Help With Student Loans - HERE!

snowyemma2008

Yeah i admit i probably spent lots on travelling to uni, a break and the general cost of living (just because i lived at home didn't mean i had no expenses that i had to pay out :- food, clothes, mobile phone bill, e.t.c) and on books also. In the first year i paid my fees for uni from the loan i had, but didn't pay for the subsequent two years so aquired those included in my loan as they paid for me.I am not the best person with money so i probably could have budgeted a lot more though lol One thing i am happy with is that I have a small overdraft & don't owe anything on credit cards or other bank loans as most student do, as i never had them.

neas

indeed i lived at uni... worked and paid for tution fees... had 6k less than you and you didnt pay the 3k/year i paid on accomodation oO

What you spend the 12k on? 3k tuition fees for 3 years... wheres the 9k gone? wheres the 400 quid/month (5000 pound a year salary) gone too?

Ask me you spent 21k over 3 years... on something not fees or board just food,drink and transport... seems excessive when youy put it that way lol.

mazdaspring

Can I ask a question? Is there any company (apart from Bank) which gives international student loan in UK? One of my friend is in need of getting student loan but she is not british. Let me know if you know any website to contact. Cheers

Oldernotwiser

mazdaspring wrote: »

Can I ask a question? Is there any company (apart from Bank) which gives international student loan in UK? One of my friend is in need of getting student loan but she is not british. Let me know if you know any website to contact. Cheers

What nationality is she and how long has she lived in the UK?

mazdaspring

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

What nationality is she and how long has she lived in the UK?

She is from Malaysia. She has been in UK for about 5 years (she did undergrad here and now doing master degree)

Jesthar

Heya,

Not sure if this would be best here or in the Loans section, but being as it is a Student Loan... My apologies, there is a bit of history to go though, so this may be long...

Basically, I have a Student Loan from my University days, which was due to enter the repayment phase in April 2003, and I duly filled out all the forms and sent them back when the pack arrived. I started work at a rate over the repayment threshold in October 2003, and expected that Student Loan deductions would be taken as part of my automatic deductions as I had been told.

Except they weren't. I was temping, which complicates payslips somewhat, and just thought Student Loan payments were included in the 'tax' bit, which of course they aren't, but I didn't realise - silly me!

What DID worry me, though was when I received a letter and a Repayment Confirmation Pack from SLC (to my mum's address, as I was living in temporary accomodation at the time) saying they had previously tried to contact me about starting repayments, but had received no response. Unfortunately I have no copy of the first set of forms I filled in and sent, so I can't prove that they are wrong, but I filled out the pack again and sent it back.


Less than two months later, I received another letter and Repayment Confirmation Pack, identical in every way to the January pack. So this time, I called them, and a lady named Michelle apologised for the confusion, informed me my letter and details form had been scanned into the system on 17th February 2005, and assured me there was no need to do anything further as repayments would shortly begin to be taken. Thus reassured the matter was dealt with, I didn't think about it again.

Fast forward two and a half YEARS, and I receive ANOTHER letter, this time informing me the details held by SLC had not been recognised by HMRC. I was in the process of moving house, so the letter didn't get to me as promptly as normal, but I phoned them as soon as I got it. The lady named Anne I spoke to explained the letter meant any details I had previously supplied had been returned as unidentifiable from HMRC. She also said could find no trace of any previous correspondence from me on the system, not even my 2005 letter and form whose receipt date I had previously confirmed. She offered to take my details and start the process over again for me, but as I didn't have the necessary details to hand, I said I'd call back.


As soon as I hung up, I called my mother (she works for HMRC ), and she told me which department I needed to call to check my details (needed to change my address anyway thanks to the move). I spoke to a lovely chap, who checked my records through most thoroughly and could find no problems or errors with them, and was at a loss to understand why my National Insurance number had not located them for SLC.


So I called SLC back, and spoke to a chap called Alan, as the previous lady (who had given me her extension number). He immediately confirmed the existence of my 2005 letter on the system, giving the receipt date as 17th February 2005, matching what I had previously been told by Michelle. He also looked into why my details had not been confirmed by HMRC, and discovered it was not because my details had been returned as incorrect, but because they had never actually been SENT for confirmation in the first place. He was most apologetic about this, took my PAYE details for processing, and suggested I write to their complaints team about the whole affair.


So I did, including a very detailed breakdown of how much extra interest this debacle had cost me (don't ASK how long this took, especially as even though I am a paperwork squirrel I could only find about 1/3 of the annual statements I should have had from them. Weekly payslips from my temp job six years ago, yes. SLC statements, probably not. Don't even remember them coming, to be honest!), and how much I could have paid off by now if they had started taking payments from each of the various dates when they SHOULD have. And I got a letter back telling me it was basically all MY fault, I should have set up voluntary payments with them when my automatic repayments didn't start, and I should have been chasing THEM about them not being able to find/not having applied for my tax details, not the other way around. Oh, and no, I couldn't have the extra interest incurred back, either. Nice.


That was about a year ago, and at the time I was so fed up I just dropped the matter, especially as they had finally managed to start taking repayments. However, I'm now wondering if I've let myself be fobbed off and should try again with this? Anyone got any ideas?


Apologies for the long post, congratulations if you got this far!


~Jes

Oldernotwiser

mazdaspring wrote: »

She is from Malaysia. She has been in UK for about 5 years (she did undergrad here and now doing master degree)

Even UK students have to borrow from banks for postgraduate degrees if they're not able to get any funding. Have a look at Career Development Loans.

mayb_2

Jesthar why don't you ask the Financial Ombudsman service to deal with this complaint. You have written to the company concerned about your student loan and you are not happy with their response. Normal finance companies would have to give you written details of their complaints procedure and your right to complain to the Ombudsman if you are not happy with their handling of your complaint. Why should the Student Loans Company be exempt from this as they handle financial services? No harm in finding out anyway. Does anyone know if they are regulated by the FSA?

If the Ombudsman accepts your claim as valid they will contact the Company who will then have to give you their final response within a certain time period. If you are not happy with this response you can then complain to the Ombudsman again who will investigate it and take a decision on it.

Good luck.

anniecave

Jesthar - student loan interest rates are at a lower rate than any other lending or even what I get on my savings accounts after tax. They are based on inflation rates which have always been low up until now and still are.

So you have actually got a good deal if you have managed to not pay them off. You either benefitted from interest on your savings or have not had to borrow when you would otherwise have.

They are obviously inept but you have got a good deal by their incompetance. Read the "should I pay off my student loan early" article on this site for a more exact explanation on the maths behind why you benefit the longer you don't pay!

Not sure if Student Loans are FSA regulated or there is an ombudsman anyway, but I may be wrong there. They work totally differently to most loans due to their nature.

rb10

Jesthar, have you seen http://www.slc.co.uk/pdf/complaints%20leaflet_Jan08.pdf ?