SLC - Where is my loan Transaction History?

N_Behdoze

Hey guys,

It would be great to know if anyone here has any info regarding obtaining a payment history of your student loan?

Perhaps I am missing something from the SLC site, but I find it a bit strange that SLC does not let you clearly view historical payment information, such as:

• Incoming payments
• Overpayments
• Potential refunds
• Interest added by year
  

The only payment info I recall seeing was the final outstanding balance owed. The rest is hidden away and you need to call or write to them (which isn't easy when you live outside the UK).

Considering student loans often involve large amounts of money, with sometimes erratic payment histories (especially if you are self-employed or have lived abroad), you would think SLC would clearly display all the transaction history of your loan in one place..?

I am not asking for much, just a simple table that displays the years the loan was active, payments in/out, interest added, etc.

You would expect this info on any other financial product (e.g. a commercial loan), however, when I go to the SLC site I cannot see this info.  

I also do not recall ever being sent a transaction/payment history statement in the post from SLC (only the final balance).

I did some Googling and it seems that this specific topic doesn't return that many results…so if anyone has any insight into this topic I would be hugely grateful to hear them.

Thanks in advance!

Nathan

becky_rtw

Manage your student loan balance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

It keeps records of payments for the current tax year by loan type and then clears that out for a statement at the end of each tax year (usually provided in July) as a PDF which then stores under 'my correspondence', I have it back to 2003 when I first had a student loan that started charging interest. 

Then you just collate them if you want to make full historic. Interest is charged monthly, but I assume the payments are actually given to SLC yearly which is why the payment shows as one bulk thing on the statement. Obviously you have the monthly payments to HMRC on payslips if you have been paid that way.

N_Behdoze

becky_rtw said:

It keeps records of payments for the current tax year by loan type and then clears that out for a statement at the end of each tax year (usually provided in July) as a PDF which then stores under 'my correspondence', I have it back to 2003 when I first had a student loan that started charging interest. 

Then you just collate them if you want to make full historic. Interest is charged monthly, but I assume the payments are actually given to SLC yearly which is why the payment shows as one bulk thing on the statement. Obviously you have the monthly payments to HMRC on payslips if you have been paid that way.

Thanks very much @becky_rtw

My records also go back to 2004, however, I have some big gaps in the communication from SLC when I view "my correspondence".

They definitely haven't sent me annual statements of any kind.

For example, I have correspondence from SLC in 2008 but then nothing again until 2016. During that period I worked fulltime PAYE paying about £200 a month for at least two years straight, however, I have no records of that anywhere on SLC (only the original payslips).

Looking at my current balance today is so disheartening. I cannot believe that so much interest has been applied, as I feel that I have paid off thousands from my loan...yet the balance doesn't reflect that at all

This is why I also find it so bizarre that SLC does not clearly display the transaction history, like how would I know if there was a mistake or not? I have to just trust this organisation and hope they've calculated it all correctly. Trusting any kind of government organisation in 2021 just feels so hard to do with everything that has been going on in the world...but hey, I will probably just need to write to SLC and just request the missing info.

I'm also hoping that maybe our saviour Martin Lewis will bring this issue up at some point in the future, as like I previously mentioned, it does seem crazy that there is such a lack of transaction transparency for a financial product that is integral to so many young people's lives. 

Anyway, thanks again for your help!!!

becky_rtw

Ah I cant help with gaps @N_Behdoze that doesn't sound correct to me and I would agree that you need to get all of the history. 

They are pretty good on the phone in my experience so worth calling first. Hope you manage to get the possible missing payments sorted.

N_Behdoze

Thanks! @becky_rtw

Update: I phoned SLC.

They couldn't give me a clear reason why I couldn't access the historical payment/interest info digitally, or why there were gaps.

However, they have agreed to send me a full breakdown in writing showing all my payments/added interest back to 2004. SLC said it would take about 2 weeks to generate and deliver. I will report back if there's anything of interest.

Key takeaway: If anyone out there is wondering about their student loan's payment history or added interest, you have to phone SLC to request this info.

[Deleted User]

Mine are a bit like this, it took me ages to get onto the new SLC site (which was then ported to the government one) for student loans from 1999-2004, my correspondence is patchy too, a lot of it went to parent's house like the annual statements but the new site is much easier to use now. It shows month by month the payment and interest and so on. Would be nice if it could show you a calculator for each plan as to when the payments would be £0 or written off. The calculator page I found online is good but seems to have incorrect information about when things will be written off.

The SLC phone team were great though, really helpful and patient as it look me ages to work out the uni name (I attended 2 and both have changed their names since I attended!)

RD88

I have a similar issue. Took out my loan in 2009. The old slc site allowed me to see my statement. I also have postal copies up to about 2 years ago of these. Now when I go into the website through the government link all I can view is the balance with no transactions. If I go to my correspondence the only letters that are in there are from 2009, 2010 and 2011 and relate to my actual loan being arranged and the drawdowns for each term/years I was at uni. There's absolutely nothing after that despite me having them in the post and previously on the old SLC website. I guess I will give them a call.

[Deleted User]

RD88 said:

I have a similar issue. Took out my loan in 2009. The old slc site allowed me to see my statement. I also have postal copies up to about 2 years ago of these. Now when I go into the website through the government link all I can view is the balance with no transactions. If I go to my correspondence the only letters that are in there are from 2009, 2010 and 2011 and relate to my actual loan being arranged and the drawdowns for each term/years I was at uni. There's absolutely nothing after that despite me having them in the post and previously on the old SLC website. I guess I will give them a call.

They are helpful on the phone, I managed to get all mine updated and can see recent history. The statement seems to be random dates though, September 2020 was the last one, I had June/July iirc in 2019. Meant to be a summary of last tax year

superbigal

I suspect when you get your statements they will be like printed of a 1970s computer.
When i requested a SAR on every bit of data SLC had on me it was astonishing how "manual" all the info was.  There was also numerous months of information and letters missing.

[Deleted User]

superbigal said:

I suspect when you get your statements they will be like printed of a 1970s computer.
When i requested a SAR on every bit of data SLC had on me it was astonishing how "manual" all the info was.  There was also numerous months of information and letters missing.

The new one on the Gov site is pretty good, SAR doesn't need to be in a nice format