ERUDIO student loans help

FuriousFeline

@heartbroken   So much for claims Erudio has made in previous years that it will be so much quicker if we defer using their online portal! The delay you experienced despite applying online perhaps explains why I haven't received any emails from them this year encouraging me to use the portal in order to ensure that I get deferred in time.  It is also rather strange that they have replied to your emails by post. I suspect that they will also not have confirmed my deferment by the time the current one runs out mid week, so I will also be expecting them to write to me confirming that I will not end up in arrears because of their delay.  Of course if they have it on their system that our accounts are in arrears, I wouldn't put it past them to further down the line claim that our loans will not be written off because of those arrears.  As well as previously attempting to contact them to try and find out what has been going on, I have put in a complaint about how long things have been taking this year. I wonder if they're having problems getting staff? 

heartbroken

FuriousFeline said:

 Of course if they have it on their system that our accounts are in arrears, I wouldn't put it past them to further down the line claim that our loans will not be written off because of those arrears.  

This is what concerns me 

FuriousFeline

Well, I have still not heard anything and my current deferment period is very nearly up. From a discussion that has just appeared on Mumsnet, I have discovered that Erudio have said they are not answering phones due to covid, so I reckon it must now be chaos with lots of people (myself included) desperately trying to get answers from them via email! 

heartbroken

FuriousFeline said:

Well, I have still not heard anything and my current deferment period is very nearly up. From a discussion that has just appeared on Mumsnet, I have discovered that Erudio have said they are not answering phones due to covid, so I reckon it must now be chaos with lots of people (myself included) desperately trying to get answers from them via email! 

I phoned them a few times to try to move things along and whilst they were answering phones, the people answering couldn't help in the slightest. Apparently the admin team doing the deferments aren't contactable by phone so you are forced to wait for emails, or in my case, snail mail. Ridiculous. 

erudioed

You would have thought such information would be perfect for posting on the Erudio website, keeping customers informed and such things. But no. They purchased our loans (a concept i still find abhorrent) and its up to them to keep us fully informed if they cant live up to their end of the bargain. Regardless of how they explain it away, their deceit is such that they would use such an excuse to justify this current predicament. I, based on past experience, assume like you it is just another default/arrears scam to milk money out of us when its not due. The only thing they hear are complaints. If you do complain, you should also get a letter stating it will not be considered as arrears and and your account is in order.

I've also heard their portal is taking much longer than the listed 28 days as well. I imagine they have figured out a way to lay staff off and make money out of covid (but thats just a hunch). They cant have that many accounts left to process now, so staff shortages sound a lame excuse to me. This is just this years trick to shake the tree again.

erudioed

I'm getting quite a few more people than in previous years contacting me on twatter via direct mail and tweets. Its obvious they have a major staff shortage problem that needs fixing immediately, such are the numbers contacting me. Its portal seems to be playing hard to get as well. Its unclear if it is actually working properly...i heard a couple of reports that suggest it isnt.

I am guessing Arrow Global/Crapquest have staff on furlough and milking the government teet at the same time as ignoring its part of the contract, which kind of involves them having staff working for them to process our damn deferment applications.

My fighting side says this is the best time anyone could take to ask Erudio a question, complain, ask about status of deferment, etc via their email, as more of a backlog will only make their task more daunting, and hopefully force them to rehire staff before their furlough money dries up.

badmemory

You would think that answering emails would be easier/quicker to deal with than dealing with a phone call not slower.   Of course there is also the problem that emails would mean actually putting something in writing which may be the real issue.

erudioed

I've just had the first report of them failing to process the DAF in time (or respond to any form of communication) but have taken a payment from the poor person's bank account.

I dont know if most people have lost interest these days but now is definitely time for a twatter/social media awareness blitz because this is going to get quite bad for quite a few people i think. Ill try and do my bit but i cant do it alone. It seems like this staff shortage needs to be turned around quickly or it will get real ugly fast.

FuriousFeline

@erudioed  Perhaps Martin Lewis and/or The Guardian could publish something about the current fiasco? They've been involved in flagging up Erudio's antics in the past and, surprise surprise, usually Erudio then sorts things out after getting some bad media publicity.  Of particular concern though is that there have been repeated problems with Erudio since our loans switched from the SLC to them back in 2014.  I  looked back at emails I have sent Erudio, and it appears I have had some issue or other with them every year except 2015, whereas I can't recall having any issues when my loans were with the SLC. The ongoing farce with Erudio does not bode well for more recent graduates who have had to take out much larger loans than we did, due to the whacking great increase in tuition fees. Many recent graduates are not predicted to earn enough to pay the loans back in full, so I have no doubt that, at some point, the SLC will sell their loans on to a private company such as Erudio.

FuriousFeline

Further to my post above, you might be interested in this article, from today's Guardian:  https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jun/10/increasing-student-loan-repayments-would-save-government-4bn-a-year