Student loan debt sold off to private company

restless6

I was at university 1997-2000 so my student loan was small- approx £6k I think over the duration as I also qualified for grants.

I always deferred repayment as I was a low earner, single parent etc .

Approx 6yrs ago I forgot to defer in time as I moved house , changed job, lot going on etc etc .

Eventually the loans were sold off to a debt collection agency called Link financial .

I currently am not making any repayments with their agreement - for now.

I have just turned 50 and this loan would’ve been written off under my original agreement.
I have read a lot about student loans recently in the news being mis sold and wondered if there is any way I could still get mine written off ?

I know I was at fault for not updating my address for a year .. but I also didn’t know it would be sold off.
I now earn £31k and still have one dependent . (If that’s relevant )

Thank you

silvercar

Loans taken out before September 2006 won’t be written of until you are 65. You have mortgage style loan. As you say, it should have been written off by now had you not missed a deferment declaration.

restless6

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82106016#Comment_82106016

mine was due to be written off age 50, not 65.

I cannot apply for retrospective deferment as the student loan company no longer have my loan - they sold it off to Link financial who are a debt recovery agency.

restless6

I did appeal to SLC at the time against it being sold to Link and demanding the full amount but they declined my appeal and left it with Link to do as they please .

I currently get a letter every three months the asking if any of my circumstances have changed to which I reply no … hence Link putting my repayments on a temporary hold .

silvercar

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82106044#Comment_82106044

There is an MSE article about your sort of loan:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loans-repay-pre98/

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loans-repay-pre98/

silvercar

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82106044#Comment_82106044

The same rules apply, so while your income is under the threshold (currently it’s £41,613) you can defer. I guess you keep deferring if they won’t write it off.

silvercar

AI seems to think that you can get the loan company to accept a retrospective deferment or alternatively agree a plan to clear the arrears for the missing years. At which point, as your loan will then be in good standing you can apply for it to be written off under the normal rules. The key is to work in stages. Get the status of the missing years cleaned up and then apply for write off.

The other key fact is that, once the loan is passed to a loan company, it could become statute barred if there has been no acknowledgement of the debt for 6 years. That won't necessarily stop them chasing you for now, but they won't be able to enforce any payment.

kaMelo

It's more simple than that, hoping for an age related cancellation is a no go, that ship has sailed. Once defaulted a mortgage style student loan will never be written off due to age cancellation But that is not the end of the matter, mortgage style student loans are also subject to the CCA so once defaulted you follow the same path as you would do for credit card or overdraft debts.

Don't take any notice of phone calls or texts. Do not acknowledge the debt with Link, never admit to owing anything, essentially keep your head down, say nothing and hope that six years passes from your last acknowledgement of owing the debt. If it does then your debt will be statute barred.

But if Link, or anyone else claiming to own the debt, sends a LBA, a letter before taking court action, before the six years are up then you must respond. If that happens come back and post on the Debt Free Wanabee forum for some more help.