Haven't been paying student loan repayments....what will happen?

woosutt

My husband graduated in 2004 with a student loan debt. For the last 3 years he has been earning 22k but no student loan payments have been taken.

We realise we could call the SLC and inform them. But the honest truth is we're struggling with credit card debt (which we are no longer adding to and are working extremely hard to pay off). We literally just have a small amount left each month for food, petrol and bills. So if we inform the SLC and they start taking payments, our fight against our credit cards will take so long and risk high interest rates.

I know its not right to keep quiet, but if we were to do this until we've paid off our credit card debt....................does anyone know what penalty we will face when we contact the SLC? Will they demand full payment of payments missed? Or will we be able to just start making the normal payments each month? I understand interest builds up.

Has anyone been in a similar position where payments haven't been taken and you've kept quiet for a while?

Oldernotwiser

You'd be better posting this on the Student Board as different people have had different experiences and there are several threads on the subject.

In my experience, if you're in arrears with the student loan they very quickly hand it to debt collectors and add punitive charges. The normal rules of repayment go out of the window with arrears.

It largely depends whose fault it is; if it's their fault you can probably come to an arrangement, less likely if it's yours.