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Erudio Student Loans Continued

999 replies

halfpricedebt · 18/04/2014 22:53

Started a new thread following mrsbug's request.

I got an email from Erudio today telling me that an issue I raised with them on 27 March that was then completely ignored even though they asked for confirmation of my details to process the initial email. I gave them the details they requested and seven days later I still hadn't heard anything. So I wrote them a rather threatening complaint telling them if they didn't respond within 7 days I would report them to the relevant financial services. That was on 3 April and today they've told me that my complaint has been forwarded to their Customer Resolutions Team.

I wonder what they do?

OP posts:
Ibreakwindinerudiosdirection · 19/04/2014 22:38

The cycle is indeed curious. From July 28th 2006:

www.theassignmentreport.com/articles/20060809_17

Another SLC story the government seems loathe to discuss is the sale of two tranches from the SLC’s loan book. One piece worth £1.03bn was sold to Honours Student Loans, a company owned by Deutsche Bank and the Nationwide Building Society. The second chunk, worth £1.02bn, was sold to a company called Finance for Higher Education Limited. This is a subsidiary of Higher Education Securities Investments Series No.1 plc, owned by Capita Financial Trust Limited, who are in turn owned by Capita Fiduciary Group, and at the end of the line is the Capita Group. Yes, the same company who have won huge contracts under the present government (including the ill fated Connexions Card) and whose Chairman has taken early retirement because of controversy over his personal £1m loan to the Labour Party.

So we have another Capita link going about the place. There's an amusing ending though to the article.

The introduction of Top up Fees will see the value of loans held by the SLC explode, well beyond the £15bn it already owns. With such huge sums involved, it seems little wonder that the government is very keen to try and isolate any shocks from this debt, triggering problems in London’s finance markets. By happy coincidence the SLC have told the assignment that they are ‘not aware of any plans by the government’ to sell off any more of its loan book.

In 2006 analysts were worried about student loans triggering off a financial crisis! Arf! So at the same time whilst Libor manipulation, PPI fraud etc was going on, and just before the entire thing bloody collapsed in 2007-08, there were worrying fingers being pointed at student loans. Nowt like buck passing!

erudioed · 19/04/2014 22:44

@Ibreakwindinerudiosdirection
i agree with you, that reference to previous experience on their website clinched it for me as well.
It is rather amazing none of the reporting press mentioned anything other than what the government press release clearly announced about Erudio which was, as taken from the guardian:
A consortium called Erudio Student Loans led by the investment fund manager CarVal bought the remaining book of mortgage style loans which were taken out by around 250,000 students between 1990 and 1998. most mention Arrow Global though.

The one different one i found was from Harriet Dennys at the Telegraph on Fri, Nov 29, 2013 (maybe we need to contact her):

*Will Erudio Student Loans represent the best value for the tax payer, as the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills claimed when it sold the company £160m of student debt last week?

Erudio is the joint venture set up by CarVal Investors and Arrow Global (Frankfurt: A0W.F - news) , the debt management specialist, to manage that loan book.

What has been kept quiet, however, is that Erudio’s trustee is the London arm of Wilmington Trust, the Delaware-based bank that is being investigated by the US Department of Justice in relation to “issues” that arose before the lender was rescued from collapse with a $351m (£214m) bailout from M&T Bank in May 2011.

No doubt the BIS conducted its due diligence in the “competitive” bidding process.

But might Wilmington, which provides London office space for Erudio and has installed its UK director, Mark Filer, on Erudio’s board, rethink its “company policy” of not speaking to the press when it takes control of the public debt early next year? *

The answer to that at the end is clearly no...maybe thats because they have virtually nothing to do with it after contracting out the actual shitty work because Arrow Global has been answering question to the BBC and who also made the wheels turn to actually pay the cash back to the reported person after the Independent contacted them.
I am sure Erudio does not exist but as a dodgy entity...maybe you are right, as a shell company. It is like we are barking at the wrong place. They have created this entity, Erudio, through which they can unleash the full extent of the law, but when we want to interact, we end up with Capita and no contact info for Erudio through which to discuss the slightest of complaints. Everything is handled by another company that only you thus far have outed. Maybe we need to ask on our next phone calls if we are talking to Erudio or Capita. Our loans were sold onto Erudio after all, so if they have passed on the sensitive deferment work to Capita, that must be a breach in some conditions...and at the very least should outrage everyone, including the government.
If you have an independent look (i used the overseas phone number at Erudio and Capita's address) and see if you verify my assumption that Capita very much seems to be working for Erudio for all intents and purposes, i will contact a few people. That is definitely breaking news and leads to a few very significant questions needing to be answered.

erudioed · 19/04/2014 23:02

@Ibreakwindinerudiosdirection
I just checked the Capita and Finance for Higher Education Limited link (which is Thesis Servicing). On the company check website, in the event history for Finance for Higher Education Limited, these are the 2 most recent events:
30/01/2014 CAPITA TRUST SECRETARIES LTD has resigned as company secretary
30/01/2014 New Company Secretary CAPITA TRUST CORPORATE LIMITED appointed

As such, the job advert you found may only be to only do with Thesis Servicing. We need to be sure about the Erudio link, even though i am the fool who may have jumped the gun above.

Ibreakwindinerudiosdirection · 19/04/2014 23:06

@erudioed.

I agree with pretty much all you have said. I'd be very interested to know what confidentiality terms are on any Capita worker's contract. Going by the jobs listed, I'm not expecting much.

I've had a look at the overseas Erudio telephone number and Capita's address and you throw in the HSL/Capita link and there's no doubt in my mind that we have Capita doing the admin and phone work for Erudio who are really Arrow and I actually do have a life and don't really spend much of Saturday evening researching this stuff :D

I've been going through old job listings in Leeds and might have found something very interesting.

Ibreakwindinerudiosdirection · 19/04/2014 23:17

Thesis Servicing are based in Caerphilly. They list an 0844 number to call from the UK. If you are calling from overseas, they quote this number:

+44 2920 808 684

029 codes cover Cardiff and Caerphilly.

www.area-codes.org.uk/029-area-code.php

So Thesis = Wales
HSL/Erudio = Rotherham and probably Leeds.

halfpricedebt · 19/04/2014 23:18

Has anyone ever considered that we don't actually owe Erudio any money?

We didn't take loans out with them. They decided to buy a loan book that the government wrote off for peanuts. How does a debt collection agency suddenly tell us we owe them money? We actually don't owe them a penny seeing as they paid the government to "own" a debt. The whole idea is farcical and it would be very interesting if they started taking us to court for breach of agreement. How would they explain their breach of agreement and how they are telling us we owe them 100% of a loan they only paid an eighth to own?

OP posts:
erudioed · 19/04/2014 23:37

@halfpricedebt
I think there is a significant shift in all this if Erudio are not actually conducting the deferment process and palmed all the work we are encountering to another company. If Erudio are just a shell company, that is rather significant. After all, how can a director with over 200 companies be actually paying any mind to any of this. And what company that is a real active company with a couple of hundred thousand 'customers' has a director so away from the operations. It is starting to make sense to me that they have contracted this out, which could be very interesting as we are told we are dealing with Erudio...if we are not, then that is an immediate deceit. Anyway, thats all speculation, lets see what turns up in the post so to speak!

Ibreakwindinerudiosdirection · 19/04/2014 23:53

NB: Never forget that Capita not only handle student loans. They're now doing squaddies.

www.capitaarmyresourcing.co.uk/

Actingforson · 20/04/2014 00:08

Another well known Debt Collector :-

Thesis Servicing is actually Link Financial - I've had dealings with these barstewards, absolute scum - took me to court as soon as they 'bought' a debt even though its was in dispute & being investigated by the FOS over ppi, they lost & they were ordered to pay our legal fee's - £18k :).

As far as my sons problem with Erudio - formal complaint made & a CCA request made for copies of the agreements, may even make a 'Subject Access Request' for ALL information that they hold on him (cost £10 but would be very interesting to get what info they hold).

erudioed · 20/04/2014 09:36

Actingforson: let us know what info they have and if it is anything more that on the SLC forms, it would be very interesting to know.

Sarebear78 · 20/04/2014 15:21

Congratulations ContentedSidewinder - great to hear about another successful deferment. :)

MariaJenny · 20/04/2014 17:11

Half, debts can be assigned though (in law). Assignments happen all the time. In fact there is a whole thing many many companies do when they are owed money called "factoring" where they assign debt over. There is no question but that the original loans could be assigned.

By the way I heard on the radio some director has had to resign because he had been made bankrupt 2 years before. For some reason i thought it related to a student loans company. let me see if I can find out which although may not be relevant to this thread.

MariaJenny · 20/04/2014 17:13

(Apolgies re my last point - it is nothing to do with student loans:
"A businessman appointed by the prime minister to head a quango managing public funds has resigned after it emerged he had been declared bankrupt. Tony Caplin has resigned as chairman of the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB). The organisation is responsible for multi-million pound loans to local councils for infrastructure projects.)"

persephone49 · 20/04/2014 18:39

It would be interesting to know who the other bidders for the loan book were and why Erudio won!

simonpimpernel · 20/04/2014 18:42

Sigh.

So I screwed up properly.

As I have mentioned in previous posts I think the direct debit thing is misleading because I can find no mention in the original terms and conditions that one is necessary. Obviously we had to have them initially to take out the loan... and the T&Cs do state that while paying back the loan we must maintain a valid direct debit... but I don't see anything about maintaining a direct debit whilst in deferral. In seventeen years my SLC deferment forms have never contained any bank details... I have never sent any bank details and they have never requested any bank details. So all of this indicates to me that I shouldn't have to provide Erudio with a direct debit in order to defer. My solicitor and bank manager agree with me. However I'm not 100% CERTAIN of this fact... people on this site seem to think the direct debit is a must and Erudio seem to be insisting on one whether they are entitled to it or not... and given that Erudio are being so obtuse I decided not to risk it and just set up a direct debit anyway.

So last Tuesday I sent a deferment letter (didn't want to fill in or sign their forms) along with proof of income etc.

And then I forgot to include the direct debit form with my letter.

Sigh.

simonpimpernel · 20/04/2014 18:45

@persephone49

I'm pretty sure that Kim Jong Un and Simon Cowell were two of the other bidders but lost out by not being dickish enough...

erudioed · 20/04/2014 18:52

exactly persephone, we want information on the due diligence test by the dept of BIS. However this company won, they obviously didnt have their operation checked out very well being as shambolic as it clearly is. On the government website they promise to release more information about the sale but none has come out as far as i know. We all need to should out about it and try and get some people to focus on getting some answers.

LexieSinclair · 20/04/2014 18:59

I applied to defer my loan and yesterday received a letter confirming a direct debit is in place for £0.00.

Does anyone know why this is? Has my deferment been accepted?

ChrisM40 · 20/04/2014 19:22

I sent my deferment form back on 1st April by recorded delivery. Im not too concerned about the CRA since my load is small (about £1100) and wont affect my ability to get credit much (I have enough already!).

My deferment ended yesterday (19th), but ive heard absolutely nothing. I had no DD with the SLC and no new one has appeared on my bank account.

Should i worry? I kept the postage proof and did email them with the details, but they didnt reply.

erudioed · 20/04/2014 19:58

i would take nothing for granted... to say this company has total disrespect for conducting business in a way deemed sensible or in a coordinated manner, is a gross understatement.
I would call and make sure...

emptycoffers · 21/04/2014 09:55

Congrats @ ContentedSidewinder well done on deferring.

By my rough notes that still only makes about 4 people on this thread that have been deferred.

I've heard nothing about my deferral or CCA request (original loan agreement)

Can I ask again - please post if you get deferred or you get a response to a CCA request.

It's been around a month now since the thread started and the legal limit for CCA request is 12 working days - surely someone has had a reply! I only sent my CCA a few days ago.

I sent my deferment application a month ago - no news!

halfpricedebt · 21/04/2014 10:09

@simonpimpernel - if the bank manager agrees that you shouldn't have a DD set up when you're not making any payments, I'd go with that. An erudio monkey told me that they only need a DD if you are making repayments and not eligible to defer.

I think erudio are pulling a fast one with the DD. Sure we had to agree to the DD when we asked for a loan but I seriously doubt a court would say you were breaking an agreement by not having a DD set up while you're in deferment. If you're not eligible to make payments then what's the problem? If you were repaying and suddenly cancelled your DD, that would be a breach of agreement.

OP posts:
erudioed · 21/04/2014 10:45

its obvious to me Erudio, or whoever runs the call center, are deliberately trying to confuse things. There are only so many times one can here/experience conflicting info before you have to consider it is a ploy!

mrsbug · 21/04/2014 20:00

Just marking my place on the new thread. I've still heard nothing about deferment or the copy of the credit agreement

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