ERUDIO student loans help

erudioed

great site and a really interesting discussion. I have also posted the following on another referred to site about this discussion, i hope it helps add to the collective knowledge of this bunch:

I tried calling erudio to make a low settlement and was told that even if i offered 6000 of my 8500 they could not consider it, as they want the whole pie. I was of course only going to offer less than the 17% my account averages out in relation to what they paid for it.
I talked with a negotiator of the agreement at the department for Business, Innovation and Skills and was told that erudio's boss/a negotiator asked if they could take lower settlements, to which BIS answered they could. However, they have clearly decided they want it all.

I was also told that deferrers are the group they are least likely to get payments from, so refusing short settlements shows how greedy this lot are during this initial stage....or that they have a plan for us deferrers to make us feel like paying. I feel this is clearly shown in the deferment packs and the fear they resonate on reading them about CRA's (under the heading WARNING no less) and the fear of us deferrers about how hard they will come down on anyone who does the slightest thing wrong. BIS considered they would have more success tracking the 46% or so down who are in the sold package who are on the run so to speak, as well as the sweetener of people already paying back.
I dont want CRA's to have my info when i havent done anything wrong to warrant being on a !!!! list...even if they say it doesnt mean you are shitlisted, you are by association right. Nor do i want to give my bank details just because of a lack of trust in how they would use my info, or concerning the potential of them taking payments around deferment season.
It will certainly be very interesting to hear the replies from people who have already sent in deferment packages not including the 'new' info they ask for.

ericctheking

Has anyone spoke to any newspapers about this? I'm sure some might be interested in this.
What is amazing about Erudio's greed is they have started with these tricks right from the off. The more sensible thing for them to do (from a Machiavellian point of view) would have been to continue as the SLC had done and then turned the screw and used sneaky tactics when people's memory of the loan book sale had died down.
Don't forget the government plans to sell off more of the SLC loan book in 2015. I'm sure with bad publicity about how the sale has gone (of pre 1998 loans) it could have an adverse impact that sale? At least Erudio (Arrow) might be banned from that sale or it doesn't happen at all.

erudioed

The way i see it, today, is that if erudio has breeched the original agreement concerning passing all our info on to CRA's, even though we havent breeched our agreements, then the 100,000 or so deferers must have a strong case for those first deferrment packs being a breech of the agreement/our original terms and conditions. By including an implicit agreement that they can pass our info on, via the signing of the deferment letter, is almost like blackmail, especially considering they asked for our consent to do this in the original packs they sent out informing us they now owned the loans.
Talking to people close-ish to the deal, they think contacting CRA's may be legal under some consumer credit agreement. They said that the SLC didnt enforce this but that erudio may have the right. However, that doesnt take into account the posts in this forum about our original terms and agreement concerning only passing this info on if we breech our agreement/default. It is very important to find out which argument is correct. If Erudio first ask for permission to pass info on, then send out their second correspondence to us making this implicit with our deferments (which is also a way of getting us to sign the right over), then they must need permission and the original terms and agreement could actually be correct. They need us to sign to allow them to do it, otherwise they would be breaching our original agreement. Thus, they could be legally covered by ammending our agreements via direct consent from us.
I was also told that they seem to have mixed up messages related to what happens to a defaulter and a deferer on the back page our deferment letters, which makes a deferer think that the same processes will rain down on them as would a defaulter.
The bind being that, if we object to signing their forms and agreeing to them putting us on the CRA lists (and other things like bank details), the length of the time our disputes take could take us into the payment period after the deferment period has passed...and if they dont have our bank account details, that could place us on the defaulters list (automated computer systems and all) and have us legitimately put on the CRA lists.
It is rather important to find an answer to this but i dont really have access to people who know where we legally stand...nor the money to find out.
If it is deemed that they have illegally blackmailed us into signing our info over to CRAs (amongst other things), then surely all those original deferment packs would have to be destroyed and reissued to the 100,000 or so of us who got them, which would surely be newsworthy. And beyond that, it would may be make them treat us like the deferers we are and not the defaulters/guilty we are not. After all, playing hard ball with deferers may be legal (we do need a definitive answer to this i feel), but as we are just following our agreements and done nothing wrong, i cant see how playing hard ball with us will win them any fans whatsoever. We have, i state again, done nothing wrong. It was never considered at the signing of the Erudio agreement that they would get much out of us deferers, but it seems they are going to try their best. But as we have the solid ground of doing everything correct and being innocent of any negative acts (we do contact them and keep in touch for example), that must stand for something.
The first step is put in a complaint to erudio, then we can go to the independent assessor as i understand it. If erudio has messed up, then they get fined something like £100 automatically. It is therefore important that we all start that process/querying with erudio. You can do it just by telephoning the deferment section, highlighting the problem, and saying you wish to lodge a complaint. My complaint handler took down my info and argument down very accurately. However, to speed things up/slow things down, it is all via direct post. I was told they cannot email out directly to 'customers' but can receive emails in.
On a personal note, i find it all rather annoying because i just want to sign the damn form and rubber stamp my deferment again but feel i cant because i am being led into signing up to things that annoy me now, but who knows where these things will lead in the coming years. Most of us only have 7 or 8 years left anyway, so they must have a path they are directing us down, and not being a debtor before, i dont know where it leads. As such, now is the best time to make the stand before we sign away something that will have dire consequences in the coming few years.
One other thought, being deferers means we arent rich, so if they did start taking payments because of late deferment practices their end, maybe some of us would end up being pushed into bank charges territory. And the way they have started 'our' relationship thus far, giving over bank details could have dire consequences that they need to assure us about clearly! I do know that they have been ordered to treat us differently to credit card debtors and the like, and been trained to be extra friendly and understanding just for us, so going outside of our original agreements (if they have) would sure attract attention if we can prove it.

jolouisa

Erudio have f***d up. They are taking the DD out of my account even though it's been deferred. I'm sending them the deferrment confirmation letter I have.

I think we all need to be VERY careful about this company. I get the feeling they are not very reputable. Keep any paperwork they send. I wasn't even informed that my loan had been sold to them.

Be aware that we now have to file several deferrment forms for each loan year if it's been sold to a different company. The B****. This f**king government has a lot to answer for.

Mephistopheles666

I have not posted on MSE before, but I have been prompted to do so by the carryings on of Erudio. I have already sent their deferment form back, with the info they requested in the accompanying booklet. However, this week I have had 3 letters from them claiming that they don't have all the information they need to process a deferment- the 2nd of the letters even had a completely incorrect name on it! In response to the first letter, I sent the info requested, which was a letter from my father confirming that he pays a small amount of money into my account each month, along with a copy of my latest bank statement. My only other source of income is Jobseekers Allowance, which they already seem to have accepted proof of, as they have not requested anything else regarding that. As I sent the other documents 1st class at the beginning of the week, they should have certainly received those by now, so I am wondering why I received another letter from them today (dated yesterday)?! Just in case, I am sending the documents again, but this time via recorded delivery. Either they are disorganised/incompetent or they are employing tricks to push people into paying back their loans regardless.

Although some people on here have advised not returning Erudio's deferment form because they might be using it as a means to affect people's credit ratings, I am not so much worried about that as by the fact that I just do not have the money to pay them. My current deferment period ends in less than 2 weeks, so I am wondering if they are just going to try and take the money anyway! If I started paying back my student loan every month I would very quickly enter my unplanned overdraft, with all the bank charges and high rates of interest that would involve. I would then end up in a large amount of debt with the bank which I would be unable to pay off.

Occasionally the Student Loans Company requested extra information from me, but they just accepted that and granted me a deferment- I never had the hassle with the SLC which I have so far had with Erudio.

ericctheking

I feel for you Mephistopheles666.
If I were you I would see if they tried taking money from you and if they did then cancel the direct debit,
I'd tell them take me to court or don't bother me and ignore all correspondence.

Mephistopheles666

I should add that Erudio already have a direct debit set up for money to be taken from my account if deferment is not granted, as Student Loans Company automatically passed my bank details on to them. Student Loans Company have had them for years (but never taken any money) because giving them my bank details was supposed to have been a condition of taking out the loans in the first place. If Erudio is determined to take money from me, the only way to stop them would be to cancel the direct debit.

Mephistopheles666

Thanks for the advice eric. I don't want to risk them taking anything whatsoever though, as I just cannot afford it. If I don't get the deferment very soon (probably by the end of next week), I will go ahead and cancel the direct debit.

ericctheking

They seem like bullies.
I'd keep a record of everything and have my date in court.
If you are under the threshold there is no way a court can make you pay anything to them.
Some people have talked about legalities here and the consumer credit act. Don't forget these loans were sold as BEING DIFFERENT FROM REGULAR LOANS in the terms and conditions. Martin Lewis goes on about it all the time with the current loans. If that is not the case then the loans have been miss-sold.

ericctheking

By the way this is really interesting.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?100018-Student-Loan-Deferment-Conspiracy-%28long%29

I had problems some years deferring with the SLC, sending deferment forms, SLC saying they never recieved them, faxing details to them after calling them and being given a fax number, hearing nothing then calling back and the SLC saying I must use the official forms and can't just write a letter accompanying supporting evidence. waiting for forms that don't come, chasing them back up etc. etc.
This was all with the SLC and now which is supposedly a non profit making organization. Now the loans are in the hands of a profit making organization you can only imagine!