Student Loan charges

equine_induced_poverty

This may be in the wrong place, please bear with me! (Or shift it).
Have noticed several threads about banks charging unfair amounts for financial misdemeanors, i.e. exceeding overdraft, etc. My question is:
Are the SLC guilty of a similar offence?
In my experience the SLC make amazing blunders, like being unable to defer two loans under different numbers, paying money into the wrong loan and then charging you a fine etc.
I have had to pay several hundred pounds to the SLC, and wonder if I could reclaim any of it?
Any help gratefully recieved.

Bloke_with_a_simple_life

Equine - What sort of "fines" have SLC charged you?

You also mention you have had to repay several hundred pounts to SLC - is this over and above the normal loan and interest repayment? I doubt you will get away with avoiding repaying a low interest loan such as this.

equine_induced_poverty

yes this was over and above the normal loan and interest payment. They didn't put it in writing as I requested, just gave me a quick breakdown of the costs over the phone. It seemed they where charging me for reclaiming the debt, however they haven't sold the debt, they just appear (like banks) to give you a financial slap across the wrist for being naughty (Quite regularly when they have been the cause of your alleged naughtiness!). Just wondered, if like banks, they can charge what they like should you err from the path of SLC gratitude (!). I can find no record of a list of charges mentioned in any documentation I have ever received. I have the old style loan. After paying my arrears and the charges they then deferred my loan quite happily, so they obviously can't have passed the debt on to anyone else. Just curious if this is the correct (i.e. legitimate) behaviour from a loan company, and can I query it.

ReportInvestor

equine_induced_poverty wrote:

I can find no record of a list of charges mentioned in any documentation I have ever received.

This is the key issue.

Please post more details as your post is not 100% clear.

I am also not aware of the SLC being able to charge more than interest fixed to the inflation rate.

If this is not the case then the press would be very interested. Nothing of the sort has appeared in the press to date.

You should ask for the details in writing for your own records, even if you don't choose to let us know.

Are you sure the extra "charges" aren't just rolled up interest payments you have missed?

CLAPTON

the old style student loan is an unsecured loan. write to them asking for a statement of account...if they dont give it to you promptly, write using the provisions of the data protection act, which requires them to give it to you within 40 days for no more than £10.

equine_induced_poverty

Many thanks to both of you. I shall do as you suggest, and I'll get back to you.
The charges are DEFINATLY not the interest, they actually stated that there were charges on top of the interest. I will find out! Thanks again.

benedictadams

equine_induced_poverty wrote:

This may be in the wrong place, please bear with me! (Or shift it).
Have noticed several threads about banks charging unfair amounts for financial misdemeanors, i.e. exceeding overdraft, etc. My question is:
Are the SLC guilty of a similar offence?
In my experience the SLC make amazing blunders, like being unable to defer two loans under different numbers, paying money into the wrong loan and then charging you a fine etc.
I have had to pay several hundred pounds to the SLC, and wonder if I could reclaim any of it?
Any help gratefully recieved.

From my experience with SLC and Honours Student Loans (the muppets who work with SLC) is that they are

Last year I didn't get my deferment form for months after I should have done. Despite many phone calls to them and total harassment towards me from HSL (which involved my flatmate calling the regulator after the 25th phone call in a week)

They then had the cheek to charge me a total of £60 for late payment even though I am earning well below the 85% of the average wage and they were the ones who couldn't send me the damn form

They have had a letter telling them the charges are not fair and I want them back, and as expected no response so tomorrow they are being sent the next letter

equine_induced_poverty

Ben, thanks, I thought I had dreamt it til I read your post! Perhaps we need to look deeper into these charges. This year the deferment forms didn't arrive for me also. In the end they had to send them recorded delivery. they then tried to charge me for not defering in time. They then only deferred one of my loans even though I sent two deferment forms back in the same envelope, both clearly marked and highlighted with the account numbers. Then they tried to charge me again. All this got sorted out by phone on their premium rate number. So, again their incompetance has cost me money. Quite frankly I'd like to see them exposed for the incompetent, and highly suspect behaviour.

THIRZAH

In her first year at university my daughter got two lots of student loan paid into her account. It took us ages to get it sorted out. It seems that there was another student with exactly the same name (two christian names and a surname) , who banked at the same bank and was born in the same month as DD.

We didn't want to just send the overpayment back as at the time we didn't know what had happened and we were worried that the loan company might think that DD was returning HER loan not a duplicate payment. We tried phoning but could never get through.We wrote to them and emailed several times before finally getting things sorted out but I haven't had a very high opinion of the company since then.