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Original poster

I've been told by student loan company to pay £3045 by 7th November. Panic is not the word!

72 replies

Hidinginthebath · 16/10/2018 21:26

Sorry posting here for traffic as didn't get a response in Money.

Erudio Student Loans manage my account. Got a letter today saying they are terminating my student loan agreement. The account went into arrears in 2014/15 because I had to flee domestic abuse and then my physically abusive exH withheld my post for a year, at this time the gOv sold my student loans to Erudio.

Sorted it and have been paying a monthly amount since; £100 per month in 2016 and then my contractual payment of £138 a month since 2017. They've just decided to end my agreement! I'm in shock. How on earth can I find £3045 in 20 days??

OP posts:
treaclesoda · 16/10/2018 22:05

How do you default on a student loan? Isn't it paid by PAYE monthly and the payment reflects your p/A wage?

It's probably an old style loan. If you graduated 20 years or so ago, it's not on a sliding scale based on your income the way it is today. When you hit a certain level of income (although it's a much higher level than today's loans) you have to pay it all off in five years, like a normal loan.

POPholditdown · 16/10/2018 22:05

I was going to suggest an interest free credit card, like a pp. If all else fails.

Where are you in you buying process? Will it affect your borrowing amount if you take on a CC in the next 20 days?

Obviously our circs are likely different, but I got approved by Barclaycard for around 4.2k limit for interest free balance transfer, when my credit wasn’t in the greatest shape (slowly getting there now..)

If you have any paperwork from them, comb through the policy and fine prints to see under what circumstances they can do this.

Good luck Flowers

tenorladybeaker · 16/10/2018 22:08

If you are buying a house surely you can bump up the amount you borrow by £3,045 and get it sorted?

Erudio will be absorbing the loss of every account that reaches its write-off date without having been paid off. They will twist every which way they can to close any account that diverges by a millimetre from the exact Terms & Conditions in order to minimise those losses. A court may not be on your side if you have the asset of equity in a house that you arranged instead of catching up with your arrears.

Dishevelled09 · 16/10/2018 22:11

Is there any chance that the loan company have cottoned onto the fact that you are in the process of buying a house and think you can pay back the loan sooner than previously agreed? Maybe they do regular credit checks? Get the house sale sorted quick before they try and grab the deposit. Definitely get help re dealing with them cab, advice line through work and read the documents through that you signed.

BananasAreTheSourceOfEvil · 16/10/2018 22:12

I think you definitely need some legal advice (i'm not UK based so dont know any organisations that may be able to help you). All I can think to say is that try and buy yourself some time- you could try pointing out that you never received the letters they sent, because of your exH, but do they have proof they ever sent you notice? Unless they sent it by registered post or email, they wont.

Just keep paying what you can- if worst luck, it comes to court, you can show that you have always intended to pay and are doing so.

Best of luck Flowers

Walkingdeadfangirl · 16/10/2018 22:15

Eurdio are exactly one of those companies that buys and sells debts so they can use bullying tactics to try and force you to pay it off in one go. Do not believe anything they tell you on the phone, 99% of it is bare faced lies. They do not take people who are paying regularly to court, its a very successful bluff/scare.

The info is all on moneysavingexpert. Search their forums, a new post might take ages to get a response because its not as busy as MN. But there are hundreds of posters that have gone through what is happening to you and it does detail exactly your rights and how you should respond.

You can still defer a year and set up an affordable plan to catch up with any arrears. They cannot force you to pay it all in one go.

Tomatoesrock · 16/10/2018 22:17

Go to see a money advice agency. They will have to except an agreed amount. Do not panic but get the house sale sorted asap and do not acknowledge the letter until you have financial advise.

buttonmooning · 16/10/2018 22:18

Have you made a formal complaint? Erudio is now covered by the ombudsman for some (not all) student loans so you might be able to refer it to them - have a look at the complaints procedure on Erudio's website.

CrazySheepLady · 16/10/2018 22:28

@AlphaBravo it's likely that the OP took out her student loan prior to 2006, when the system changed, with a 'mortgage style' repayment. Your loan, if you go ahead next year, will be based on earnings and repaid via salary deduction by HMRC to SLC, which is altogether different.

I guess there are never any guarantees for the future, though.

SchadenfreudePersonified · 16/10/2018 22:30

Assholes, how can they terminate a legally binding agreement like that?!
Fucking government for selling off student loads to private companies!!!

Exactly! Moving the goalposts - but if OP wanted to unilaterally change the terms of the contract, there's no way she would be able to.

I can't understand how this is even legal.

Usernamed · 16/10/2018 22:58

What does defaulting on the loan mean please? I've not been paying for years because I don't earn enough. I now owe more than I ever borrowed (despite paying off a lot of it a few years ago before I became a SAHM). Would that be defaulting?

debtadviceflowerofscotland · 16/10/2018 22:59

What are they threatening to do if and when you don't pay? I'm in Scotland so the debt law and options available to creditors are different here, but I'd be interested to know the answer to that question.

Walkingdeadfangirl · 16/10/2018 23:04

What does defaulting on the loan mean please?

It means either:
a) Not filling in the deferment form every year.
b) Not being entitled to deferment and not making the monthly payments.

If you fill in deferment form, or make monthly payments every month, you are fine. aka following the rules.

Original poster
Hidinginthebath · 16/10/2018 23:04

I will be completing in the next week or 2 at a push.

It's an old mortgage style loan as PP said. It defaulted and went into arrears because I couldn't defer and I wasn't told the SLC had sold my original loans.

I'm calmer now. This will NOT affect my house purchase. I have fought for 4 years to scrape my life back together and to buy this house. I will wait to communicate with them further when the house purchase has gone through. They are trying to bully me into paying off this loan at a pace that I can't afford. It's not happening.

OP posts:
Original poster
Hidinginthebath · 16/10/2018 23:06

walkingdead the rules couldn't be followed. My post was withheld. The police had to get my post. By the time it was retrieved I'd defaulted. I didn't even know my loan had been sold.

OP posts:
Original poster
Hidinginthebath · 16/10/2018 23:08

user the person on the phone wouldn't tell me what happens if I don't pay £3045 by 7th Nov. He wouldn't answer...

OP posts:
Walkingdeadfangirl · 16/10/2018 23:12

Hidinginthebath Just remembered something else. If your student loan is more than 6 years overdue (5 in Scotland) then the whole loan cannot be collected. Eurdio never tell you that, I wonder why!

Original poster
Hidinginthebath · 16/10/2018 23:21

It's not statute barred because I acknowledged the debt. By paying it!

I'm going to ring national debtline tomorrow. They seem to have responded to loads of post on MSE.

OP posts:
AnotherEmma · 16/10/2018 23:21

You don’t need legal advice. You can get free debt advice from an organisation like citizens advice (imo the best option as you can talk to someone face to face and take all your paperwork) or national debtline, stepchange etc.

It will be fine. You don’t have to pay it all now and they certainly won’t take you to court if you don’t.

AnotherEmma · 16/10/2018 23:22

Cross post Grin

MumW · 16/10/2018 23:22

Get an urgent appointment with your MP and get some support.
Good Luck

TinselAngel · 16/10/2018 23:24

Have you offered to pay a bit extra to start to pay off the arrears?

I went into default for a few months due to relationship breakdown. After a Mexican standoff, where I pointed out that no judge would consider their actions reasonable, as I was now making the monthly payments, I paid £5 per month on top of my usual payment, towards the arrears.

TinselAngel · 16/10/2018 23:29

And I refused to give them any info about my financial incomings and outgoings to "see if I could afford the £5", on the basis that as I was already paying them, it was none of their business.

The call handler got a bit miffed when I accused him of trying to bully me, by threatening to end the agreement,but that's exactly what these tactics are. It's to scare you into making some payment towards the arrears.

SusieOwl4 · 16/10/2018 23:53

If you have been paying and even just a bit towards the arrears the court , if it got that far , would be in your side . You can not be forced to pay more than you can afford
Best of luck I am sure you will be ok

OhLookHeKickedTheBall · 17/10/2018 00:01

I've been in deferment for 7 years, and Erudio have bought one of my mortgage style loans. They keep offering me settlement amounts. Which would be great but the reason I'm in deferment is because I can't afford to pay them the monthly amount let alone magic up the reduced amount to pay off my loan.

They've never done this before so I'm guessing they're on a bit of a money clawing spree.

CAB are great, or one of the debt advisory places mentioned previously. Hope you can get some luck with one of those.