Need advice about what to do with the Student Loans Company

Assadk

Hi all,

I've found myself in an very uncomfortable situation with Student Loans Company / Student Finance England and I would appreciate your advice as I don't know how to proceed.

I enrolled in a part time MSc degree in October 2019.
I must have applied for a PG student loan online during my university registration, but I changed my mind during the first term and told the university I would be self funding.

I got on the phone to the SLC after receiving my first loan payment, saying that I'd like to cancel the PG loan and will be self funding.
I promptly refunded them the first payment the day I received it. In my mind, the entire case was now closed. 

Now, fast forward to January 2021. I discover that I am still receiving payments; to be specific, I received a further 2 payments in April 2020 and October 2020!
And I have been accruing interest on these payments too. I was shocked. I tried telling them on the phone that this shouldn't have happened because I was told my loan was cancelled. Now, I didn't receive any assistance from their administrators. They plainly told me that this is my balance which is due.

I was eager to get this saga finished, and so I paid them on the 7 January 2021, the amount due for April 2020 + October 2020 - but this is where I think I've made my biggest mistake - I also paid a surplus amount (i.e. interest). Does this make me complicit in agreeing to their loan?

The last payment I received from SLC was on the 11 January 2021, which I promptly refunded to them. I thought that I was free from their tyranny.

Which brings us to today. I log into my online account with SLC recently, to find out I have a balance due of over £9500.... this is beyond incompetence now and is actually serious.
I get on the phone to the administrators at SLC/SFE to find out what's happened. I finally get through to their billings department. The man tells me he has found my repayments - but my repayments have gone to repaying my Undergraduate balance!

He said it will take a week for the balance to shift from the UG to PG loan. I tried to convey my shock at the situation, but obviously like the good administrator he is, he doesn't give a sh**. 

So can someone advise me what can I do now?
I am 99.9% positive that interest will have been accruing on the loan. Should I give in to injustice and repay the interest? Or is there some justice left in the world and that I have some rights to take them to court?

All I wanted was for them to stop the loan, but I feel like I am due compensation now for the way they've handled this entire farce of a situation.

I have clear evidence on my bank statements of A) me refunding them and me self funding my PG degree.

MallyGirl

I suspect that you have no case - how did you not notice the money being paid to you? Did you not see it when you checked your statements?

Ergates

On the one hand - they have made a mistake in failing to cancel the loan agreement when asked.
On the other hand - you have made a mistake in not noticing you were still receiving payments until (from the sound of it) nearly a year later.

Send them a SAR to see if they have any record of your call from 2019 when you asked them to cancel the loan agreement.  If they have that, then you have some leverage to ask them to cancel the interest payments - however that you didn't notice the payment in April 2020 until January 2021 will work against you.

Paying the interest in Jan 2021 doesn't make you "complicit" in agreeing to the loan - entering into the loan agreement in the first place does that.  The issue here is that you contacted them to cancel it and they didn't, not that they gave it to you without you asking.

When you made the payment in Jan 2021, was there a way to indicate which loan it should have gone against?  If there was, and you filled it correctly then it was their mistake, and you may be able to have any interest against *that* loan removed.

TripleH

Have you a detailed breakdown of exactly what this balance is?

Get a full statement and check off payments into and out of your account against the statement.

If you spot any errors let them know immediately. If you've missed refunding any payments from them, get those returned as soon as possible.

If you don't owe any capital (money borrowed), you will have can easier talk of trying to argue down any interest owed. Do you have evidence of you telling them you do not wish to borrow additional funds?

There is no guarantee of reducing the interest to nil but it will help your case if you can show you owe no capital and submitted the request to terminate the loan correctly to possibly get some of the interest written off.

As long as you have capital from the loan company in your account, you will struggle to argue you have received no benefit from it. Good luck.

Grumpy_chap

Assadk said:

Hi all,

I've found myself in an very uncomfortable situation with Student Loans Company / Student Finance England and I would appreciate your advice as I don't know how to proceed.

I enrolled in a part time MSc degree in October 2019.
I must have applied for a PG student loan online during my university registration, but I changed my mind during the first term and told the university I would be self funding.

I got on the phone to the SLC after receiving my first loan payment, saying that I'd like to cancel the PG loan and will be self funding.
I promptly refunded them the first payment the day I received it. In my mind, the entire case was now closed. 

Now, fast forward to January 2021. I discover that I am still receiving payments; to be specific, I received a further 2 payments in April 2020 and October 2020!
And I have been accruing interest on these payments too. I was shocked. I tried telling them on the phone that this shouldn't have happened because I was told my loan was cancelled. Now, I didn't receive any assistance from their administrators. They plainly told me that this is my balance which is due.

I was eager to get this saga finished, and so I paid them on the 7 January 2021, the amount due for April 2020 + October 2020 - but this is where I think I've made my biggest mistake - I also paid a surplus amount (i.e. interest). Does this make me complicit in agreeing to their loan?

The last payment I received from SLC was on the 11 January 2021, which I promptly refunded to them. I thought that I was free from their tyranny.

Which brings us to today. I log into my online account with SLC recently, to find out I have a balance due of over £9500.... this is beyond incompetence now and is actually serious.
I get on the phone to the administrators at SLC/SFE to find out what's happened. I finally get through to their billings department. The man tells me he has found my repayments - but my repayments have gone to repaying my Undergraduate balance!

He said it will take a week for the balance to shift from the UG to PG loan. I tried to convey my shock at the situation, but obviously like the good administrator he is, he doesn't give a sh**. 

So can someone advise me what can I do now?
I am 99.9% positive that interest will have been accruing on the loan. Should I give in to injustice and repay the interest? Or is there some justice left in the world and that I have some rights to take them to court?

All I wanted was for them to stop the loan, but I feel like I am due compensation now for the way they've handled this entire farce of a situation.

I have clear evidence on my bank statements of A) me refunding them and me self funding my PG degree.

You seem unclear as to how you applied for the loan, though I can understand this might have been almost a default / tick-box in the enrolment process for the MSc.

You seem to have not noticed the two payments (totalling £9.5k) into your bank account for several months.  How does that happen?  

Assadk

TripleH said:

Have you a detailed breakdown of exactly what this balance is?

Get a full statement and check off payments into and out of your account against the statement.

If you spot any errors let them know immediately. If you've missed refunding any payments from them, get those returned as soon as possible.

If you don't owe any capital (money borrowed), you will have can easier talk of trying to argue down any interest owed. Do you have evidence of you telling them you do not wish to borrow additional funds?

There is no guarantee of reducing the interest to nil but it will help your case if you can show you owe no capital and submitted the request to terminate the loan correctly to possibly get some of the interest written off.

As long as you have capital from the loan company in your account, you will struggle to argue you have received no benefit from it. Good luck.

Yup, I've got the exact breakdown.

Their ledger:

7 oct 2019 3598.98

27 apr 2020 1854.02

5 oct 2020 1799.49

11 jan 2021 1799.49

TOTAL 9051.98

my ledger

7 oct 2019 3598.98

27 apr 2020

5 oct 2020

7 jan 2021 3749.52

11 jan 2021 1799.49

TOTAL 9147.99

(interest) 96.01

I repaid them the capital + interest (which I shouldn't have) on the 11 Jan 2021.
I owe them nothing. 

However, the fact my repayments went to clearing my UG loan balance means that I've been accruing interest on my PG loan:

I now "owe" them £9859, meaning I've racked up interest of £711 since Jan 2021.

This is utter madness, and this is why I'm seeking advice.

Do you think I should talk to a solicitor? I shouldn't have to give them a dime based on the fact I repaid them all of their capital over a year ago.

Assadk

All of my replies keep getting caught by this website's "spam" detector.

Ergates, I couldn't specify which loan AFAIK. If I did have the option, I wouldn't have any reason to choose my UG balance.

Do you think I have grounds to take them to court?
How do I file a SAR?

MalMonroe

Assadk said:

Hi all,

I've found myself in an very uncomfortable situation with Student Loans Company / Student Finance England and I would appreciate your advice as I don't know how to proceed.

I enrolled in a part time MSc degree in October 2019.
I must have applied for a PG student loan online during my university registration, but I changed my mind during the first term and told the university I would be self funding.

I got on the phone to the SLC after receiving my first loan payment, saying that I'd like to cancel the PG loan and will be self funding.
I promptly refunded them the first payment the day I received it. In my mind, the entire case was now closed. 

Now, fast forward to January 2021. I discover that I am still receiving payments; to be specific, I received a further 2 payments in April 2020 and October 2020!
And I have been accruing interest on these payments too. I was shocked. I tried telling them on the phone that this shouldn't have happened because I was told my loan was cancelled. Now, I didn't receive any assistance from their administrators. They plainly told me that this is my balance which is due.

I was eager to get this saga finished, and so I paid them on the 7 January 2021, the amount due for April 2020 + October 2020 - but this is where I think I've made my biggest mistake - I also paid a surplus amount (i.e. interest). Does this make me complicit in agreeing to their loan?

The last payment I received from SLC was on the 11 January 2021, which I promptly refunded to them. I thought that I was free from their tyranny.

Which brings us to today. I log into my online account with SLC recently, to find out I have a balance due of over £9500.... this is beyond incompetence now and is actually serious.
I get on the phone to the administrators at SLC/SFE to find out what's happened. I finally get through to their billings department. The man tells me he has found my repayments - but my repayments have gone to repaying my Undergraduate balance!

He said it will take a week for the balance to shift from the UG to PG loan. I tried to convey my shock at the situation, but obviously like the good administrator he is, he doesn't give a sh**. 

So can someone advise me what can I do now?
I am 99.9% positive that interest will have been accruing on the loan. Should I give in to injustice and repay the interest? Or is there some justice left in the world and that I have some rights to take them to court?

All I wanted was for them to stop the loan, but I feel like I am due compensation now for the way they've handled this entire farce of a situation.

I have clear evidence on my bank statements of A) me refunding them and me self funding my PG degree.

You haven't said how much is still owing on your undergraduate loan.

I don't see how you can take them to court when they are using your money to pay off your loans, whether UG or PG. Nor when the administrator has said that he will shift the balance from the UG loan to the PG loan. 

You obviously DO still owe Student Loans some money and that's where the confusion has arisen. They're shuffling your payments around and still giving you PG loan money which you've said you don't want. But surely there will still be interest accruing on the UG loan? Interest starts to accrue from the day they pay you the first instalment. 

You've already tried to sort out what seems to be quite a mess with their 'front facing staff', so you could make an official complaint, info in this link -

https://www.gov.uk/contact-student-finance-england

Sncjw

So what did you do with the money that came into your accounts then? Do you get money every so often on your undergraduate degree.

When did you finish your mac course and when did you apply for pg loan. 

[Deleted User]

For what it's worth, I think you do have grounds for a complaint and probably some compensation if you've told them to cancel the loan and they've continued to pay it anyway.

It doesn't really matter if "you should have seen the payments coming in", they've told you the loan was cancelled and kept paying you it anyway. That's a serious mistake on their part. You're under no obligation to regularly monitor old bank accounts just on the off chance someone might have messed up and paid you thousands or pounds in error.

Ergates

Assadk said:

All of my replies keep getting caught by this website's "spam" detector.

Ergates, I couldn't specify which loan AFAIK. If I did have the option, I wouldn't have any reason to choose my UG balance.

Do you think I have grounds to take them to court?
How do I file a SAR?

Check all the PG loan documentation and/or information on their website - it may say somewhere about the order in which loans will be paid off (given there is no way to indicate which loan a payment is for).   To a human it might look obvious (if the amount paid is the exact same amount as one of the loans) but payments are probably handled by an automated system which wouldn't check that kind of thing.

Given they're moving the money you paid them from the UG loan to the PG one, then you could try asking them to waive the interest.  If you can get them to acknowledge the call you made to cancel the loan in the first place then that would strengthen your request.

I don't know if a court case would have much chance of success (IANAL)- but would be a last resort anyway, almost always best to exhaust other avenues first.

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