Student loan advice

kdc90

Hi, im wondering if someone knows a little something about the student loans company. i have had nothing but trouble and inconsistent communication with them.
Basically i finished uni over 3 years ago and now live in Australia and over a year ago now they contacted me via a debt collectors who told me i was in about 400 pounds worth of debt that needed to be paid before they added even more on. i did this immediately and was told then that the student loans company would be in contact to set up international direct debits. I tried emailing the student loans company and received nothing back and then didnt hear from them for 10 months, the next thing i got from them was a letter outlining my arrears and the amount of interest they were charging me for late payments. (some of these interest charges went as far back as when i was straight out of uni whilst i was travelling and not earning)
now i have received another debt collecting company letter saying i owe them 2000 pounds.
I really don't know what to do, the student loan company seem useless in communicating with overseas clients and just add interest on where and when they feel like it. Another problem is their exchange rate they use doesn't match what it should be and therefore shows i earn much more than i actually do so they expect a higher monthly repayment.
i'm returning to the UK in a few months and if it isn't sorted by then i will call and discuss it with them however i'm worried i might have trouble re-entering the country with the debt collecting company, does anyone know if this is an issue?
thanks in advance

agrinnall

Assuming you are a UK citizen or have a right to live in the UK you certainly won't have any trouble re-entering the country. Even if a CCJ has been obtained (which I doubt) it's not something that is going to concern passport control.

CLAPTON

kdc90 wrote: »

Hi, im wondering if someone knows a little something about the student loans company. i have had nothing but trouble and inconsistent communication with them.
Basically i finished uni over 3 years ago and now live in Australia and over a year ago now they contacted me via a debt collectors who told me i was in about 400 pounds worth of debt that needed to be paid before they added even more on. i did this immediately and was told then that the student loans company would be in contact to set up international direct debits. I tried emailing the student loans company and received nothing back and then didnt hear from them for 10 months, the next thing i got from them was a letter outlining my arrears and the amount of interest they were charging me for late payments. (some of these interest charges went as far back as when i was straight out of uni whilst i was travelling and not earning)
now i have received another debt collecting company letter saying i owe them 2000 pounds.
I really don't know what to do, the student loan company seem useless in communicating with overseas clients and just add interest on where and when they feel like it. Another problem is their exchange rate they use doesn't match what it should be and therefore shows i earn much more than i actually do so they expect a higher monthly repayment.
i'm returning to the UK in a few months and if it isn't sorted by then i will call and discuss it with them however i'm worried i might have trouble re-entering the country with the debt collecting company, does anyone know if this is an issue?
thanks in advance

if you move overseas it is your responsibility to keep slc informed about your address and situation
details are on the SLC website

kdc90

yes they have everything they need, phone numbers, addresses, email addresses etc

sheramber

If your course started before September 1998 your student loan has been passed to a debt collection agency and the Student Loan Company do not have anything to do with it now.

details are in the links on this page

http://www.studentloanrepayment.co.uk/portal/page?_pageid=93,3866794&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL