Received a debt collection letter for university tuition fees.

davisaj22

Hi, in short, I signed up for a university course 3 years ago. My employer, the NHS, agreed to fund it, the. When it came to it the wouldn’t. I emailed the uni and withdrew from the course and I thought that was the end of it. Today a debt collection letter turns up.

ive managed to log into my old uni portal online and can see they have sent me three letters saying I owed them £1000 for the course I didn’t do. These letters were not sent to me, despite my address details being correct - I would not have ignored them. In fact, today’s debt collection letter has gone to my parents house, the uni has never been given that address.

obviously, I want to contest the amount I owe. However, I fear I don’t have time. I would rather pay it and then contest it with the university if there is a risk that this will be reported to a credit reference agency. Do people feel that is a reasonable strategy? Thanks 

sparklep0ny

On what grounds are you contesting this with the university?

davisaj22

On the grounds that I didn’t do the course and as per their terms and conditions informed them within the required timeframe.

sourcrates

I`ve moved your post to DFW, as we are better equipped to help on here.

Firstly, this will not be reported to any credit reference agency, the debt was never a credit debt, it was to be funded by your employer, who then decided against it for some reason, but that does not change its status.

Second, never, ever pay a debt you do not owe, you won`t get the money back once its been paid.

If you followed the correct cancelation procedure, you should write and tell the university so, explain you have cancelled in the correct manner, but have still received a DCA letter chasing you for payment.

The collector you can just ignore, they are just chasing the debt on their clients behalf, they cannot do anything except write to you, or call you, however, if it makes you feel any better, you can send a copy of the complaint to them also, informing them the debt is in dispute with the original client.

See what comes back from that, and ask for further help if its needed.

davisaj22

Thank you so much for your reply, it’s so helpful.

it’s helped me to find the courage not to immediately pay it (I got frightened), and will write to them as suggested.

I will let you know how I get on!