ERUDIO student loans help

erudioed

Just a quick heads up. I have been contacted by Callum Mason who wrote that rather good article last year about these settlement figures. He is asking for anyone with these new settlement figures to contact him as he is looking into a story on it. Here is his tweet to me and contact:



"Hi Erudioed, we're looking into this so if anyone who has been affected could contact me on my Twitter (@CallumCMason) or on Callum.mason@moneysavingexpert.com that'd be fantastic."

Ibreakwindinerudiosdirect

erudioed wrote: »

Just a quick heads up. They are getting desperate now to get some money. They are sending out new settlement letters that seem to be about 20% of the loan and accrued interest. This is the offer they should have made when they first contacted us, instead of putting us through all its lawyer backed tricks and lies. The letter also has about a week deadline to force us to take up the offer quickly. Hopefully no one will pay them a penny, unless they think they will not be able to defer for the next few years, in which case it could be a good deal. One thing for sure, Erudio dont deserve a penny from any of us, considering how they invaded our lives and then used the tried and tested trickery of a debt collector to try and then even deceive the wider world by lying to journalists and the like about what they were actually doing to us, such as not sending out DAFs and saying they hadnt received our DAFs. I am sure they are selling access to our data on its pay to look debtors database (which I suspect they are still doing, especially those who have enrolled with their portal due to the sheer volume of data a company can collect when we visit a site these days, and not to mention their cookie which will be sat on our computers).

Anyway, not long until the loans get wiped now...

Just seen your tweets whilst away on a rural holiday visiting the relatives...

This thought remains: did the government actually pull off a bit of a blinder in selling these loans?

Erudio settling for 20% of the debt is indicative of some fairly desperate times. If they are failing to pull in the returns, it is doubtful that the SLC would have done any better had the loans not been sold. So one wonders if the government actually got a far better financial return on this loan debt through selling them than they would have if they'd not sold them.

Lungboy

The issue i have with the sale is that the government could and should have offered them to the loanees. If the government had said "you can pay off your loan for 20p in the pound or continue as-is but with a DCA controlling it" i'd have bitten their arm off and they'd have made more than they did from Erudio.

erudioed

Ibreakwindinerudiosdirect wrote: »

Just seen your tweets whilst away on a rural holiday visiting the relatives...

This thought remains: did the government actually pull off a bit of a blinder in selling these loans?

Erudio settling for 20% of the debt is indicative of some fairly desperate times. If they are failing to pull in the returns, it is doubtful that the SLC would have done any better had the loans not been sold. So one wonders if the government actually got a far better financial return on this loan debt through selling them than they would have if they'd not sold them.

Its a bit hard to know actually because deferrers were only around 45% or so of the package (from memory). Those who did a runner will never escape potential problems i am guessing. But god knows how much money they have made from people paying back and those they have found who stopped deferring.

However, i assume Arrow Global are making considerable sums from our data, especially considering we will be in its debtors database forever that it leases access to other businesses. I am sure there are other ways to make money as well.
I also agree SLC should have offered us a settlement deal but maybe that would have created problems ideologically. Maybe deferrers being in the package were why the deal price seems kind of low, cause its 45% of people who they probably wouldn't get any cash from. However, concerning those who stopped deferring, they will have to pay back the whole amount, plus finders fees and all the other dodgy stuff debt collectors add on. I would suggest this will give Arrow Global, CarVal and the other investors we still dont know, a hefty return. Not forgetting those 10% who pay some years as well. And also not forgetting those deferrers they managed to turn with all their scumbaggery.



I suspect, this 20-25% (i havent worked it out exactly, i think it may be 25%) offer has been made now because every year is one year closer to cancellation. I assume it is only those coming to the last 3 or 4 years getting these reduced prices. Those with 5 years or longer may still get the original crap offer, or none at all. My own feeling is that there are fewer and fewer deferrers every year and they would like to close this operation down as its a costly pain in the neck, especially now they have used up their main go to tactics to trick us and they all got them nothing bad bad press...possibly even enough bad press to even put off future student loan sales by the government.

hiltobrew

Hi all
I took out three mortgage-style loans in 93,94 & 95 which I have successfully deferred until May 2020. My balance is £5741 but I have today received a settlement offer of £1,148. The 25 year age-related cancellation kicks in on April 2021.
The only issue I have is that it is very likely that I am about to get a promotion that will take me over the threshold.
If I ignore the settlement would I only have to repay for one year should I get the promotion and then it still gets written off in 2021? Or should pay the settlement as it will roughly equate to what I will have to pay off that single year anyway but just as a lump sum?
Thanks

Lungboy

It should be written off after the 25 year mark whether you're paying it back or not. If there's not much in it between 1 year of payments vs a lump sum then it's a coin toss, although as there's a small chance you *won't* get the promotion, that might be a safer way to go.

hiltobrew

Thanks. Sort of what I was thinking. Hopefully I won’t have any trouble having the loans written off in 2021 if I have started paying.

stupido

erudioed wrote: »

However, i assume Arrow Global are making considerable sums from our data, especially considering we will be in its debtors database forever that it leases access to other businesses...

What's this? Do you have evidence or any link or document to substantiate this claim? Shocking if it is true but what are the facts and where can I find the details? Who are the other businesses and what do they use the data for?

erudioed

Arrow Global runs what was called The Proprietary Collections Bureau (easy to find with a search). It may have changed its name today. It ran it on experian's platform during its test phase, with Experian assisting it in some way. It was interesting a number of years ago when Martin Lewis was debating Zach Lewy on the radio concerning how our loans would be marked on Experian's platform. Someone from Experian also came on the show trying to waylay our fears. What no one mentioned was that Arrow (Lewy) and Experian were collaborating on this PCB. Anyway, that's another story.
The PCB, from what i could understand, was (is) collecting data from anyone listed as having a debt, on Arrows large books or added to after acquiring other companies, and serving as a platform for businesses, government or any interested party, to pay for access. Accordingly, as I am sure Arrow Global classes us wrongly as debtors, they have our data and i am sure Erudio's T&Cs (such as them being allowed to share our data with other related companies they own/collaborate with) will allow them to put our data on their platform for debt collectors to cross check for a fee. As such, our data is being sold, if i am correct (i guess it is up to Arrow to prove i am wrong or off the mark but thats how it appears to my eyes). Taken from Arrow Global after buying Capquest (I assume something similar could have been stated after Arrow set up Erudio): "The Acquisition adds to Arrow Global's significant data assets, including the Proprietary Collections Bureau5, and is expected to increase match rates for UK portfolios from 40% to approximately 50%6 and enhance collections performance." And: "Our Proprietary Collections Bureau has 21.1 million records". This was from 4 years ago.
I have no idea if the PCB operates now, or its name.
The last time i could be bothered to look, Zach Lewy was trying to put himself in a position to bend the ear of government and lobby them to guide the debt collecting world in a way that would 'improve' that dark segment of the economy. Arrow have even published a document outlining their view on necessary market reforms.
Being at the vanguard of this rather horrible industry and presenting themselves as the civilised version of this market, the data they have is invaluable. Our data, sold by the government, is data that adds to the value of Arrow's database.
I include all links and things on my twatter feed if you can be bothered to scroll down the tedious list of all things Arrow/Erudio related i have been able to cobble together when i have been angered enough to do some digging. I have continually said to journalists who contact me, this is a bigger story that needs to be told, as is searching where all their collected money goes. As their major investor is Carval (or Cargill Inc's profit investing side business, a US company with a terrible environmental record across the world and providing you and me with toxic food additives without us knowing), i am sure that after the money is all accounted for, this student loan sale will have seen more money flow out of the country than was injected into it in the original sale. No way to prove it (especially considering my clear lack of detailed economic knowledge) but i think it needs looking into if nothing else in relation to whether the sale of the student loans was good or not. And I believe that would lead us back full circle to the unreleased Due Diligence report by BIS.

stupido

Thanks for the extensive information. I have searched online and found a single page on the ArrowGlobal website about the 'PCB'. It just describes it as a platform that many DCAs can add their victims data to so they don't trip over each other with too many DCA chasing the same debts and can use each others data to refine their records by comparing what is known by each other. The description is deliberately vague as if this is some secret data sharing trough they can all feed from.

I could not find anything to confirm that student loan debtors are in such a database.

I had a look at Arrows annual report and they talk a lot about their platform having sophisticated data processing tech. Their debt management platform may be seperate from the PCB.

I can see how putting 2 and 2 together one might conclude they might as well put student debtors data into the PCB as it would be something other PCB members could use to improve their collections and thus pay for.

However, is there any proof Arrow have used student loan data for this purpose?

Has anyone admitted to it or discovered from a subject access request their student loan data was shared through the PCB?

For example, a person with other debts sold to another DCA may find out that the other DCA knows about their student loan. That would be proof. Without proof, nothing can be done.