Student Loan admin charges???

winniewoolley

Hi
I hope someone can help me.
In 1992 I took out a student loan. I deferred paying back the loan for several years (as my income had not exceeded their threshold). However, in 1994 I started paying it off by DD, and made the final payment in March 2008.
Today (30 Sept 2009) I received a letter from the SLC which made no sense. Upon phoning them, I was told that there was an o/s balance of £238. I asked what this was for, and was told that due to me being a couple of months late sending in my intention of deferring in 2000 and 2001 they had had to send me a series of letters (each at £15) to remind me to defer. It may be that they did send these letters - it was 8/9 years ago. However, certainly since commencing repayments in 2004 they had not mentioned these arrears. The chap on the phone confirmed that I had definitely repaid the entire loan, and that the outstanding amount was purely admin costs.
So my question really is am I liable to pay this amount, and if so what sort of documentation should I have from the SLC before paying?
Many thanks
Paul

elfen

Short answer is yes, and yes you have to pay them.

It is quite usual to ask for admin costs, since most companies will charge for this (some £10 a letter, £15 a call, etc etc). It won't come under Statute Barred laws, as SLC are slightly different.

However, can you get in contact and ask what their full and final settlement would be (basically how much if you pay in cash) , which could be 40%+ off. Then get them to send this by post to you, then you send it back, ensuring it states that this is a full and final settlement and they expect no more monies from you. They won't mention admin costs then, but not sure if they needed to, since SLC doesn't have to abide by other laws (statute barred for example)

vaporate

Very unusual if you ask me. the SLC isnt a bank.

I took a loan out from 2006 and finished 2009. I havent met the 15k threshold yet tho.

So free for now.