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 according to my online banking site, I have no DD set up with any company however I still fear Erudio just taking money out of my account without me knowing......

YorkshireKiwi - just to let you know that I have an Erudio DD set up on my account but DDs don't show up on my online account until they have taken the first payment for the bank I am with. I phoned the bank and they confirmed it was there but it wasn't showing online because no payments have been made.

Just in case this is the case for you - so you don't get a shock x

So my update....

The FOS are looking at my complaint. Erudio are continuing to take repayments each month, I decided that I don't want to give them any leverage for saying I am in breach of t&c so have left the DD in place.

Each month when they take a payment, I then duly reclaim it under the DD indemnity (all it takes is a phone call to the bank).

It's just so time consuming and irritating. I earn below threshold, I have provided evidence, that should be enough to defer.

I'll let you know what FOS say.

@sarebear Thanks for letting me know that. I will ring my bank.

However does anyone know if I am within my rights to remove any DD agreement, or will this get me into trouble?

Well I just rang FOS and they have also lodged a formal complaint with Erudio so now it's the "giving them 8 weeks to reply" wait. They can only complain about the mortgage style loans not the 1999 income-contingent one which causes me greater confusion.
They warned me about cancelling any DD arrangement but said it was my choice.
I have no idea what to do?!

(In an amusing twist, in the post this morning I received a brand new deferment application pack from Erudio who said "here is your new form as requested". At no point have I requested a new deferment application form!)

YorkshireKiwi, I trust the new form they sent you is the same version of their DAF? When applying for a deferement, you only have to prove you are below the income threshold. I don't see anything in the Regulations which requires the giving of bank details for the setting up of a DD. Of course, if a person is over the threshold then there will be a requirement to pay.

@AReeves Yes the new form they sent me is exactly the same as the one I completed and sent in, in March, along with the evidence from my accountant that I earn below the threshold. Problem is, in March, I did not suspect any issue (and being naive I trusted what it said on the DD section) so I filled in that whole part with my bank details etc. It does say they may not process your application if this section is left incomplete so I would have followed those instructions which I now realise are there to scare you.

Why Erudio then didn't contact me for 6 months I do not know..and then to claim I am in arrears, it's just a joke.

@YorkshireKiwi

It's not a joke. For me, it's pisspoor customer service that seems to verge on the deliberate in order to annoy people and to leave them confused and in arrears.

Yep I am in a world of confusion. And what they want is that confusion = fear = making payments, but this I refuse to do!

Oh and a third question, was it a mistake to cancel the DD? At the time I was thinking that if I did nothing in 5 years it would all be finished, not so sure about that now....

The problem I foresee Bertie is that if Erudio say you have broken the terms of the contract and go into arrears that they no longer have to cancel the debt. You would then need to go to court to prove that you didn't break the terms.

LittleMissGreen, in what way do you mean breaking the terms?

I mean from Erudio's point of view - if they have refused to grant a deferment and you don't pay then you are in arrears and have broken the loan agreement.
The fact that you don't earn over the threshold would then need a court to decide if the loan should be cancelled or not.

Is it likely they would take me to court over a 1,500 pound loan? I thought it was only worth their while doing this for bigger loans, as it can be an expensive process. I earn very little money living abroad, undocumented, they would not be able to show I earn above the limit, would they need to show that in court?

Can I contact an Obudsman to help me now or do I have to wait?

I feel the way the government has treated us is a absolute disgrace

So I've just been inducted into the hell that is Erudio. I live in Australia so naturally UK student loans being sold wasn't big news here. I had no idea it had happened. I never had any communication from either SLC or Erudio that my loan had been sold. Because I had a brief period last year where my income forced me to repay for a few months, my deferment happened in September last year, not April. A few days ago I thought it was weird I hadn't received the deferment form and logged into my SLC account, only to find it no longer existed as the loan had been sold to Erudio. I went to the Erudio website, expecting to be able to set up an account there - no such function exists. What financial institution in 2014 doesn't have an online account management system????
Anyway, I emailed their customer service address advising them I had had no communication from them, providing my name, address and SLC ref number and loans ref number and asking them to send my annual statement and deferment form. I got a reply saying to pass the authentication process (really? you have an authentication process via email, the least secure communication method there is?) I needed to give then my full name and date of birth as well. (They also asked for a Loans Pack number. I don't know what that is). I reluctantly sent this info via email. I got another reply saying "Thank you for your email dated 6th October 2014. Please be advised that we cannot locate an account with the details you have provided. If you could provide details of your full name, date of birth and any addresses you may have had whilst having your student loan."
I have written back saying I'm not comfortable with giving out any more personal info via email and providing a phone number for them to call me on. We'll see if they do. To be honest, I don't know what else I can tell them. I've lived at this address for nearly 10 years. Before that I lived in 2 different addresses in Vietnam over a 5 year period, neither of which I can recall. And before that, I moved around between Bristol and London at various addresses, none of which I can remember.
Has anyone else experienced Erudio losing their loan altogether? I'm almost wishing I hadn't done anything - would it never have surfaced? Assuming my deferment did end in September, will I now be facing arrears etc?

Confusedofoz, I have just had the same email asking for identification. Strangest request ever. However I had followed my email up with a registered letter. This is what we all must do as the customer services play email rally. I would check your bank to see if the Direct debut is in place. Erudio automatically had mine. Also check if it is active. On the application form it asks If you have been living at your address for less than 3 years please provide details of your previous address. So you do not need to tell them this.

Could your loan be cancelled. Age or duration of loan?phone Student loans company and check if they are still processing your loan.
There is a forum on MSE dealing with all the trauma also. Huge wealth of info.there is also a blank application form someone sent in. This will show you all the nasty hoops you have to go through. Google Mse erudio. Currently 107 pages to go through.

Check if all your loans are 'mortgage style.' If mix of mortgage and icl different rules.

If Student loan company had your details then erudio should have contacted you if they were assigned your loan.

Remember to us the calling from abroad number.

The 0845 costs a fortune when phoning Erudio

Thanks student1983. It's all very strange. My loans are from 94 and 95, so both in the batch that was sold. Luckily I never had a direct debit in place so there's no way they could be withdrawing any money. Any payments I've made have been with a credit card over the phone. My account with SLC says my loan is now with Erudio. I get that they should have told me they had taken over my loan, but the fact is they didn't. They say they "cannot locate" locate my account.
I can't see how they wouldn't be able to find my loan via my full name and date of birth. There can't be anyone else with the exact same details. It surely shouldn't be the address that is the info they use to find my account. If they've lost all records of my loan then excellent. If it's just that they've been sending correspondence to a random past address then that is not so excellent, and is the worrying thought, as they would probably try to argue they've been attempting to communicate with me.
I'd love to hear from anyone else in the same position.

confused hopefully they have lost your loan?

Make sure you have copies of your attempts to contact them about it. As long as you have these, I doubt they could come back to you and claim that you were in arrears (although they seem to be getting away with all kinds of things, so who knows?)

The SLC website states that when the loans were sold we should have received written notice from both Erudio and SLC. Did you guys all get letters from both of them saying your loans were transferring over to Erudio? I got neither. Interestingly my online SLC account shows in my correspondence history (which is the only part of the old account I can still access) that no correspondence was sent from them since my deferral acceptance letter in September last year. So clearly they never sent me the letter. Maybe that means they never properly transferred my loan. We can but hope! I'm starting to wonder whether I should just keep my mouth shut!

Can't believe I have come across this thread, the fuckers have a load of my money which they took from my bank because SLC didn't action a deferment properly and they are refusing to refund and so are SLC and pointing the finger at each other. This has been going on for 8 months. It's in the hands of he financial ombudsman now as I have the final response from both parties, saying that the other should refund.

confused if I was you I think I would just send a letter to the SLC with whatever you normally send to them to defer. Send it recorded. You haven't officially been told your loan has been sold, and sending them an application to defer kind of covers your back. They then have the option to reply to you saying 'oops, your loan has been sold'.

Yes, I think most people on this thread got a letter in March (?) saying the loan had been sold.

Fingers crossed the FOS sort it out for you MinimalistMommi. What a mess! Also you might want to check out the Moneysaving Expert website forum for the Erudio thread :)

Print out your correspondence history before you can't access it. My assignment letters sent to me end of march. Deferral form sent end August for renewal of deferrment in oct. if student loan had your correct address then so should erudio. The payment threshold has reduced. This happened in September. They no doubt didn't send out your info because then you would have had the higher threshold to use. They are stalling and making it very difficult. If you were not already deferred then it is your responsibility to request deferal. However if currently in deferrment it is their duty to send out all the necessary documents. Get advice on how to proceed.
I phoned old student loans today. They accessed my account easily. As long as you have student loans number it is easy. Better if you have your old student loans customer reference number.

However be careful as erudio are masters.

Confused. Slc sent this also on the 31st march.