ERUDIO student loans help

8Steve8

Hi
Hoping for some advice, I just received a letter from Erudio informing me the management of my account has been transferred to Moorcroft Debt Recovery.

This is the first communication I have had from Erudio since filling in the forms they sent back in 2014. An oversight on my behalf but used to just getting a deferment form and sending it back once a year.

I've called Erudio and to cut a long story short, they received my forms which included updated contact details, but didn't update my actual account. Subsequently all communication has been sent to my previous address. As I haven't been in contact my loan agreement has been cancelled and the debt passed to Moorcroft.

Erudio admitted they have made an error and offered me £50 compensation, but refused to reverse the decision, putting the fault with me for not contacting them sooner.

Anyone dealt with similar issue or have any advise, should I escalate complaint with Erudio or go straight to FOS. Also what to do about Moorcroft, they were OK tbh just keen to get me into a payment plan!

Brooker_Dave

Try the FOS, and then court, breach of contract.

erudioed

Just been posed this question on twatter about whether this mortgage payment scam by banks affects the Erudio account in any way. I have no clue, so was wondering if someone more in the know has any thoughts.
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37702182

welliesrgreat

I have just received a letter from Erudio stating that my loans (x4) taken out in 98,99,00 and 01 have 'matured' and the outstanding balance has now due! I had a statement in Sept 2016 and thought nothing of it. I have not had any contact with SLC or Erudio for nearly 15 years. What advice do people have for me? Statute barred? I'm not proud of this but definitely do not have the money to pay them back now. Can they default if i ignore them ? Thank you

Brooker_Dave

The loan matured thing is a term used to cheat people out of money.

Thankfully your loan is statute barred, despite what Arrow Guernsey might tell you.

welliesrgreat

Thank you Dave, do i need to send the statute barred letter to them still or just keep quiet?

fairyfairyblue

Ok, so first of all the merry-go-round of Erudio and deferral has come around again.

A bit of background. Partner and I both have loans which were taken in '95, '96 and '97 and were sold to Erudio. 10 years ago we left the UK and have been living off rental income from property in the UK, prior to this I never earned enough to pay anything back (cue a HUGE loan amount!) but my partner was just over the threshold. Obviously, when we moved out of the UK we were eligible to defer due to our incomes being way under the threshold. But every single year it's a battle.

Due to us being overseas, my Mum is named as our third party authorisation. Every single time she tries to contact Erudio, they don't have evidence on file of her details (for both of us) and we have to submit it again. The last time we submitted it was when my Mum moved house so we had to change the address on our file - amazing they manage to send the letters to the correct place but not hold on to the third party authorisation.

Anyhow, this year I decided to do the deferment online (I know people's views on this, but it was just too much for my Mum to do with the forms etc). I did mine at the beginning of August using my latest tax return as proof of income and heard back about 4 days later to say I had been deferred. In a previous year, Erudio deferred me and then took a payment from my bank account, which I promptly reported to my bank who refunded the money immediately.

Now on 3rd October my Mum received a 'reminder' letter that my partner's deferral is up on 9th November - no DAF, nothing just a reminder (nothing else had been sent apart from a statement in September). So he logged in online, submitted the exact same info as I had (as our income is the same!) and 20 days later, still no deferment confirmation. We have been late chasing it as we have both been really ill. So he logged on to the portal to find a message saying Erudio needs further information for the deferral application. We are completely mystified as to what they want - surely an official PDF of his tax return from HMRC is enough (considering it was for me!) for their purposes?

So my Mum tries calling yesterday to see what exactly they want now. Guess what? They couldn't find the third party authorisation yet AGAIN. The girl on the phone reckons it takes 5 days for a letter to go out...so why hasn't anything come through with what he needs to send after 20 days?

Honestly, every single time it's like banging your head against a brick wall. If necessary we will call them, but it will cost us a fortune - which is why we list my Mum on a third party authorisation (and we have e-mail receipts showing they have received and replied to these requests).

The fact that neither of us received any kind of DAF, we only received a 'reminder', is this significant and could my partner use this in his dealings with them for a breach of contract?

We both feel that this is deliberate on the part of Erudio to try and get money out of him. Does anyone have any advice?

erudioed

That sounds like the exact tactic they tried in April, sending out the deferral date deadline warning before the DAFs. The same tactic they lied to the Guardian about.
Unfortunately the only thing you can do is lodge an official complaint to Erudio to start the Ombudsman process. You can demand compensation for all the expensive calls/time etc. It seems like you have the contact date information and discussion topics logged, so you should see your complaint through to the end. If Erudio fails to admit to any of this, the ombudsman can demand telephone logs etc and listen to how poorly Erudio/Capquest have handled your complaint. Ombudsman complaints, and seeing them through to the end, is just about all we have.
And we all need to do what we can to stop this DAF process bullsheet they are trying on!

Additionally: Just had an interesting follower on my twitter account, its the ombudsman, who i tweeted about the above post yesterday. Maybe the poster could tweet the ombudsman as well, as could anyone else with any gripe whatsoever. The account name for them is @financialombuds. And here is the link to their contacting me post if anyone wants to add tweets to let them know how widespread this is: https://twitter.com/erudioed/status/791212782968565760

BorderReiver14

You are right about one thing and that is dealing with Erudio is like banging your head on a brick wall.

If the info you sent was accepted and yet they won't accept the same from your partner then a formal complaint to Erudio is in order followed by a complaint to the FOS.

One email to Erudio is all they should need from you stating the problems you have explained here. Mark it official complaint.

Point out that your partner has met his obligations for deferment and has already shown enough as it was exactly the same for you.

I now just send three months worth of evidence rather than the 1 SLC always accepted because it saves time as they are only interested in getting folk to pay up. Let us know how you get on.

fairyfairyblue

OK, so my Mum finally got through to Erudio and spoke to someone. This is what she has just e-mailed me.

...gave them controlled hell, saying that for the last 9 years it's been my signature on the deferment and that your deferment had been sent in online with exactly the same information. He said he would have to contact admin to confirm...so he did and they found the authorisation..He said the reason it had been rejected is that the tax return was on a non submitted sheet...whatever that means, maybe something to do with being abroad and submitting it online?

So, you have to send all the documents I usually send,tenants agreements, also your bank statement showing the payments made into the account of the rents. This can be sent via email, I said about privacy with the rest of your ins and outs of the bank account, he said the none relevant info can be blanked. I presume you can do that?

He has cancelled the direct debit which means that you will go into 'technical arrears' if it's not sorted by the 9th, but he has also put a hold on the account for 30 days and made notes of what's been said. So if you can email the relevant docs to them asap hopefully it will be sorted.

I have also just joined Twitter and replied to erudioed's tweet to the ombudsman. I can't DM them as they need to follow me? (don't really know how Twitter works tbh). Honestly this is stupid - how else are you meant to give them a tax return which is submitted online other than printing the PDF after you have submitted? :mad: