The way i see it, today, is that if erudio has breeched the original agreement concerning passing all our info on to CRA's, even though we havent breeched our agreements, then the 100,000 or so deferers must have a strong case for those first deferrment packs being a breech of the agreement/our original terms and conditions. By including an implicit agreement that they can pass our info on, via the signing of the deferment letter, is almost like blackmail, especially considering they asked for our consent to do this in the original packs they sent out informing us they now owned the loans.
Talking to people close-ish to the deal, they think contacting CRA's may be legal under some consumer credit agreement. They said that the SLC didnt enforce this but that erudio may have the right. However, that doesnt take into account the posts in this forum about our original terms and agreement concerning only passing this info on if we breech our agreement/default. It is very important to find out which argument is correct. If Erudio first ask for permission to pass info on, then send out their second correspondence to us making this implicit with our deferments (which is also a way of getting us to sign the right over), then they must need permission and the original terms and agreement could actually be correct. They need us to sign to allow them to do it, otherwise they would be breaching our original agreement. Thus, they could be legally covered by ammending our agreements via direct consent from us.
I was also told that they seem to have mixed up messages related to what happens to a defaulter and a deferer on the back page our deferment letters, which makes a deferer think that the same processes will rain down on them as would a defaulter.
The bind being that, if we object to signing their forms and agreeing to them putting us on the CRA lists (and other things like bank details), the length of the time our disputes take could take us into the payment period after the deferment period has passed...and if they dont have our bank account details, that could place us on the defaulters list (automated computer systems and all) and have us legitimately put on the CRA lists.
It is rather important to find an answer to this but i dont really have access to people who know where we legally stand...nor the money to find out.
If it is deemed that they have illegally blackmailed us into signing our info over to CRAs (amongst other things), then surely all those original deferment packs would have to be destroyed and reissued to the 100,000 or so of us who got them, which would surely be newsworthy. And beyond that, it would may be make them treat us like the deferers we are and not the defaulters/guilty we are not. After all, playing hard ball with deferers may be legal (we do need a definitive answer to this i feel), but as we are just following our agreements and done nothing wrong, i cant see how playing hard ball with us will win them any fans whatsoever. We have, i state again, done nothing wrong. It was never considered at the signing of the Erudio agreement that they would get much out of us deferers, but it seems they are going to try their best. But as we have the solid ground of doing everything correct and being innocent of any negative acts (we do contact them and keep in touch for example), that must stand for something.
The first step is put in a complaint to erudio, then we can go to the independent assessor as i understand it. If erudio has messed up, then they get fined something like £100 automatically. It is therefore important that we all start that process/querying with erudio. You can do it just by telephoning the deferment section, highlighting the problem, and saying you wish to lodge a complaint. My complaint handler took down my info and argument down very accurately. However, to speed things up/slow things down, it is all via direct post. I was told they cannot email out directly to 'customers' but can receive emails in.
On a personal note, i find it all rather annoying because i just want to sign the damn form and rubber stamp my deferment again but feel i cant because i am being led into signing up to things that annoy me now, but who knows where these things will lead in the coming years. Most of us only have 7 or 8 years left anyway, so they must have a path they are directing us down, and not being a debtor before, i dont know where it leads. As such, now is the best time to make the stand before we sign away something that will have dire consequences in the coming few years.
One other thought, being deferers means we arent rich, so if they did start taking payments because of late deferment practices their end, maybe some of us would end up being pushed into bank charges territory. And the way they have started 'our' relationship thus far, giving over bank details could have dire consequences that they need to assure us about clearly! I do know that they have been ordered to treat us differently to credit card debtors and the like, and been trained to be extra friendly and understanding just for us, so going outside of our original agreements (if they have) would sure attract attention if we can prove it.