Erudio Student Loans sent demand for payment even though I'm in deferment

Lemontea2021

Hi, I started uni in 1997 so I'm on the old mortgage-style student loans. I have three loans, two of which were sold to Erudio Student Loans. I hit the threshold for repayments for the first time in 2020 and have made a year's worth of repayments with no problems. From Sept 1st this year the repayment threshold was raised meaning I was eligible to defer again. After a lot of agro, my deferment application was successful, as confirmed by Erudio on 2nd November. Then on the 18th November I received two letters from Erudio through the post saying that my account is now in arrears and demanding immediate payment on scary red paper. I have tried to call them but (as usual) the phone just rings and rings and no one answers. I have spoken to my bank and they can't see that any attempt has been made to take a payment. I'm really worried that this will mark my credit file as a missed payment even though they are not entitled to take any money and I have not instructed the bank to amend or cancel my direct debit. From my previous dealings with them I suspect this may be a scam to try and scare me into making payments that I don't need to. Has anyone else had this problem? Should I be worried?

kaMelo

I think more likely incompetent rather than a scam, they certainly have form.

I'd firstly advise not to cancel the direct debit, doing so can be construed as a breach of the agreement.
Are you sure you are not in arrears regarding the period where payment was due? If you are then unfortunately you're going to have to speak to them to get an explanation of why they think you're in arrears.

Thinking out loud here, maybe they've only applied the deferment from when it was confirmed in November or, more likely, when the letter you received was prepared and sent they didn't have a valid deferment. Either of these would make it look like you've missed a couple of payments until the correct data was on their system.