Student Loan / Thesis

goccogal

Hello

I`m wondering if anyone could advise me on the following:

I have 3 student loans which were taken out 95-98 (all old style) and have always deferred due to never earning enough to pay back.

For some reason I did not receive my deferrment forms for this year but didn't realise until someone from Student Loans (I assumed at the time they were) rang to ask why I had not sent my deferrment forms back. They sent more out and I returned them and received notification that I had deferred until May 2014.

Not long after this I started receiving calls on my mobile and tracing the number I found that they were from Link Financial / Thesis. Some wide boy left me a message asking me to call them back which I have not. Since then I have had numerous calls per day (with them using different numbers or caller unknown which I have ignored). Looking further into them I found that some old style student loans have been sold to Thesis and others (still not sure if all 3 of mine have but 1 definately has). As I had just deferred I thought that there wasn`t a problem. So did not return their calls.

I have now received 2 letters from them.

The 1st stating that they have been trying to contact me in reference to my student loan which is being serviced by Thesis Service and are wanting to speak to me as a matter of urgency to ensure they have the most up-to-date information before they action my account which may result in arrears being applied to my account before I have had the opprtunity to adress the situation. I received this at the end of May. Before I was able to do anything about this as I was on holiday I recieved another letter dated 7th June which states that they acknowledge I have deferred until 2014 but there are now £76.90 arrears on the account. (How does this happen as I have deferred?). They also state that at the end of the deferrment period the full amount of outstanding arrears will become due immediately and not clearing the arrears during the current deferrement period will cause the loan to accelerate through their collection process and ultimately may affect abilty to obtain future credit.

As an aside I am currently on a DMP due to losing my job 6 year ago which is serviced through CCCS - now Step Change so am aware of the tricks DCA can play.

My credit file is currently okayish and any defaults have been put on my file and I only have a couple of years until they expire. I have since found this on MSE Credit Score info The Student Loans Company now has the option of registering a default against a student who has not been repaying their student loans. The initiative, which targets only those customers who took out loans before 1998, will refer debtors to credit reference agencies such as Experian when they fail to reply to letters asking them to get in contact to discuss their options. Ok I have not been repaying my loans but only because I do not earn enough and have deferred each year. Thesis now come up with that I am now in arrears of £76.90. I I do not want another default one there now.

Also I am 2 years off 50 years of age so technically my loans should be wiped but given that I now have alledged arrears on them they won`t.

I am unsure how to respond to them - should I ask for more info from them re: the arrears, should I ignore them or should I pay the money they are asking.

Many thanks

fermi

goccogal wrote: »

Before I was able to do anything about this as I was on holiday I recieved another letter dated 7th June which states that they acknowledge I have deferred until 2014 but there are now £76.90 arrears on the account. (How does this happen as I have deferred?).

It can happen as under the original credit agreement terms any missed deferment can only be backdated 3 months. So any missed payments beyond that 3 months may stay as "arrrears" even if you are re-deferred.

If you think that is wrong you could argue the toss, but for the sake of £77 I personally think you would be better clearing it, preventing a default, and preserving your write off.

Dunroamin

goccogal wrote: »

Hello

I`m wondering if anyone could advise me on the following:

I have 3 student loans which were taken out 95-98 (all old style) and have always deferred due to never earning enough to pay back.

For some reason I did not receive my deferrment forms for this year but didn't realise until someone from Student Loans (I assumed at the time they were) rang to ask why I had not sent my deferrment forms back. They sent more out and I returned them and received notification that I had deferred until May 2014.

Not long after this I started receiving calls on my mobile and tracing the number I found that they were from Link Financial / Thesis. Some wide boy left me a message asking me to call them back which I have not. Since then I have had numerous calls per day (with them using different numbers or caller unknown which I have ignored). Looking further into them I found that some old style student loans have been sold to Thesis and others (still not sure if all 3 of mine have but 1 definately has). As I had just deferred I thought that there wasn`t a problem. So did not return their calls.

I have now received 2 letters from them.

The 1st stating that they have been trying to contact me in reference to my student loan which is being serviced by Thesis Service and are wanting to speak to me as a matter of urgency to ensure they have the most up-to-date information before they action my account which may result in arrears being applied to my account before I have had the opprtunity to adress the situation. I received this at the end of May. Before I was able to do anything about this as I was on holiday I recieved another letter dated 7th June which states that they acknowledge I have deferred until 2014 but there are now £76.90 arrears on the account. (How does this happen as I have deferred?). They also state that at the end of the deferrment period the full amount of outstanding arrears will become due immediately and not clearing the arrears during the current deferrement period will cause the loan to accelerate through their collection process and ultimately may affect abilty to obtain future credit.

As an aside I am currently on a DMP due to losing my job 6 year ago which is serviced through CCCS - now Step Change so am aware of the tricks DCA can play.

My credit file is currently okayish and any defaults have been put on my file and I only have a couple of years until they expire. I have since found this on MSE Credit Score info The Student Loans Company now has the option of registering a default against a student who has not been repaying their student loans. The initiative, which targets only those customers who took out loans before 1998, will refer debtors to credit reference agencies such as Experian when they fail to reply to letters asking them to get in contact to discuss their options. Ok I have not been repaying my loans but only because I do not earn enough and have deferred each year. Thesis now come up with that I am now in arrears of £76.90. I I do not want another default one there now.

Also I am 2 years off 50 years of age so technically my loans should be wiped but given that I now have alledged arrears on them they won`t.

I am unsure how to respond to them - should I ask for more info from them re: the arrears, should I ignore them or should I pay the money they are asking.

Many thanks

You seem to have had a gap of about a month when your loans weren't covered by a deferment, which is why you've accrued arrears - this is something that happened to me too some years ago. If you don't receive the deferment forms at the proper time it's your responsibility to request them and I think you're lucky the SLC rang you about this.

I agree that you should find the money from somewhere as you can't have the loans wiped out if there are any outstanding arrears - I believe that they should accept this as instalments if necessary.

goccogal

Thanks for the reply.

The thing is the backdating issue doesn`t come into play as there has not been a gap of over 3 months from the end of my last deferrment to the begining of my new one. Any deferrment letter always says deferred upto April the following year. Because this year it was slightly late my deferrment is up to May 2014 and not April 2014. So perhaps there is a gap and it is not continous from last year.

Perhaps that is where the `arrears` come from then?! Should I just ask for it to be deferred further back (a matter of weeks at most). SLC said that once my deferrment forms were received they would automatically backdate as I am not past the 3 months mark. I am wondering if this is where the sharp practices of Thesis/Link Financial come into play.

I agree about paying it but think I will contact SLC to see where the arrears comes from. Any contact with Thesis will be via letter only.

Thanks again

goccogal

Thanks Dunroamin and Fermi

Will definately follow this up with both SLC and Thesis.

Thx

Dunroamin

goccogal wrote: »

Thanks for the reply.

The thing is the backdating issue doesn`t come into play as there has not been a gap of over 3 months from the end of my last deferrment to the begining of my new one. Any deferrment letter always says deferred upto April the following year. Because this year it was slightly late my deferrment is up to May 2014 and not April 2014. So perhaps there is a gap and it is not continous from last year.

Perhaps that is where the `arrears` come from then?! Should I just ask for it to be deferred further back (a matter of weeks at most). SLC said that once my deferrment forms were received they would automatically backdate as I am not past the 3 months mark. I am wondering if this is where the sharp practices of Thesis/Link Financial come into play.

I agree about paying it but think I will contact SLC to see where the arrears comes from. Any contact with Thesis will be via letter only.

Thanks again

Sorry, I'd forgotten the three months backdating possibility.

My loans were sold to Honours Student Loans and I found that there was a lack of communication between them and SLC - do you think that this could be the case here?

fermi

goccogal wrote: »

Because this year it was slightly late my deferrment is up to May 2014 and not April 2014. So perhaps there is a gap and it is not continous from last year.

Which suggests a one month payment of arrears are due?

As far as I recall, the 3 months backdating is discretionary anyway. i.e. they can backdate it by that much if they want, but they are not forced to.

So if you have a month not covered by a deferment then it may be due?

goccogal

Dunroamin wrote: »

Sorry, I'd forgotten the three months backdating possibility.

My loans were sold to Honours Student Loans and I found that there was a lack of communication between them and SLC - do you think that this could be the case here?

Quite possibly. Now that Thesis have their grubby little mits on it I don`t think they will let it lie. Will speak to SLC tomorrow and see where we go from there. I`ll send a letter to Thesis asking where the arrears comes from, may give me some breathing space. I know the amount isn`t much but I`m on a DMP so they will have to accept reduce payments...how reduced is anyones guess after what I have been reading about them.

Thanks

goccogal

fermi wrote: »

Which suggests a one month payment of arrears are due?

As far as I recall, the 3 months backdating is discretionary anyway. i.e. they can backdate it by that much if they want, but they are not forced to.

So if you have a month not covered by a deferment then it may be due?

Oh I didn`t realise it was discretionary. From what I was advised it would be automatically be backdated. Looks like that isn`t the case here as there is a matter of weeks where the arrears have therefore accrued.

Dunroamin

I didn't realise it was discretionary either, although I haven't heard of that discretion not being used - it certainly was for me.

When I was in that position, I think they asked for a fairly infomal SOA and accepted £10 per month, although that was actually some years ago so may have changed.