Paying off Student Loan by CC

ascouse

Did anyone know that from April 1st 2007 Student Loans company impose a 1.5% charge for paying off by credit card.

Bang goes my way of earning some airmiles on my NatWest cc before they finish in June.

What I wanted to do was pay off a chunk of the loan and then pay CC on receipt of bill straight away. Now if I pay off £3.5k I would incur a £52 fee.

"it's not us, it's the bank" was the reply. I asked why we as customers had not been informed....reply "it's not us, it's the bank"

Anyone know of this and whether they should have informed their customers.

cheers
ascouse

squawkbox

ascouse wrote: »

Did anyone know that from April 1st 2007 Student Loans company impose a 1.5% charge for paying off by credit card.

Bang goes my way of earning some airmiles on my NatWest cc before they finish in June.

What I wanted to do was pay off a chunk of the loan and then pay CC on receipt of bill straight away. Now if I pay off £3.5k I would incur a £52 fee.

"it's not us, it's the bank" was the reply. I asked why we as customers had not been informed....reply "it's not us, it's the bank"

Anyone know of this and whether they should have informed their customers.

cheers
ascouse

The credit card has always been something that I find interesting.

The companies should absorb the payment themselves - as surely the payment is instant, so they gain with their own interest payments, they gain from removing someone manually processing cheques and they save some money from the increased security that paying my card offers.

The student loans company should simply change their bank / find ways to cut costs or simply absorb the charge.

EDIT: To answer your question; yep they certainly should have sent out a notification to all customers.

seaweasel

Why pay that much of your loan off in one go anyway?

ascouse

seaweasel wrote: »

Why pay that much of your loan off in one go anyway?

I've got the cash and I want to reduce my personal debt and the airmiles would be useful.

sophie_maxwell

ascouse wrote: »

I've got the cash and I want to reduce my personal debt and the airmiles would be useful.

That's an interesting idea, if not for their charge it would make sense to perhaps use a cashback credit card :think: