ERUDIO student loans help

Cook1e

Hi


I've been following thread for sometime and its been a wealth of great advice and I'm not the only one whose had to make complaints due to Erudios poor communication and process. After a long 7 months I got a letter through with deferment granted. But at the bottom of the page it shows I am in still in arrears and the reason under Student Loan Regulations can be backdated a maximum of 3 months.


They have not made clear what this refers to but I presume it relates to the last complaint with Erudio regards claiming more arrears. One year with SLC I became defaulted, I had sent in payslips but I had accidently put in a weeks payslip thinking it was a monthly. I did not realise what I did until I found I had two charged notice letters. I called the SLC and explained they did not have enough evidence to defer. I came to an agreement that I would pay the two letter charges as no where did they it make clear of the error I had made. The deferment end date on the SLC was in June, I came to an agreement in August and paid only the letter charges. SLC sent me a deferment form which was backdated to June.


Please correct me if I am wrong, Does the 3 months backdating start from the deferment end date? If so I was within the 3 months of the backdating and SLC would not have sent me a deferment form showing the deferment start date being June otherwise.

Jonez

Poor communication is one of their favourite tricks. They did it with me, initially rejecting my deferment application, but failing to inform me that they had done so. As soon as I saw a DD had been set up, I chased immediately for an explanation and received a reply to this and all further correspondence quite quickly. Had I not chased and been very firm with them, I doubt they'd have done anything and allowed me to slip into arrears.

Cook1e

Yes I have notice poor communication is abundant. I had put in complaint in which they were very apologetic, but this letter says I have been granted deferment, but then there are unexplained arrears again. I thought you could not get deferred if you were in arrears. Looks like another letter to erudio to explain themselves

fermi

You can be deferred while there are arrears, and yes ordinarily deferment can only be backdeted by up to 3 months.

So if you were say 6 or 7 months in arrears, then backdating 3 would leave 3 or 4 months of arrears that would still be owed and payable immediately now, even though you are currently deferred on future payments for the next year.

But in this case I presume the only reason you got into 6 or 7 months worth of arrears was due to Erudio's own awkwardness, mistakes, poor communication etc. i.e their fault?

If so then you need to complain about that, and demand that they put things right by backdating the deferment fully so there are no arrears. telling them that if they do not you will take them to the FOS and may consider taking legal action.

plong979

Just subscribing to the thread as I'm currently waiting on the FOS to get back to my complaint.

Like a few folks on here I never signed their DAF and sent a letter along with the usual pay slips and they did the usual arrears business etc.

My arrears are now more than what it actually cost Erudio to pay my loans in the first place.

Will be interested to see what happens with my complaint now and other now that someone has been deferred without using their form.

Also I am so annoyed at not been given the chance to pay off my loans for the same amount as they were sold for. I would have jumped at the chance to pay it off for the pennies they sold them for.

Sold out by the government for business. Same old same old.

Jonez

Yep - it's a disgrace that the loans weren't offered to us - I'd have thought it would have been a relatively simple matter for the SLC to have managed that process and maybe just sell off the genuinely defaulted loans to companies that specialise in buying these. But I suspect the old boy network wouldn't have liked that approach......

Sarebear78

Poor communication, you say? Lol

Totally agree. I got a 'holding letter' for my complaint dated April TODAY!
This is the complaint that I have had a reply to already AND has already gone to (and been decided on by) the FOS.

I assume it must relate to the £100 compensation but it doesn't say anything about it, just that they are investigating matters raised in my letter.

Maybe they will have finished with this complaint (raised before last deferment) by next deferment.........not likely!

erudioed

Jonez wrote: »

Yep - it's a disgrace that the loans weren't offered to us - I'd have thought it would have been a relatively simple matter for the SLC to have managed that process and maybe just sell off the genuinely defaulted loans to companies that specialise in buying these. But I suspect the old boy network wouldn't have liked that approach......

And dont forget, BIS sold the loans so cheaply because they assumed most deferers wouldnt be paying anything, so was just like extra baggage on top of those with loans that they were already paying back or who had defaulted and Arrow could chase down (these were the cash cows in the deal according to BIS). As such, by offering those of us in deferment a chance to pay our loans off at 20% of the face value to clear our accounts would have been extra money the government could have potentially raised (on top of that raised by the sale of the loans). I dont know how many of us would have been able to afford to pay such a fee, but it would definitely have generated some cash for SLC/BIS/the Taxpayer that it wouldnt have previously got. It makes no sense really financially, unless there was another reason for incorporating us into the package sold to Arrow & Carval!

Jonez

It makes about as much sense as giving your mates Royal Mail at a knock down price and telling the public that they got a great deaL

kieranders

I sent this to Erudio today... (fingers crossed!) but I'm not too hopeful it will be acknowledged, let alone acted upon.


Following my email dated 11th December, to which I have received no reply or acknowledgement.


I am emailing as I have still had no response to my application for deferment...


I am so frustrated with the service received from Erudio Student Loans.


I applied for deferment in plenty of time, (it was may i think before I had any details or conatact from Erudio, although when I called in March to ask about why I hadn't been sent deferment forms I was told it would be sent soon. I sent in all information requested immediately. I was then asked to send in bank statements, which I did immediately. This was all done by June this year. I was then contacted to be told I had sent the wrong bank statements, so I immediately sent the correct information. the information I have sent took months to be logged on your systems ( I was told this over the phone, the statements I had sent in june hadn't been processed until October, and the second set hadn't been processed in November.), and I was eventually told I was in arrears and had to pay. I spoke to someone on the phone who assured me if I sent the information (again!) by email the deferment would prevent the need for paying the arrears. I sent this info, and last month received a letter to inform me of the amounts you were to take by direct debit. I immediately (again!) called and spoke to a gentleman who had no grasp of what I was saying, that refused to listen to my point that I had sent all information in within the three months and was insistent that I pay the arrears. When I told him I couldn't pay the arrears, and that I felt I shouldn't be made to pay them as I had complied totally with the deferment procedure, he said he would send me a finances form. I made the point that I don't need a finances form as I shouldn't be paying for an Erudio mistake. he sent the forms anyway, and the direct debit bounced this month. I felt I wasn't listened to, and that there were no other avenues for this gentleman to explore. I asked to speak to a manager, but was unsuccessful in that.


I can't make the payments, and can aptly demonstrate this, but with the amount of time it takes Erudio to do anything, it may be next years deferment that I need to complete. I in no way contest the amount I have outstanding on my student loans, but the whole deferment process this time has been an absolute nightmare. There were never these problems with SLC. I was hoping that it would be teething problems after Erudio bought my loan from SLC, but it appears that your systems have not improved.


I ask that any arrears be reattached to the loan, that my deferment be confirmed (its now 7 months since I applied and sent in evidence) and no direct debits be taken from my account.


Please, as a matter of interest, can you confirm that the system you use to log incoming mail has been taking a long time, as I was told on the phone, and that you now have everything that I have sent (2 sets of bank statements by mail and screen shots of online bank statements by email.)


I really hope to have this matter dealt with efficiently and satisfactorily as soon as possible.