein, this time stating that I had 7 days to pay or further action would be taken. So, I calmy emailed and wrote to them again, enlcosing a copy of the my previous letter.

 

They eventually rang me to ask me to increase my payments. I said that that was not going to happen as i was on maternity leave and was possibly going to give up work to raise my son and so would actually be applying to reduce my payments. I was advised that that was unlikely to be agreed. I said i might be applying for bankcruptcy (I'm not) and they said that I would still have to pay them.

 

Anyway, I was able to come by some money and so wrote to them offering a reduced settlement figure (I owe £913 and offered £700). They replied saying that as student loans are from public funds then they can not accept partial payment in full settlement.

 

Knowing from previous threads that they are apt to telling a few white lies - is this true??

 

Thanks for reading!!

 

Cara

[noomill060]

hal- how much of the £913 is made of their £20 charges for arrears letters?

[Nurselayer]

My advice Halfangelhalftart would be to firstly to send them a letter stating that you dispute the alleged debt.

 

Next send a CCA request letter to them with the appropriate fee (£1 per loan). Do this next, you will find templates on this site. They have, by law, to supply you with cpoies of the signed agreements within strict time limits. If they fail to do so then the debt is unrecoverable until such time as they do provide these copies of the agreements, oh and they will have also committed a criminal act.

 

If they do reply to your CCA request with signed copies of the agreement then send a SAR letter (again you will find templates on this site). Once you have received these you will be able to reclaim any unlawful charges that they may have charged to your account - hopefully this may bring the true amount that you owe into a figure that you find more manageable.

 

Do not send the SAR request first - in my experience the SLC is treating these quite seriously and replying pretty promptly whereas they do not seem to be taking the CCA requests into account despite the penalties for non compliance actually being more severe!

 

For all other readers of this, please note that the CCA only applies to PRE-98 loans!

[emmaf01]

Hi Nurseslayer- nice to see someone else is awake at ungodly hours!

 

I wish I had seen the suggested POC above- I just adapted the standard POC for bank charges- do you think that will harm my case- Anyone?

[Halfangelhalftart]

Thanks for that. Would definately be interesting to find out how much is charges. I'm not trying to get out of paying it by any means, but their attitude makes you want to tell them to take a run and jump.

 

Cara

[emmaf01]

Better to be able to pay a lesser amount- thats what I'm hoping for anyway.

[DJANGO]

Hello! I'm just on here having a butchers.. I've ended up in a "situation" with student loans.. I took out my first loan in 1993, defered until 2002, when deferment letters did not arrive.. Forgot all about it.. and.. last month a get a letter from a debt colletion agency.. I phoned them, they advised I call SLC, spoke to a chap who said my deferment period had expired??? and I agreed with him to pay £25 per month direct debit.... Last week letter arrives from debt collection agency who are going to start court proceedings on 9/9/8.. I phoned SLC and eventually got passed around to the chap I agreed the repayment plan with and he said.."oh but its gone to an agency, not much I can do".. I argued how could he set up a repayment plan when it was already with the debt agency. I asked him for a copy of the original agreement.. he said he'd have to check if they still had it and that it would cost me?? Needless to say the debt agency were horrid, asked for money each month.. I just wonder if anyone can help me?? Surely they don't expire?? How can the SLC come to an agreement with me and then go back on it?? All help/advise would be greatly appreciated!!...... Oh my first post on this forum!!

 

Django.

[emmaf01]

If the deferment "expires" and you are still eligible, you just renew it usually!

 

Stop everything, sent a CCA request through the DCA, and send a SAR to SLC- then reclaim all of your charges. Also write and ask them for a deferment form if you are still eligible- did your circumstances change in 2002?

 

Finally, start your own thread in this section of the forum, so we can help.

[DJANGO]

Thank you!!

I have started a new thread:- student loans 93/93/Capquest.

I think I'll have to sit down this weekend and get my head around all this!!

Cheers

Django:-|

[super_mario]

Appreciate this is a bit of a ye olde thread but just wondered if any one could give their views on my predicament with the beloved SLC.

 

My situation is thus!...98/99 I apply for my 1st year loan using my forename and surname, 00/01 I apply for a further loan using my forename, middle initial and surname. When you apply for your new loan each year this just gets added to your one account. However as my middle initial was included, the SLC computer couldnt handle it and generates two accounts.

 

I begin having payments taken around 2003. However due to the way their systems are set up payments can be allocated to one loan at a time. So eg for 03/04 Loan A receives payments whilst Loan B sits there gathering interest. The following year payments are allocated to Loan B etc.

 

The Last payment to Loan B was received at the end of the 04/05 tax year. I then begin making a concerted effort to pay off Loan A assuming that this is the total of what I owe SLC, make overpayments and clear it off by Nov 2006. A few further payments are taken but refunded.

 

I later discover that Loan A and B are merged at the end of the 06/07 tax year. This problem had been brought to their attention much much earlier.

 

Coming forward to Sept 2009, I havent heard anything from them for 3 years, I have been over the threshold for making payments and have been in constant employment since 2006. I then have £80 deducted from my wages and find out I apparently owe them £320!!?!?!!?!?!?

 

Speaking on the phone is getting me nowhere quick so Ive started emailing and writing.

 

What I want to clarify is this...

 

Is a student loan covered by the Consumer Credit Act? It was over a decade ago I applied so i no longer have any original paperwork.

 

Do they come under the Banking code?

 

I have submitted a DSIR and sent/emailed complaint letter to them however what other options would I have open?

 

Any advice would be really appreciated