Open study college

Anonylisc123

Hi,

Apologies in advance if this is in the wrong subject area to be posting in but I hope you can help me.

This year in June, I attempted to enrol with Open Study College to study Animal Care Level 2 via online. I had attempted to set up a payment plan with a high deposit online to be rejected of which I thought i'll leave for now. I had received a phone call shortly after from OSC asking me if I would like to enrol via direct debit instead of which I agreed to pay £63 a month. I can't remember the exact figures but the course cost roughly £300 all together. I paid the first payment unfortunately, I have missed the last two payments and now I have received a letter saying that they are in process of recovering £652 of debt from me of which If I do not contact them within 7 days, they will forward it to a debt collection agency. If anything, I would like to cancel the course itself but I know that it wont solve anything and I am not really sure what my options are.

Please can someone advise?

Thank you

macman

If the DD was set up, then why wasn't payment taken? Did you cancel the DD, or were there insufficient funds?
How does a course fee of £300, (minus £63 paid so £237), become a debt of £652?
Firstly, get out the contract or documentation and check what the exact course fees were, and what you still owe.Second, ask the provider to explain the amount they are seeking.
It's most unlikely that if you cancel the rest of the course, you will get any refund, as you contracted for the whole course, whether you abandon it or not.
If you ignore the demand then your credit history will be trashed for the next 6 years, and you could get a CCJ.
Your only options are to pay the (correct) balance owing, but maybe negotiate a repayment schedule. However, if you failed to make the second and third payments without contacting the provider, then you haven't really put yourself in a good position to negotiate. Head in the sand never works, unfortunately.

macman

PS: according to their website, that course currently costs £389 if paid upfront, or £459 upwards on finance, depending on the loan period. The repayment for a 6m interest free loan is £68.85x6 , so I'm assuming that's the loan you agreed?
The t&c's make it quite clear that if you fail to make the DD payment, then the whole loan becomes payable in 10 days, and a £12 admin charge will be added.

1.3 You must ensure funds are available in your designated account in order for us to process
instalment payments on the agreed dates. If the payment fails, you will incur a £12 administration
fee. If you fail to make payment within 10 working days of your payment becoming overdue, the
remainder of your instalments will become immediately payable and a £35 administration charge added to your account [/I][/I]

So by my reckoning you owe £459+ £12+£35=£506, less £63 paid, = £443. Not £652.