Erudio Student Loans Continued part 3

[erudioed]

I dont know if this is the right way to do it and i apologise if it isn't but this is the continuation of www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/a2057131-Erudio-Student-Loans-Continued

Well I am amazed. Sent my form off just over a week ago and got my deferment letter today.
I blanked out quite alot of the form and made it clear I did not agree to the new terms and conditions.
However the letter clearly states that if a direct debit is not in place during deferment this will be a breach of agreement?!!
Wtf?

Erudio never bothered to set up a DD on my account, I did supply all the necessary info. It's been a few months since I checked on the thread, can't believe they still haven't got their act together on this one little point.

Anyhoo I'm starting to prepare for next years battle :)

What's my situation regarding childcare vouchers? I know I have to declare them, I'm assuming as far as Erudio are concerned I still declare my top line, pre vouchers, then add the vouchers on top to get my new monthly gross, is this correct?

Bit of an arse if it's the case as my earnings are, strictly speaking, reduced by about £175 p/mth but my gross pay stays the same on my wage slip so I'd imagine that's what they go by.

I'll still be under the threshold, but we may also be in line for a decent wage increase this year which, combined with vouchers could out me to about £30 p/mth under this years threshold.

Not sure I wanna be that close with these cowboys. And now the rumours of a possible threshold freeze or reduction start! Gits! Still I think if they can get away with this any reduction would be minimal, they can't have too much room to play with there.

I need to obtain a copy of my original loan document can anyone who has done this tell me how I can get mine? It must be mine and cannot be a generic document. I don't have mine as I lost all documents in a flood.

My deferment has been registered as a payment holiday and is impacting on me - I urgently need to set up another bank account in order to qualify for help from social services for a carer. It has been turned down, when I asked why I was told it was because I owed almost £8,000 which I am not paying back, it is my student loan which is shown as being in payment holiday! It has never shown up before.

I contacted my MP about this and they sent me information about the contract with Erudio that's states all loans with them that are in deferrement will be registered as being in payment holiday. I was told it was in my contract with SLC, they just didn't bother to do it, the generic ones I have seen online for my years say nothing at all about this and only about loans being notified if in arrears or default and mine is not. I've not seen any copies that state SLC may inform CRAs of deferrment as payment holiday.

Apparently the problem is it shows as an active loan when checking my credit history. If there is nothing about this in my original agreement it proves they changed the terms and conditions.

The relevant part sent to my MP is as follows (prior it says they 'may' notify CRAs in these circumstances)

"Where your account is in deferral it will be treated in the same way as any other loan which is in a payment holiday and will not be treated as a default"

Please help. I've no idea who else to ask and am panicking about this. My last contact with them via MP about DD ended up in two conflicting statements.

@ Becca19962010 You need to write to Erudio, requesting your loan agreements under the CCA 1974. There's a £1 statutory fee, I wasn't sure if this was per loan agreement, so enclosed a P.O for £3 for the 3 agreements.

TBH, the copies of the terms in the originals are very poor, pretty much illegible. Erudio also included template agreements, which match the copies available online.

They're relying on section 16 of the loan agreement on disclosure of information, there are copies here if you haven't seen them already:

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4945901

There's nothing in there, or the regulations, about recording deferred loans with CRA's, never mind recording them as payment holidays. Can't quite believe they've gone ahead and registered your loans, when their right to do it is by no means clear cut.

Can I ask, did you check your actual credit file, if so which CRA? I've been checking my Noddle account, but thinking I might have to get the Experian report, as I think the info can vary from one CRA to another?

Just to let you know that I just checked with Equifax and nothing showing for my three loans - 96,97,98. But 98 loans have different credit reference stuff on them.
(Didn't check with Experian as cancelled this on principle that they are starting a new venture with Arrow!)

Becca are your loans pre 98? Did you sign erudios deferment form?

Cannot believe they have put a deferred loan as on Payment holiday! And surprise surprise it has affected your credit score!

I can't afford to go to court but if they wreck my credit rating I will have no choice! Utter !!!!!s

Proves they lied about the credit rating.

Everyone affected should be claiming against them for damages.

Thanks.

I've no idea why loan agreements would be ineligible that's really annoying. Mine were fine, well prior to being destroyed by flood anyway.

I don't know who they checked with, it was the bank doing the checking. Wanting to know about this huge loan that's suddenly appeared and how will I be paying in back when the holiday ends as I'm on a severely restricted budget applying for a new account and funding for a carer - from their point of view it looks dodgy, huge loan just appearing in payment holiday, asking for another account, applying for funding. The person knew nothing about erudio at all.

Yes pre 98 and I signed their form. I didn't have much choice. I had to pay for someone to fill it out as I'm disabled and couldn't do so myself. I certainly couldn't pay more money whilst checking what others had done I needed it sorted out as soon as possible. My fault I guess for signing .

The information MP sent clearly states loans in deferment may be passed to CRAs as being in payment holiday. There is no option for deferment to be registered with CRAs. Erudio are arguing a payment holiday is the same as a deferment so can be registered as such.

My credit file is already a bloody mess as my identity was stolen. I did not need them making things even worse.

I can't afford a lawyer so must push as much as I can with MP. In the meantime it's messing up, even more, other things I am going through.

Stupid autocorrect meant "loan agreements would be unreadable"

None of this is Your fault Becca. It's the government's and erudios!!! My blood is boiling having read your previous posts!

Whole situation is just disgusting.

If it's been over 8 weeks since you initially complained to Erudio/your MP, you can go to the FOS, they can award compensation for the damage to your credit record, as well as all of the stress Erudio have caused you.

The FOS can help with completing their form, their number is 0800 023 4 567.

bastards, thats terrible becca...not a surprise though unfortunately but they seem to have decided to crank it up a little.
If they have done it to you, it will be the same for all of us.
I would suggest emailing simon read at the independent and paul lewis at the bbc, and the you and yours programme on bbc radio telling them about how it has affected you...you will get listened to.

I have been following this thread with interest for months. My loans are split between Thesis and Erudio. Erudio's is 99.
Had quick and easy deferment from SLC. Emailed my stuff am and deferment confirmed pm.

I am interested to know if anybody else other than Becca has now had their deferred loan added to their credit report?

My younger sister is due to finish her degree next year. I am sorely tempted to tell her to just default on it straight away and let them get a ccj. At least by the time she wants to settle down or buy a home etc etc she will have a clean slate credit wise.

I have had such a lovely day. Why, oh why did I check this thread tonight??

@bluecoconut.
Re: your younger sister point - I was just wondering if it was worth just going into default rather than deferring every year. Then the ccj will be gone in 6 years and I can just ignore their cr**. If it is going to effect my credit report anyway then why mess about with all this?

@Sarebear78
I just said to DH if I had known this was going to potentially come back and bite me on the bum almost 15 odd years later, then this is what I would have done.

Don't suppose there is a lawyer out there who would want to take this on pro bono? Fight the good fight and all that!

Also I am fairly sure this point has been argued previously in the thread but at the risk of sounding stupid I will put it out there. In contract law, is there not something that states that implicit behaviour can become a term of the contract through time or something like that.
eg; SLC not reporting to credit agencies.

Apologies for the rubbish wording but I am shattered and have had a large glass of wine. (This thread drove me to the wine)

Its a shame we cant gather everyone whos had their loans sold to this bunch of clowns and just collectively agree to totally ignore them from now on in, with all of us acting in exactly the same way whenever things get cranked up.
As it is, from the way i understand it, only about 1% of us have anything to do with the forums...its a shame we cant do a tv and full coverage media campaign pointing all the many many thousands affected to one website. Then we could put our collective course of action decisions on the front page of the website for Erudio to see how things are going to go from now on in, specifically putting responses to whatever course of action Erudio is taking to try and break us at any given juncture.

For example, right now, we could write on that fictional website's front page something like...IF YOU REGISTER OUR LOANS WITH CRAs WE, "ALL" YOUR 'CUSTOMERS', WILL COLLECTIVELY IGNORE YOU FROM THIS POINT FORWARD.
p.s. please email this website if you want to communicate with one of your customers or if you decide on an alternative agreement to try and reach a happy conclusion to your self-created problems.

What a surprise - It would seem that erudio are not operating within the constraints of UK law! As of 13th June this year, it is illegal for call/service centres to use an 0845 number:

From 13th June 2014, any company which fails to comply with the new law and still offers a premium-rate number for their customer service line will be putting themselves at risk of court action.

Customers will be within their rights to take such companies to court and successfully reclaim the excessive charges made to them. Trading Standards are also at liberty to get involved in bringing non-complying companies to justice.

Check this out on: callcentrehelper.com.

Thanks for that!

Is that a fact about the 0845 number? Do Erudio still have it.

Coincidentally, another freedom of information request in the works that will be worth following concerning CRAs. I do feel most of the CRA issue will only concern Experian though because they are the ones Arrow has a deal with and who they set up the Experian Collections Network to partner with. I would be surprised if other CRAs get any info, as info is money, and 120,000 new pieces of loan data for one CRA will be a boon over the others in offering a more complete data service to paying lenders wishing to check up on the oiks.
Here is the FOI request anyway:
www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/student_loans_and_credit_referen

Just checked up on the excellently spotted 0845 issue by erodio, looks about right to me. Here is a more direct link to an article on the same site about the issue. Maybe it could be one to add into an ombudsman complaint, or for anyone who has called it since July 13th to seek compensation from Erudio (just to really set them straight that they cant do this shit and keep getting away with stuff).

THE LINK:
www.callcentrehelper.com/the-end-for-0845-numbers-63370.htm

Just saw posted on MSE that they are lowering the deferment threshold by over £2,000 to £26,727 from September.

There are some interesting comments about this topic on a site called LegalBEAGLES

can you post the links bluecoconut.
That lowering of the threshold by £2000 is rather shocking in as much it was predicted that the threshold would see a significant drop in the forums back in april/may. Just like the concern about Direct debits and Erudio taking payments that werent due...look what happened there.
We have been truly stitched up. Arrow et al would have purchased 45% odd of deferred loans if they thought the threshold would be staying where it was.
It will be like doing the limbo from this point on, with the bar being the threshold, which we will see being lowered year on year, and only stopped when enough of us are in their payment loop for Arrow et al to make a big fat slice on their cheap debt deal. It sticks of a stitch up and some more complicitous bullshit between the government and big business, all at the expense of us. Anyway, it sucks, especially for all those who only just got deferred this time.

Is there a link regarding the lowering of the deferment threshold? Are Erudio now deciding what that threshold should be? I'm a bit confused (bit of a day of it yesterday) so apologies if this is a really obvious question!

www.studentloanrepayment.co.uk/portal/page?_pageid=93,3866911&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
and
www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/loans/2014/08/student-loan-interest-rates-to-fall-from-september-but-fewer-graduates-eligible-to-defer?_ga=1.67306449.1169245283.1404124670

I suspect this was agreed beforehand with BIS and Arrow during negotiations for "The great student loan stitch up sale"! It seems to only benefit those companies who purchased the mortgage style loans from how i see it. Can anyway else tell me who else benefits from this decision. As BIS dont have mortgage style loans at SLC anymore, i dont really see why BIS would announce this now they have washed their hands of these loans and sold them off.