Erudio student loans claiming arrears

MeggieMoo8

Hi guys,

Need some advice about Erudio Student loans.

I am resident in Spain and have been since I left Uni in 2000. I have always deferred my loan no problem as I don´t earn enough to pay it back. In march 2014 I got a letter saying that my loan had been bought by Erudio and that I would receive in due course my deferment paperwork. October 2014 still no paperwork (I assumed that maybe they were still sorting things out) so I got on to them. They emailed it to me but what I didn´t know was that my loan was due for deferment in May 2014 and when I didn´t do this they have automatically applied arrears (600 pounds) to my account!!!

They are just off the phone to me now threatening me if I do not pay this 600 pounds arrears. They told me they sent me the deferment paperwork April 2014 by second class post. I asked how do I know you did this, why wasn´t it sent by registered post? I told her that the post here in Spain is not as good as post in the UK and things do get lost.

So my question to you is what do I do? Do I pay up? Do I ignore them? Can they do anything to me here in Spain? It was not my fault that I did not receive their deferment paperwork but then again I should have had an idea when my loan was due for deferment. After 15 years though you do forget these things.

Any advice on what to do would be much appreciated.

National_Debtline

Hi MeggieMoo,


If you believe it is wrong then you can dispute it, the problem you will have is if they can demonstrate they sent it (and they are not required to send it recorded) then you won't have much of an argument I am afraid.

The arrears are a standard non priority debt. I wouldn't suggest you ignore it because it will have to be paid at some point, but if you can't afford to clear it in a lump sum then offer to overpay a little bit until they are cleared. If an agreement cannot be made and they want to enforce it they could use debt collectors or the county court (resulting in a CCJ). They could then pass that to the Spanish court for enforcement but whether they will do this for £600 is another story. They could also take action directly in the Spanish courts, but again, for such a small debt, it is difficult to say if they will do that. Good luck,


Laura
@natdebtline

Ed-1

National_Debtline wrote: »

they could use debt collectors

They are debt collectors. This is exactly the sort of tactics they use.

MeggieMoo8

Thank you Laura.
The lady on the phone said that it was up to me to keep on top of when my loan should have been deferred.
Also is 600 pounds not a lot of arrears to acrue in 5 months? What interest rate do they work on? Seems abusive to me.
They can whistle for it.

Voyager2002

MeggieMoo8 wrote: »

Also is 600 pounds not a lot of arrears to acrue in 5 months? What interest rate do they work on? Seems abusive to me.
They can whistle for it.

Bad idea to ignore it, but I agree that 600 pounds is totally over the top.

I suggest that you find the long thread on this board about Erudio and how to deal with them: that thread includes a letter that a solicitor sent them about difficulties that they created in deferment, a latter that apparently worked.

I am afraid that you will need to spend a fair amount of time and effort in dealing with them, but ultimately you should be successful

Brooker_Dave

MeggieMoo8 wrote: »

They told me they sent me the deferment paperwork April 2014 by second class post. I asked how do I know you did this, why wasn´t it sent by registered post?

Basically if Erudio say something, its a lie.

They are a DCA who got gifted your loans for virtually nothing and now are trying to profiteer.