ERUDIO student loans help

jonboysez

Hi all
Just noticed this thread about Erudio sending recent letter stating repayment amount, if not in deferment, and they have done exactly the same to me - I have posted it in the loans forum - the amount they have said I would have to repay comes to over £3.5k more than my balance on 31/08/14 if I were to pay the whole 60 repayments (but I have less than 60 months before it is cancelled on my 60th birthday) - I think they have tried to increase the repayments in line with the reduced period, but if someone only had 12 months to go they cant make them pay say over £1000 per month! Even taking that into account how can the interest be over 3.5 grand over 5 years when the interest over the first 15 years was only a couple of hundred more than that and interest rates have fallen loads since 1998. If they try to make me pay at this ridiculous rate it would be cheaper to get a Barclays bank loan and pay it off in full - I've used their calculator and I would save over £2000 in interest! Anyway I have asked Erudio to show me their calculation - I made a contract to pay it back under the rules when I took it out so if they have changed the rules surely they are in breach of contract?

rizla_king

Erudio can't change the number of payments left on your loan to suit themselves and fiddle it so it's all paid before being written off at 50 or 60 or 25 years. It's an astonishing breach of the terms of your agreement and the law. :mad:

Pluthero

jonboysez wrote: »

Hi all
Just noticed this thread about Erudio sending recent letter stating repayment amount, if not in deferment, and they have done exactly the same to me - I have posted it in the loans forum - the amount they have said I would have to repay comes to over £3.5k more than my balance on 31/08/14 if I were to pay the whole 60 repayments (but I have less than 60 months before it is cancelled on my 60th birthday) - I think they have tried to increase the repayments in line with the reduced period, but if someone only had 12 months to go they cant make them pay say over £1000 per month! Even taking that into account how can the interest be over 3.5 grand over 5 years when the interest over the first 15 years was only a couple of hundred more than that and interest rates have fallen loads since 1998. If they try to make me pay at this ridiculous rate it would be cheaper to get a Barclays bank loan and pay it off in full - I've used their calculator and I would save over £2000 in interest! Anyway I have asked Erudio to show me their calculation - I made a contract to pay it back under the rules when I took it out so if they have changed the rules surely they are in breach of contract?

Just get a wonga loan!

Seriously that is incredible if true and if Erudio put it in writing GREAT!

Send that one to the FCA because its well out of order!

gardenia101

Hi All

Not been on here for a while so I'm aiming to catch up tomorrow when I have a rare day off work.

Just wondering if anyone else is still waiting for paperwork from Erudio? My last deferment period with the old SLC ended in July, yet I've not had any correspondence from Erudio about the sale, the welcome pack they send out to everyone (so they say :whistle:), any statement, any notice of arrears (which there are now), any d/d notification - not a thing.

The only paperwork I've received is in response to my phone call/emails & I still haven't had a DAF (well not in large print), a statement, a NOI.... you get the picture.

I have put in a formal complaint & we're now at the start of week 4 - if we go to week 8 with no payments from me, I'll be 3 months in arrears & they'll be able to say I've defaulted (which I imagine is what they want). They have confirmed that I won't receive any communication from them during the 8 weeks, but that "payments will still become due".

So I'll be in default unless I make a payment (that I shouldn't be making as I'm below the threshold) before they've replied to my complaint - have I got that right?

Pluthero

gardenia101 wrote: »

Hi All

Not been on here for a while so I'm aiming to catch up tomorrow when I have a rare day off work.

Just wondering if anyone else is still waiting for paperwork from Erudio? My last deferment period with the old SLC ended in July, yet I've not had any correspondence from Erudio about the sale, the welcome pack they send out to everyone (so they say :whistle:), any statement, any notice of arrears (which there are now), any d/d notification - not a thing.

The only paperwork I've received is in response to my phone call/emails & I still haven't had a DAF (well not in large print), a statement, a NOI.... you get the picture.

I have put in a formal complaint & we're now at the start of week 4 - if we go to week 8 with no payments from me, I'll be 3 months in arrears & they'll be able to say I've defaulted (which I imagine is what they want). They have confirmed that I won't receive any communication from them during the 8 weeks, but that "payments will still become due".

So I'll be in default unless I make a payment (that I shouldn't be making as I'm below the threshold) before they've replied to my complaint - have I got that right?

Yeah! That's about right! All designed to put you under pressure to PAY!

However someone on another thread (under threshold and fighting erudio about it) said they are letting Erudio steal their money then claiming it back under the DD gurantee to ensure they don't go into default: which has happened for a number of months! Which is a good plan if you are worried about defaulting AND also creates a paper trail for you to put in future complaints. But you can complain NOW to the FCA and I urge you all everyone else to do so. :mad:

anna2007

@ gardenia101 - have Erudio told you in writing that "payments will still become due" whilst they consider your complaint? If so, that's evidence that they're breaching the FCA and CSA rules (see post # 1806, page 91 for details of the rules).

When Erudio acknowledged my formal complaint, they stated, "We confirm that all collection activity will be suspended until we have issued our final response". So not only are they breaking the rules, they're not treating you fairly or consistently. If you'd like a copy of this letter, let me know and I'll post it up here.

I'd suggest sending a strongly worded email to [EMAIL="customerservice@erudiostudentloans.co.uk"]customerservice@erudiostudentloans.co.uk[/EMAIL], attach the evidence that they're not putting your account on hold (a copy of your formal complaint too), copy in consumer.queries@fca.org.uk[EMAIL="mfiler@wilmingtontrust.com"]; mfiler@wilmingtontrust.com[/EMAIL] [EMAIL="biscom@parliament.uk"]stuart.lammin@carval.com; biscom@parliament.uk[/EMAIL]; [EMAIL="Treascom@parliament.uk"]treascom@parliament.uk[/EMAIL]

Tell them you are also submitting a complaint to the CSA - you can do that here http://www.csa-uk.com/consumer/help-and-advice/- see under "Your Rights". CSA won't consider any info that they're copied into, but you can complete the pdf complaint form and email it to CSA to speed things up.

If any of the email contacts mysteriously disappear, PM me and I'll send them to you

anna2007

jonboysez wrote: »

Hi all
Just noticed this thread about Erudio sending recent letter stating repayment amount, if not in deferment, and they have done exactly the same to me - I have posted it in the loans forum - the amount they have said I would have to repay comes to over £3.5k more than my balance on 31/08/14 if I were to pay the whole 60 repayments (but I have less than 60 months before it is cancelled on my 60th birthday) - I think they have tried to increase the repayments in line with the reduced period, but if someone only had 12 months to go they cant make them pay say over £1000 per month! Even taking that into account how can the interest be over 3.5 grand over 5 years when the interest over the first 15 years was only a couple of hundred more than that and interest rates have fallen loads since 1998. If they try to make me pay at this ridiculous rate it would be cheaper to get a Barclays bank loan and pay it off in full - I've used their calculator and I would save over £2000 in interest! Anyway I have asked Erudio to show me their calculation - I made a contract to pay it back under the rules when I took it out so if they have changed the rules surely they are in breach of contract?

It's most likely that Erudio have reduced the number of repayments to coincide with the date your loans are due to be cancelled, pushing the monthly repayment amount up - they have done the same to me and a number of others who have posted on the forums. They can only charge interest at the rate of RPI, currently 2.5%.

And yes, they're in breach of contract, the repayment period is strictly 60 months (if you've made any previous payments since taking out your loans, deduct these and that's the number of months you should be paying over).

You can work out (roughly) if this is what Erudio have done by:

outstanding balance x (0.20833 x number of months to cancellation)/100 to work out interest.

Then (outstanding balance + interest)/number of months to cancellation.

This factors in interest at the current APR of 2.5%. Does this figure come close to Erudio's monthly repayment amount? If so, then it looks like they've reduced your repayment period and you need to get a formal complaint in (remember to copy in the FCA!).

Jonez

My recent statement gives a monthly repayment figure that looks approx. correct if I deduct the number of payments that I made some years ago. I'm now 7 months from cancellation and still awaiting some problem or another to arise with them. Anyone on here had their loans cancelled by Erudio as per the rules?

gardenia101

Pluthero wrote: »

Yeah! That's about right! All designed to put you under pressure to PAY!

However someone on another thread (under threshold and fighting erudio about it) said they are letting Erudio steal their money then claiming it back under the DD gurantee to ensure they don't go into default: which has happened for a number of months! Which is a good plan if you are worried about defaulting AND also creates a paper trail for you to put in future complaints. But you can complain NOW to the FCA and I urge you all everyone else to do so. :mad:

Sadly Erudio are unable to claim any d/d from my account even though they confirm that they have the correct bank details - which have never changed & which SLC managed to use quite successfully. Not sure if that is due to incompetence or because they want to force me into defaulting.

If I want to make a payment I have to put it on my credit card.

anna2007 wrote: »

@ gardenia101 - have Erudio told you in writing that "payments will still become due" whilst they consider your complaint? If so, that's evidence that they're breaching the FCA and CSA rules (see post # 1806, page 91 for details of the rules).

When Erudio acknowledged my formal complaint, they stated, "We confirm that all collection activity will be suspended until we have issued our final response". So not only are they breaking the rules, they're not treating you fairly or consistently. If you'd like a copy of this letter, let me know and I'll post it up here....

Yes they are saying "We can confirm that whilst your complaint is being investigated you will not recieve any calls from us regarding arrears, however payments will still become due.[FONT=Default Sans Serif,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]
Trusting this clarifies the situation."

I read the FCA/CSA rules to say that collection activity must stop during the complaint, which they are complying with since they aren't phoning me any more & have never been able to correspond well. But I can't see anywhere where it says that the debt itself stops running - which is what I'm worried about. If I wait til the 8 weeks are up I will have missed 3 payments & therefore defaulted....

No doubt playing straight into their hands.

I don't think they've treated any of us fairly :rotfl:

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jonboysez

I'm still waiting for a reply from Erudio - I emailed them again today reminding them it was now over 7 days since they said they would reply in 7 days - my annual statement says the closing balance on my loan at 31/08/14 was £10,267.35 and, unless in deferment, I would need to pay £228.32 on the 15th of each month. Now I make that 60 X 228.32 = £13699.20 but I am 60 on 19 Jan 2019 and presently deferred until 14/05/15. I took out 4 loans amounting to £6360. Anyone make any sense of this amount they say I would need to repay if not in deferment??