ERUDIO student loans help

Lungboy

I emailed Erudio back yesterday after their reply stating they can't accept an amended DAF. They replied today saying they have opened a formal complaint for me and to wait 8 weeks. Great, but what about my deferment? They utterly failed to mention the main issue.

gardenia101

GirlFromMars wrote: »

Any thoughts on whether or not to accept a compensation offer from Erudio for telling me my loan was up for deferment when I was in the middle of a three year deferment period or make a complaint to the financial ombudsman?

It was a super stressful time last year, with lots of in tears type phonecalls to Erudio, but I didn't actually make a complaint, and don't have any supporting evidence about how stressful their demands for financial evidence made me. And other than the occasional worry about the thought of getting evidence together to defer again next year, I've done my best not to think about Erudio in the meantime.

Anyway, strange envelope arrived in the mail this afternoon, after ascertaining that it wasn't brown, and was probably safe to open without eliciting a panic attack I discovered a letter from Erudio (panic!) offering me compensation for the stress they caused me (interesting, but I'd still prefer never to hear from them again!).

So, what are the implications of accepting the offer vs. complaining to the ombudsman? Honestly, I could absolutely deal without the stress of doing anything. Even the thought of going to the bank with a cheque is stressful enough. But, I'm not sure whether that's just letting Erudio get away with the stress they cause.

GirlFromMars wrote: »

There's a similar case listed on the Financial Ombudsman page. http://www.ombudsman-decisions.org.uk/viewPDF.aspx?FileID=83882

My guess is that a lot of people were sent the regular Erudio paperwork when they were still in a deferment period. The SLC had a system where vulnerable clients were given a 3 year deferment option, and either Erudio didn't know about this, or completely ignored it and sent out their regular paperwork to vulnerable clients who's loans weren't due for deferral for years to come.

I guess they must have realised that the Financial Ombudsman would take a very dim view if more of these cases ended up with them & decided to offer compensation to the rest of us who were put in this situation.

I was offered £100 compensation (despite never having asked for anything) not sure if it's better to just take it and forget about them again till next year, or complain to the financial ombudsman so that they know there are more cases.

Erudio certainly knew about the 3 year deferment back in Aug 2014 when they first started asking me to start paying off my loan - it was one of their (decent) staff that told me I'd probably be eligible for it! The SLC never mentioned it to me during the last few years of yearly deferment, even though they knew I'd become permanently disabled & had a long period of no work.

As for complaining - that's a difficult one. From a numbers POV about total Erudio !!!! ups then yes, it would be better overall if you complained as they'd be a record (anyone believe Erudio will keep accurate internal records about any complaints that never reached FOS ). I think they're offering it to you in the hope that you don't go to FOS. If you did you may even be awarded more compensation, although you could get less but I think that is unlikely.

My personal opinion is that anyone who has been messed about by them should complain; its clear that we aren't talking about a company that has made a few unfortunate mistakes - we're talking about a company that shirks on its duty to behave in a decent, fair way to a large number of its customers because that is the way they have chosen to conduct their business. Which is just plain wrong, so any additional complaints via FOS/FCA can only help.

Dealing with FOS is nothing like dealing with Erudio - although it does take a long time to get anything sorted!

But I don't know anything about your personal situation, & you need to look after yourself first so if you feel it is too much then don't complain - it's not like there aren't a lot of complaints on file already :rotfl:

Sorry, I know this comes across as being patronising, which isn't how I mean it at all, but I can't find the words to express it better.

Lungboy wrote: »

I emailed Erudio back yesterday after their reply stating they can't accept an amended DAF. They replied today saying they have opened a formal complaint for me and to wait 8 weeks. Great, but what about my deferment? They utterly failed to mention the main issue.

AIUI your account will continue to accrue arrears (if they believe you should be making payments) & interest will continue to be added (or maybe not, seeing as adding interest seems a little variable with Erudio ) but any collection activity such as letters/phone calls [STRIKE]demanding[/STRIKE] asking you nicely to pay up should stop.

gardenia101

Grand work Anna - looking forward to reading it when it appears. Thank you for doing so much work on our behalf :beer:

Anyone get an annual statement for 14/15 yet? How long shall we give them to get them out in the post to us?

Pleased to report my compensation cheque cleared my account - relieved as I wasn't looking forward to trying to get a cheque with my name spelt correctly on it.

rizla_king

This just popped up on Google alerts for me

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?451877-Erudio-have-sent-default-notice-and-debt-collector-at-the-door!

BorderReiver14

Poor soul... I hope she stays strong and finds the time to fight them. There must be loads of cases we have not heard about yet and loads of poor souls who have bought Erudio's crap.

BorderReiver14

Lungboy wrote: »

I emailed Erudio back yesterday after their reply stating they can't accept an amended DAF. They replied today saying they have opened a formal complaint for me and to wait 8 weeks. Great, but what about my deferment? They utterly failed to mention the main issue.

Write them a clearly worded letter telling them why you are not happy. Spell it out to them so they are under no illusions as to what you want and that unless they grant your deferment its off to the FOS.

gardenia101

rizla_king wrote: »

This just popped up on Google alerts for me

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?451877-Erudio-have-sent-default-notice-and-debt-collector-at-the-door!

Goodness, that thread makes scary reading - I hope she manages to sort out her deferral/loan being called in. Sounds like they are starting to play hard-ball, but I suppose they have to make some money to cover all the FOS complaints

No update from FOS about my statement that isn't a statement, but they are looking into it to decide what is the best way for me to proceed. Really hope I can just add it to me previous complaints about Erudio not corresponding in large print - if not I guess its another fresh complaint & that will take a long time. I also like the adjudicator I have as she has been very helpful & explained things clearly (even if I haven't always agreed :rotfl:), & of course she knows the whole history.

On the plus side - if I have to file a fresh complaint with FOS would that mean Erudio would have another fine to pay regardless of any extra compensation that may be awarded?

No reply from my latest email to Erudio - not that I was expecting one Are they speaking to any of you guys?

anna2007

That CAG case is awful Any new Mum would do the same - if anything Erudio-related had landed at the same time as my kids being born, it would have been quickly filed away in the who gives a crap drawer. And the truth is, many of the loans bought by Arrow Global/Carval will be owned by women in exactly her situation.

Gardenia there are signs of some kind of (pond)life at Erudio, I received copies of my original loan agreements in post today - it's only taken about 14 months and a FOS complaint to get there! I haven't had a chance to check back to the previous copies, but the number of clauses at least seems right, so they may finally be true copies of the originals. It's maybe cost Erudio over £800 in FOS fees, compensation and admin to get to this point, so not all bad

Also heard from the adjudicator for my other complaint on the annual statement - Erudio have agreed to waive all interest for last year and give a new statement, also £200 compensation... sounds good, but my gripe is about the waiving of interest (among other things). All I asked for was an accurate statement and the waived interest really isn't a benefit if the loans are likely to be cancelled. It means yet more fannying about, but I think it should still go to the ombudsman, as it needs his/her stamp of approval via a decision before it's legally binding on Erudio. The simple truth is I don't trust Erudio to not rear their Medusa-like-head again years down the line and claim I owe them over the interest waived in error.

I'm sure most reading this thread has been at the receiving end of Erudio's tactics - what if every one of us made a complaint to FOS, costing Erudio £700+ each time? Arrow Global/Carval ARE Erudio, they surely won't like their profit being reduced, or the negative publicity of published FOS decisions.


Arrow Global/Carval = Erudio = A Hellish Student Loans Consortium

erudioed

Indeed, a hellish consortium. I just found this in a 2015 report by Arrow Global, it states that Arrow Global is just another outsourced service provider for CarVal Investors. So CarVal buy the debt, they outsource Arrow Global to control the collections operation, with Arrow Global then outsourcing the frontline customer service operations to Capita. All under the front of a shell company with zero employees named Erudio.
Sorry i know you all know that, i just felt like restating it.
CarVal Investors is a subsidiary of Cargill, Inc, which is mainly owned by the Cargill family, listed on Wikipedia as:
"The Cargill family is one of the richest families in the world, holders of Cargill, the largest privately held corporation in the United States. The family members are the descendants of William W. Cargill who started the company in Iowa after the Civil War. The Cargill family owns 90% of the company. The exact wealth of the family is unknown, because, as Cargill company is privately owned, they are under no obligation to disclose their wealth.".

Not only that, but most of us will also be indirectly paying them and eating something produced by them: "Its $50 billion "ingredients" business touches pretty much anything salted, sweetened, preserved, fortified, emulsified, or texturized, or anything whose raw taste or smell had to be masked in order to make it palatable." It also provides some of the raw ingredients for the slop served up by Mcdonalds....but this is the least of its criticisms, which range from environmental pollution to destruction of rainforests.
Its a rather strange circle really. They have one hand around our financial bazookoides, whilst we are happy paying customers on the other, yet all the time being covertly poisoned by them. I guess this must the dream of the biggest right wing nutcase you can think of. But there is something consistent in all this, they do it all without anyone really knowing it is Cargill, Inc. They hide behind subsidiaries and different trading names, whilst in the UK outsource the debt collection work. I guess it makes Zach Lewy just another errand boy, taking the stick for something where he is little more than a baby fly on a compost heap.



Heres the Arrow Global report mentioned initially anyway and one quote taken from it:
http://www.arrowglobalir.net/files/file/download/id/261

The Group earns a fee for acting as master servicer for Carval Investors and providing specific outsourced services


Heres a list of all Arrow Global Group's UK and Guernsey (4) based businesses and subsidiaries as well if anyone's interested. See P.103:
http://www.arrowglobalir.net/files/file/download/id/233

anna2007

erudioed wrote: »

Indeed, a hellish consortium.

I was going to work my way back and add that to lots of posts, thinking if it's mentioned enough times in the thread, it might come up in Google searches and generate some bad publicity for Arrow Global/Carval... I got fed up after about 5 posts

erudioed wrote: »

Heres a list of all Arrow Global Group's UK and Guernsey (4) based businesses and subsidiaries as well if anyone's interested. See P.103:
http://www.arrowglobalir.net/files/file/download/id/233

Maybe Jeremy's appointment today will help shake things up as far as dodgy Guernsey-related tax arrangements go?

Jeremy emailed me earlier to ask what questions I'd like to be put to Dave - there are more than a few, but I'd really like to know how their government justifies subjecting so many graduates (many more to follow I'm sure with the future sales) to Erudio's misery, to supposedly pay down a debt that has risen more in 5 years of Osborne than it did in the previous 13 years of Labour. The proceeds from our sale were a fart in the wind, didn't make the slightest dent in reducing public debt, but came with a huge, disproportionate affect on ordinary people's lives. That tells you something about Tory ideology.

Edit: Jez is all for scrapping student loans and bringing back the grant - we should all bombard him with our Erudio experiences and give a link to this thread.