ERUDIO student loans help

Tommygunn

In relation to my above post, and Erudio's refusal of my version of Section 9, I have composed the letter below.
Your comments please.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Re: Customer Ref. No .

Yesterday I received your letter, dated the 14th July 2015, stating that Section 9 of my completed deferment form has to be redone as per your instruction.

I have already agreed to a set of terms and conditions, many years ago, when my loan was with the UK government and I am well aware that when my loan was sold to Erudio that these T&Cs remained intact and, therefore, I am holding to them as the current status quo.

Because of this you do not have the right, under existing UK law, to insist that I agree to your own additional T&Cs and, in addition, if I do not, to use this as grounds to refuse deferment, if all other obligations are met by myself.

I would also point out that unless there was a drastic change from your side since last year then my deferment should be approved forthwith as my circumstances have not altered.
Additionally, I am aware that deferment has been granted to another client of yours, in May of this year, using the T&Cs that I have used. Considering your stance on consistency and ‘treating others fairly’ I would presume that deferment for myself would be a simple matter.

If my deferment is not approved under my original T&Cs then I will pursue this further under your own complaints procedure and/or that of the Financial Ombudsman Service and possibly, if not resolved, Small Claims Court.

Yours sincerely,

Pluthero

Nice letter. But I can tell you that erudios response will be

FACK YOU! PAY ME.

However do all the things you said as you can claim to have tried all forms of ADR before going down the legal route. Court is the only thing makes them back down.

Forever

I am legally able to defer.

I have just heard back from Erudio and they have declined my 30% settlement offer.

I have just sent an email to ask why it has been declined this time.

eroneo

Forever wrote: »

I am legally able to defer.

I have just heard back from Erudio and they have declined my 30% settlement offer.

I have just sent an email to ask why it has been declined this time.

I stopped following this thread for a while so I may have missed some stuff.

Is anyone known to have haggled a partial settlement so far?

I suspect they are just too greedy. Plus once word gets out they are accepting part payment, no one will want to pay in full.

Taking them to court gives a chance for a confidential settlement. Plus your offer of 30% would look good compared getting nothing but an adverse judgement and legal bill.

I was reading about the psychology of banks and the book said they have a split personality neurosis. The left side of the bank brain is greedy and wants to make as much money as possible while the right side is suffering extreme fear of losing money. Basicially, they want to make tons of money without any risk but the two are mutally exclusive.

If you want your settlement, they need to have some fear.

anna2007

I was looking for an old Erudio email to send on to someone, and reread one of the messages I sent to the BIS Select Committee on Student Loans last year. One year on, it feels like I've got lost in my own personal battle with Erudio, I'm sure each of us feels that way. But when this was all new in May of last year, that last sentence of my email is the real reason for the fight - the fact that, if current Government policy remains the same, I would rather my three children take a different route from higher education, than face an insurmountable mountain of debt for the rest of their lives. That's a !!!!ing shocking indictment of current Government policy, and the sorry thing is that nothing at all has changed my mind since, if anything I'm more convinced than ever that my children don't ever come across the likes of Erudio - still, it's another ten years until we have to face that dilemma with our son, we can live in hope

Dear Mr Davies,

I am one of around 250,000 borrowers whose mortgage style student loans were sold off by the Government to Erudio Student Loans at the end of last year. I came across details of the current inquiry by the BIS Committee by chance yesterday evening, and wanted to make you aware of the difficulties that borrowers are experiencing in dealing with Erudio, as the new owner of our loans. You will be aware that almost half of the sold loan book are borrowers who are entitled to defer repayments due to their earnings being below the repayment threshold.

Despite assurances from David Willetts in the media that the terms and conditions of borrowers’ loan agreements would not change, there is evidence that Erudio are attempting to impose new terms via the deferment application form, terms which will be of detriment to the borrower. By incorporating these terms into the application form, Erudio are giving borrowers little choice but to complete the form, or face delays in the processing of their deferment applications. I have attached my formal letter of complaint to Erudio, which gives full details of the main issues.

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence of the ongoing Customer Service issues currently being experienced by users of internet forums, the main issues being excessive delays in the processing of deferment applications (2-3 months with Erudio, compared to 2-3 weeks with the SLC), and direct debit payments being taken from deferred borrowers’ bank accounts in error. I have yet to be personally affected by these issues, as my deferment application has only been with Erudio for one week.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4923210

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/a2028211-erudio-student-loans

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4923210

Some of the recent media coverage of the Erudio issues are shown here:

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/may/20/student-loan-erudio-under-fire

http://www.independent.co.uk/money/loans-credit/money-alert-erudio-student-loans-and-the-ombudsman-9319080.html

http://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2014/05/06/the-government-has-sold-people-out-over-erudio-student-loans/

The Financial Ombudsman Service is already aware of the issues, as borrowers are turning to the ombudsman for help.

There is an obvious conflict of interest with the transfer of deferred loans to the private sector: Erudio’s main objective is to maximise the return on their investment, regardless of whether a borrower is entitled to defer loan repayments. It is evident that Erudio are making the deferment application process extremely onerous for borrowers, in order to maximise their returns.

I appreciate that the evidence sessions are now closed for the inquiry, but I do hope that you can ask Committee members to take into account the reality of what borrowers are having to face once their student loans are sold to the private sector. I dread to think of the scale of these problems should the Government continue with further sales of the student loan books. Perhaps most concerning for me, however, is that as the mother of three young children, I would have little option but to discourage them from continuing with their education, if the current situation is an indication of how student finance will develop over the next 10 to 15 years.

eroneo

Any young person who goes to University today (without rich parents) is being taken for a 'mug'.

So sad because a University education is valuable in so many ways but it is just not worth your children being sold to and becoming the property of a debt collector.

anna2007

eroneo wrote: »

For the FOI refusal I see:
https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1189/commercialdetrimentof3rdparties.pdf
and this
https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1178/awareness_guidance_5_v3_07_03_08.pdf

Yes, the Derry case from your first link is mentioned in my internal review request, and I used the general public interest factors from your second link as the basis for my argument in the same letter.

eroneo wrote: »

The legitimate interest is one of 6 conditions for processing in the DPA, consent is another. At least one of the 6 must be satisfied or the processing is automatically deemed unfair. However, even if one or more conditions ARE satisfied, it does not automatically mean the processing is fair. This is often misunderstood.

Credit checks are unfair because the SLC did not mention credit checks when you were invited to sign up. The argument that it is in the legitimate interests is irrellevant.

Just to clarify, it's not Erudio who have mentioned legitimate interests, that was ICO and Experian. I'm sure Erudio are well aware (or maybe not, if we believe they're as incompetent as they want the customer/regulator/ombudsman/law to believe) the legitimate interests condition is a dead duck - my understanding is that if they rely on that condition, the individual's legitimate interests take precedence. Erudio will stick with the consent argument, unless that's ruled against in court and they're desperate to make another DPA condition 'fit' their position.

anna2007

eroneo wrote: »

Any young person who goes to University today (without rich parents) is being taken for a 'mug'.

So sad because a University education is valuable in so many ways but it is just not worth your children being sold to and becoming the property of a debt collector.

Completely agree, I was the first in my immediate family to go to University and I remember how it felt like an immense achievement and honour getting there. Of course I want my children to have that (if it's what they want), but if things are the same as they are now, I'd be failing my kids if I didn't warn them that the loans will end up in the same grubby little hands as the likes of Erudio.

I honestly don't think a degree holds much value these days, unless it's a specialised subject. It seems obvious to me that the changes to the primary/secondary education system here in Scotland is shifting focus, giving equal weight to the practical versus the academic, which maybe isn't all bad as they can see the current system's saturated with graduates?

My son's been saying for months now he wants to be an RAF pilot (granted, he's only 8 and changed his vocation to chef when we watched Ratatouille before his bed!), but there are various routes into that, same with most jobs. If the student finance system remains the same/gets worse than it is currently, I wouldn't hesitate to push him towards the practical route, if it saves him tens of thousands in student loans and eventually being in the claws of DCA's. Maybe that's the Bullingdon Club's grand plan, so they don't have to mix with us plebs... tally-ho!!

Lungboy

If my child wants to go to university and things are the same or similar to now, she'll be going to study in Germany. Free higher education for all, courses are in English, it's a no brainer.

Forever

eroneo wrote: »

I stopped following this thread for a while so I may have missed some stuff.

Is anyone known to have haggled a partial settlement so far?

I suspect they are just too greedy. Plus once word gets out they are accepting part payment, no one will want to pay in full.

Taking them to court gives a chance for a confidential settlement. Plus your offer of 30% would look good compared getting nothing but an adverse judgement and legal bill.

I was reading about the psychology of banks and the book said they have a split personality neurosis. The left side of the bank brain is greedy and wants to make as much money as possible while the right side is suffering extreme fear of losing money. Basicially, they want to make tons of money without any risk but the two are mutally exclusive.

If you want your settlement, they need to have some fear.

So far, I haven't heard of anyone successfully arranging a partial settlement. There is someone else on here battling for partial settlement too, but our circumstances are different.

The bad side to a partial settlement is that you have to agree that they will mark your credit files for at least 6 years showing that you 'partially settled'.

I think this is why they have said 'no' to me (again), as I originally argued that this wasn't fair. But I will have to wait until I hear back from them to be sure. Whenever that will be.