| Product: |
Student Loans Co. |
| Date: |
04/05/06 (686 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: The loan is a help, especially when you have so little to survive on.
Disadvantages: You worst nightmare!
When i went to uni, like most students, i too took out a student loan. It does normally take a little time for the loan to actually come through. The money was a huge help since i had very little to survive upon, although it still wasnt enough. Student life can cost alot. After some time, i ended up leaving uni without finishing my course due a number of reasons. So i left and informed the student loans co. Every year i would defer my loan as i wasnt yet earning much.
Not long after i began another course, which included studying a foreign language. During the period In between the two courses, i worked for a while (extremely hard, doing plenty of overtime etc) and saved up some money so i could go abroad for a few months in order to really pick up the language i was learning. Before i went, being the a good citizen and consumer, i informed the student loans company that i would be abroad for a few months (by phone). After having spent a few months abroad, i returned back. The next 3 years was kind of ok, doing my studies and trying to get by in life.
Next thing you know...i get a telephone call (remember, they had not contacted me for 3 years or so, and i had completely forgotten about my student loans during this period having been so busy) ...theyre demanding payment of a debt amounting to over £2100!! (the total loan amount i took out was just over £3500 i think) ...work that one out! As i spoke to the representative over the phone, being so shocked at this, i began to ask her why i was being asked to pay this amount. She told me it was because i had not deferred my payments, but when i responded and told her that i had not recieved any contact and nor any of the forms for the deferrment, she begins telling me it is MY fault?!
When i asked why, she told me coz i had not informed them that i had changed my address?! huh?! I was only abroad for a few months, i had never changed my address i explained. But rather than dealing with the situation, she turned very nasty and began demanding payment. She wouldnt even allow me to ask reasonable quiries as to why i was being made to pay such a big sum.
As i was still a student, not being able to pay anything as such, i explained this to her. But it just seemed as if they could not care less! All they were interested in was the money. Over some time, i had a few conversations with them. During each conversation, as i tried to ask why i was being made to make these payments (as i was not earning anything, and the agreements was to only begin repayments when i am earning above the natiol average), none of them gave me any real answers, and always pushed for payment. They threatened me with balif's, court action etc.
Anyway, after some time and disagreements, to avoid any further complications i agreed to start repaying some of the money (which i had to borrow, or rely upon my parents for and i even made this clear to them). I was promised that, if i made payments then when the next period of deferment comes, they will review my case, and i was promised i would only have to make payments till then. So i did as such, made payments for a few months. Then filled in the next set of deferment forms and sent them off.
A week or two later, i receive a letter stating that the loan has been deferred, but i was still owing over £2100 which was to payed off in 7 days! My god! They just get worse and worse!
So finally i decided i would no longer deal with them until i get satisfactory answers as to why they are demanding payment. I wrote a letter to this affect. Two weeks later i get a reply to say it was due to my failure to defer payments.
Doing a little research, i realised that they actually had a legal responsibility to keep their data 'accurate and upto date' according to the data protection act of 1998. They also had a responsibility to keep a debtor informed about their account status and any monies owed. So i wrote to them again explaining this.
A second reply i got, they claim that they had fulfilled the law as my family had informed them i was abroad and had changed my address?! (I spoke to my family, and they told me that they had said no such thing!) ...And that because they had passed on my case to a investigator to locate my where abouts they had fulfilled the data protection act criteria. Which i cannot understand, as i had NEVER changed my address and if they had an investigator locating me, how could they have not known for over 3 years that i was still at the same address??!! And they only reason they knew is coz they called my family to demand payments of the debt.
This is my situation at the present time. Take my word for it, be extremely cautious!!! They are a bunch of cowboys, who are unorganised, they dont care about anyone, they seem to have such a poor service and all they care about is money. Which they will try to get it from you anyway they can. I have another friend who has had a very similar experience with them. What a headache they have become!
Watch out for them. They are literally like a pack of volwes after your money. It's all they care about.
Summary: The Loan company from hell!!!
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Last comments:
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- 09/05/06 Just to clarify a few things for you all. I borrowed around £3500, but had the payments not been deferred and i was paying back the loan, around £2100 is what i would have payed back by now. This is why they were demanding this amount. But i was not given the oppurtunity to defer my payments. Rather than allowing me defer payments, they just kept adding up the re-payments i would have been making had i been earning above the national average, with out even telling me! I had no idea about this what so ever.
I never went abroad for a holiday, i was studying language abroad. The money i earned during the period between both courses was meant to fund my studies. I was in an institution in West Africa. I was living in a very harsh country, where the living was tough and you don't find hardly any tourist attactions. I would hardly call that a holiday. I have been working and funding my own studies ever since without anyone's help (except my parents who have been supportive :) ). Living as a student, and having to fund my own studies, i don't have hardly any money. So paying back my loan would be difficult.
The agreement upon which i took out the loan was that, the loan would not have to be paid back until i was earning above the national average. And i have not earned that much at any point yet.
But thanks fall all your feedback, help and support. I reall do appreciate it. It's unfortunate that large companies and organisations now a days tend to punish people just because they don't know/understand what their own rights are. All to often, the little people (being us) are pushed around like this, and these companies will try to bully the money out of us. The threats that the student loans company has tried to give me...baliff's, court action, sometimes only giving me 7 days to pay the whole amount! etc etc. The funny thing is, i only usually get these threats when i ask why they are demanding payment, and show them i have some understanding of what my rights are!
Liek with the last letter i wrote, where i detailed their responsibilities according to the law, where they have breeched the law, or neglected my rights as a consumer - in reply they threatened to demand the whole loan amount to be paid in seven days, and to pass the debt onto baliffs. Anyway...i'm gonna try to get some advice to better understand my rights, and see what my options are and then take it from there accordingly.
B ut thanks to all of you anyway!
Regards. |
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- 05/05/06 "They are literally like a pack of volwes after your money" ...better than a pack of consenants. |
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- 04/05/06 Bit confused because you said that you had a loan for £3500 and they only wanted you to repay £2100, I would have been delighted as it means I'm £1400 up on the deal. Not sure you have much of a leg to stand on, you borrowed the money and you have to pay it back, that is what borrowing money means and it is your debt so you are responsible for it, especially as by your own ommission you earned money to go on holiday.
Good luck in sorting it out though. |
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