Student loans company "sold debt" to Thesis Servicing Ltd

wildweather · 15 May 2009 at 5:24PM

Guys, just wanted to say thanks for your help...

I contacted the Student loans company and they informed me that my loan is not "being held" with them any more. They were not prepared to discuss this further suffice to say that yup, my loan was sold off to thesis last year.

I was advised to contact thesis (was dubious about this as wasn't sure what to expect) but thankfully once I explained that i'd changed address they were ok and promised to send me out a deferrment pack.

They also advised that deferrment can be backdated three months. *hurray*

Anyway, that'll teach me!
As much as i hate bareaucracy, it's true, worst thing you can do is take no action and bury your head in the sand...hopefully if i have any arrears it won't be too much

jago25_98 · 15 May 2009 at 6:24PM

A bit worrying. I always had a bad feeling about student loans. I can pay mine off if I want to but at the moment I choose not to because it could be useful for buying a house. However, if my loan is sold to a different company with a reputation I might prefer to clear it. So thanks for the info. I will contact SLC to confirm whether my loan is still where it is. Very scary. I wonder what prevents debt fraud. And errors.

fermi · 15 May 2009 at 6:29PM

wildweather wrote: »

I was advised to contact thesis (was dubious about this as wasn't sure what to expect) but thankfully once I explained that i'd changed address they were ok and promised to send me out a deferrment pack.

Very odd, since my letters from Thesis state clearly that deferment should still be done through the SLC.

But as long as it is now sorted.........

lostbuckaroos · 21 May 2009 at 12:06AM

fermi wrote: »

Very odd, since my letters from Thesis state clearly that deferment should still be done through the SLC.

But as long as it is now sorted.........

Did anyone actually ever get a deferment letter? I just had the money taken from my account today, it's just lucky I had enough money in there. The message on the thesis number said they would send out deferment packs when they got them in. So why did my letter say the SLC would deal with deferment when they clearly haven't?:mad:

chickywithwings · 23 June 2009 at 3:02PM

Got the letter regarding the 'sale' a while back and have been deferred for years, but am now not eligible. Just got a call saying I'm in arrears, despite them not setting up a DD or contacting me at all re repayment or deferrment.

dmg24 · 23 June 2009 at 3:16PM

chickywithwings wrote: »

Got the letter regarding the 'sale' a while back and have been deferred for years, but am now not eligible. Just got a call saying I'm in arrears, despite them not setting up a DD or contacting me at all re repayment or deferrment.

Did you contact them?

scarlet_shoegal · 23 June 2009 at 3:35PM

Just thought I'd follow up on my earlier post...

After many phone calls and letters, I finally discovered that Student Loans sold a bundle of their pre '98 loans to Thesis Servicing as instructed by the government apparently… Thesis didn’t seem to be too keen on this and I can only assume that’s why their service has been so shockingly poor. These loans were taken over in batches according to their loan number - not the surname of the owner. That's why loads of people, (including myself) have found that one loan has been sold, but not the others.

I’ve had so many arguments with them, I won’t even bore you with the details! The long and short of it is that whatever you had arranged with Student Loans is now void with Thesis as they seem to have their own terms and conditions. I have always paid my Student loan in a block at the beginning of the year – rather than monthly instalments. Thesis not only do not allow this, but they quite happily took the money I’d already paid to cover that year from SL and then told me I had to restart my direct debits as well! Thank God I’d cancelled this set up with Student Loans, or they would have simply given them my details for them to start taking payments without even warning me.

It took 4 attempts, (yes 4!) to actually get a copy of a bill showing what I owed them. They then wanted to reduce my payments each month, but increase the term so I would have been paying another 4 years instead of 2 with more interest in it for them. There was simply no negotiating with them and very little in the way of written documentation.

Finally, I got so fed up of the situation I simply paid off the loan with them and have now carried on as I was before with Student Loans. Even then, it took me 5 phone calls to get a letter of confirmation that the loan was paid off, and that was after they tried to charge me another £3.75 before they would clear the balance; “for interest accrued” during the couple of days between them confirmed my balance and me sending my cheque for final settlement! Unbelievable and very petty.

Part of me feels that their ‘bailiff’ esque tactics have meant an early repayment for them at my expense, but frankly, I just couldn’t face the frustration any more…..

Anyway. Should it help anyone else, I also checked with them about credit reports and apparently they aren’t allowed to include student loans in these so it shouldn’t have any affect if you find yourself inadvertently in arrears as I did. I fully intend on checking this though, so if I find out anything to the contrary I shall repost!

englishtea · 23 June 2009 at 3:57PM

The Student Loans Company sold only half of my debt to CSL, another rather heavy handed debt collection agency. I have managed to appease them and establish payments that they seem happy with, but then I am still getting letters from Student Loans as well! Why only sell part of one person's debt? It is all rather confusing.

gattina · 23 June 2009 at 4:35PM

I have £21685 on my loan erk!

I actually want to pay it off sooner... Is there a way to pay off higher payments if you want to?

Once i've finished my 3 year plan for overdraft and loans i would ideally like to tranfer the payments for these onto my student loan.

Says that 200 a month can get rid of it in 8 years rather than the 18 on my current salary deduction

scarlet_shoegal · 23 June 2009 at 4:41PM

Hi Gattina,

If you're paying back Student Loans I think it should be fine. I pay more than they require me to each month, but my loans were pre '98 so I'm not sure if that makes a difference. I do know they also allow you to top up every now if you want to too, say if you get a bonus and want to use that.

Student loans company "sold debt" to Thesis Servicing Ltd

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