[Closed] Student Loan Co

oh yes ....

they eventually started taking mine after 3 years of earning over the threshold.... but no letter , no notice .... they just started taking it. Lucky i was aware of it and that they may take it at any time... i have friends that live so close to the bone that it would have left them un able to eat.

im curious to know what happens in may when i calculate its paid off and they TRY to keep taking payments till the end of the tax year.... they can forget that.

I thought if you left the country you stopped paying??

I'm sure if I didn't have relatives in the UK and i was dishonest I could have just left without telling them and nothing would have come of it.

If you leave the country you are supposed to give them a UK address and details of your earnings abroad, then they just make a big number up and force you to pay them that monthly.

If you leave the country you are supposed to give them a UK address and details of your earnings abroad, then they just make a big number up and force you to pay them that monthly.

It's the same number the rest of us have to pay.

It's the same number the rest of us have to pay.

No it's not, earnings based depending on the exchange rate and cost of living as well as some BS factor.

some may say its the lowest interest youll ever pay ...but i want shot of them ..... dont trust them at all !

They wrote me a priceless letter a while back saying I needed re-assessment for this year, and threatening that a default payment of 249 GBP would be taken each month by DD from my account.

I never bothered replying - up until then they'd been taking 330 GBP 😆

However, the silly sods don't seem to have tried to take anything from my UK account, and list me as 'in arrears' on their website. Not sure how - it's hardly my fault that they've not bothered to use said DD agreement to take their 249 GBP.

Bunch of asshats only surpassed in incompetence by the DVLA

Never has another more inept company existed (well apart from British Gas) as the SLC and Thesis Servicing.

Paid all mine off after 12 years this year but it was a struggle trying to explain to them that they took the wrong amount by DD last september and were trying to load other DD's later on to make up the difference.

Apparently they miscalculated payments across thousands of accounts one month so charged a blanket £25 and came chasing the money outstanding! Utter ineptitude as they were accusing people of non payment of full amount - they were the ones who messed up.

Anyway i would put money on them being at fault.

. i have friends that live so close to the bone that it would have left them un able to eat.

But what's the salary level to start paying it back? 22-25k? Perhaps your friends need to get their lifestyle expenditure and priorities sorted.

trail rat, you should contact them and they will make arangements to stop taking it from your payslip and set up a direct debit - this is now a standard procedure. If you don't they will keep taking the money until the end of the tax year and you will have to claim it back. This happened to my sister and it was a maassive pain and also a significant amount of money being taken.

Useless company - took them 6 months to take money off me then they had the cheek to write to me and tell me it was my fault despite both me and my employer having contacted them on several occasions. Finance department says this is standard so just ignore.

Paid mine off last year. Settled just before the end of the tax year to make things easier.

"But what's the salary level to start paying it back? 22-25k? Perhaps your friends need to get their lifestyle expenditure and priorities sorted. "

i agree , im not going to defend them but surely they could send out a letter the month before saying "next month we are going to start taking money from you"

But what's the salary level to start paying it back? 22-25k? Perhaps your friends need to get their lifestyle expenditure and priorities sorted.

mine is set to take 10% of everything i earn over £16.5k, so if you're at the threshold and have a high cost of living (e.g. daaarn saarf) you could easily get caught out

I have no option to defer and making extra payments isn't feasible at the moment so i'm stuck with this stupid loan where i only started paying off the original loan this year after 7yrs of racking up interest

I took one out in 1996/97 to help cover my rent when i was sitting an HND in Mech Engineering & CAD, the course was stopped after 1 year due to the amount of folk that dropped out and i was given the option of transferring onto the second year Electronic Engineering at the same college or traveling 110 miles to sit Mech Engineering & CAD at Glasgow Caledonian, i choose to sit the Elec Eng and do the Mech Eng by distance learning. I still get chased for the loan but as i've never earned above the threshold they can sing for it seeing as i was fked about so much.

Tarquin, if they've p!ssed you about write to your local mp asking them to complain for you. For some reason you'll get a much better response although it still isn't quick

I graduated in 2002. I started earning above the threshold ( was it 16k back then) almost immediately. I called to advise them as I was a frightened 21 year old who'd never had debt before. Since that time I have changed jobs 4 times with considerable salary increases each time. They took their very first repayment from me in August 2011.

I have now packed in work and sent them a letter advising as much. No more payments to be made until I am back in employment (won't be for a while) so since 2001 I have paid approximately 1500 quid off my original 13k loan. They can bury me with the debt as far as I am concerned. Sod 'em.

A couple of years ago I got in touch with them to let them know I was living abroad and to give them my new address. I spoke to someone on the phone and they told me if I didn't send in salary statements then they would charge the full amount. Since I don't like sending anyone personal information like that I told them to just charge me the full amount which I think was round about £500 a month. I also paid £1500 with my credit card to get things started.

Two years later I'm still waiting for them to send me a bill. The other day I got a letter saying I had to send them salary statements or they would start charging me the full amount per month. In the next paragraph they threatened to send someone after me and make me pay the costs for that. So I'm not sure if they want me to pay the full amount or if they want to send someone to find out how much I make.

How can they be so stupid as to contradict themselves in a single letter. And why can't they start sending me bills so that I can start paying them back. Going to call them now and find out what they mean.

Do they just prefer threatening people to actually collecting the money they're due?

But what's the salary level to start paying it back? 22-25k

I chuffing wish, 15 K,for me, and not going up with inflation , so dropping every year in real terms- I pay 9%. And I graduated in 2002. For those my generation does anyone know if it expires at all like the newer ones or am I stuck with this shit for the rest of my life? Cos I'm yet to earn enough to even reduce it, I'm just paying the interest. I used to work in consumer finance, if this was FSA regulated I'm pretty sure it would be illegal.

So, I just spoke to them and apparently the only way to repay them is by filling out their form and giving them my salary statements. I asked if I could just pay off the full amount by credit card over the phone but the nice lady said that I had to send them the form, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to refuse money until I had given them information I didn't want to give them and they take the time to process that information (my salary statements are in Norwegian so I guess they'll have to get someone to interpret that for them) and send me another form so that I could start repayments. Naturally emailing this information is a big no no, it has to be hard copies.

It felt quite strange to be begging someone to take my money and them wanting nothing to do with it 🙂

You borrowed the money and agreed to pay it back. Their terms were acceptable when you borrowed it - why aren't they now?

For those my generation does anyone know if it expires at all like the newer ones or am I stuck with this shit for the rest of my life?

It's written off at retirement (or if you die), but then they keep moving the retirement age....

unklehomered - Member

But what's the salary level to start paying it back? 22-25k

I chuffing wish, 15 K,for me, and not going up with inflation , so dropping every year in real terms- I pay 9%. And I graduated in 2002. For those my generation does anyone know if it expires at all like the newer ones or am I stuck with this shit for the rest of my life? Cos I'm yet to earn enough to even reduce it, I'm just paying the interest. I used to work in consumer finance, if this was FSA regulated I'm pretty sure it would be illegal.

Similar situation for me - graduated in 2003, been paying back something every month pretty much since I left uni, and literally still owe as much as I left uni with. As far as I know, it stays until paid off or death - whichever comes first! 🙁

Edit - until retirement makes more sense

You borrowed the money and agreed to pay it back. Their terms were acceptable when you borrowed it - why aren't they now?

I agreed to terms that said the interest rate would be linked to RPI or interest rates whichever was lower. When RPI went negative they wriggled out of it on a technicality.

And as a naive 18 year old in the first year of the new style loans I didn't really comprehend the differences between pre-1998 and post-1998 loans and the repayment threshold wasn't linked to average earnings in the same way.

I'm pretty sure that the repayments they're taking from me barely cover the cost of the interest going on.
Did a fairly costly 5 year course, graduating last year.
To be frank as it comes off my payslip every month I just write it off in the same bracket as "tax" and get on with it.
Had some hilarious dealings with them at Uni however, so I can sympathise with the ignorant f-wits remarks!

I agreed to terms that said the interest rate would be linked to RPI or interest rates whichever was lower. When RPI went negative they wriggled out of it on a technicality.

THIS!!!

Do they just prefer threatening people to actually collecting the money they're due?

Yep, In my experience SL and most council tax departments just take the default line that everyone is scum, and should be treated as so.

I remember when I was younger seeing some story about a farmer taking his muckspreader down to the town hall and spraying the place (I think it's been done a few times). Back then I thought what a nutter, these days I fully understand the frustration that is caused when dealing with the faceless stupid bureaucracy that pervades government.

Similar situation for me - graduated in 2003, been paying back something every month pretty much since I left uni, and literally still owe as much as I left uni with. As far as I know, it stays until paid off or death -whichever comes first!

Genuinely intrigued by this. I graduated in 04, and have about two years left. I'm not a high roller, only earn a few k more than the median Uk wage. The current interest rate is 1.5% on the loan, so am surprised that you've not made much headway into the capital?

Friend of mine has recently started making inroads into his since he got into the mid twenties earning bracket, until then the contributions never added up to enough in a year... To me now Its just another tax and it really is best not to think about it.

But for the reasons above I had no problem with the new SLs brought in a couple of years ago, the repayment threashold rises with inflation or thereabouts, and they expire after about 25 yrs. If you have to have them, that seems the way to do it to me. And a much better system negotiated by current government than was brought in by labour (who also went against an election promise).

Interest rate on student loans in 2008 was 4.8% and before that was much higher than it was now.

This was the bullshit fed to us as teenagers

"There's no 'real' interest cost because the most you'll pay is the rate of inflation - the rate which prices are rising."

Well, I'm still waiting for my 4.8% pay rise 5 years later!

Similar situation for me - graduated in 2003, been paying back something every month pretty much since I left uni, and literally still owe as much as I left uni with. As far as I know, it stays until paid off or death -whichever comes first!

Genuinely intrigued by this. I graduated in 04, and have about two years left. I'm not a high roller, only earn a few k more than the median Uk wage. The current interest rate is 1.5% on the loan, so am surprised that you've not made much headway into the capital?

Yeah loads of hassel with them here - repayments (which i could just afford) bearly covered interest - worked out I would be in my 60's before it was paid off at that rate.

Moved to oz - not on a salary but a day rate on a roster and had no end of hassel trying to arrange payment with them as they wouldn't have it that I wasn't earning that day rate 365 days of the year - as oppose to circa 200 days of the year.

Wouldn't comunicate by email, had to phone them by sat phone at ridiculous times of the day as they wouldn't comunicate via mmy folks back home.

Ended up tell them there lawyer could deal with me via my lawyer.

Seemed to shut them up.

Going to pay it off it full next year as I refused to let the govt. have anymore of my money.

SLC can go Foxtrot Unform Charlie Kilo themselves however as they are the single most unhelpful entity I have encountered.

i make extra payments as i can't bear to see the amount owed going up after paying off all year.

I spent several years paying my overpayments to the wrong place after they gave me incorrect information, several times, regarding what bank account to pay it to and then what to use as a reference!

finally got it to a 4 figure amount owed on the last statement. feel like an achievement.

They are famously and inspirationally terrible.

I'll not bother with my own story, it's totally bogstandard and predictable- every year they "lost" my forms then made up some reason not to accept them, in order to levy charges. Or my brother's, when they refused to stop taking money after he became unemployed.

And of course, when you do as they ask but they screw up, that's still your problem and they can only backdate refunds for 3 months because "That's policy".

So I'll go direct to the bank one. When I was at HBOS, we were trying pretty hard to get their business. We'd agreed terms and signed contracts. And then it got down to the "Actually make it work" phase, which lasted an entire year of constant incompetence and lies.

Eventually, it was taken up to board level and SLC received a phone call "We would rather take the penalty clause than continue to work with you, because you are that ****". Number of times this has happened in the history of the bank, with a customer of this size? Once.

Oh but one last less ranty comment- if they ever owe you money, don't wait for it to come back, it'll take forever if it comes at all. Do a direct debit indemnity claim, you'll get your money immediately and when you tell your bank who it is you'll both have a good laugh. And assuming you don't actually owe them money, cancel the DD as otherwise they'll break the DD rules to take more money from you.

They may still break the DD rules to set up a new DD, but at least make them do it.

Only works if you pay by direct debit. I know several people who have had deductions made via PAYE despite completing payments on the loan.

Anyone know the implications for the SLC if they are unable to produce copies of the orginal signed documents?

F ME!

I just googled them. Turns out they aren't a loans company [i]run by[/i] students, they are actually a loans company [i]for[/i] students.

Or my brother's, when they refused to stop taking money after he became unemployed

Nah, he's old so it's a "mortgage type" rather than the current pay-at-earning type.

But yep, should probably have made it clearer that the indemnity method only works for a DD not for deduction-at-earning.

Scary that there are at least 4 different loans now with different conditions and we're trusting SLC to keep track of it all correctly!

I moved abroad and sent them the appropriate form, which they acknowledged receiving. They sent the acknowledgement letter to an address i had lived at 5 years ago... in the UK! Along with all my payment info and whatever else.

They then start threatening to fine me because i haven't started the payments. They couldn't send the details to the right address, how could i know how and what to pay!!! Inept fools. It took over a month of arguing on the phone to get this sorted.

On the back of it, i should have been dishonest and not paid. More trouble than it's worth.

Ah now my [i]other[/i] brother... He sent them the form to say he was living abroad. They sent back a form to say more or less "We have received your request to change your status to "living abroad" and it is all fine. Please contact us to confirm that you wish to go ahead with it"

We received the letter on the redirect and contacted them to say "He's already told you that", they said "Well we can't take it from you, only from him".

I thought if you left the country you stopped paying??

I'm sure if I didn't have relatives in the UK and i was dishonest I could have just left without telling them and nothing would have come of it.

It's people like that who are partially responsible for the student loans co (an american company - wtf) going crazy on the rest of us who don't just take out loans and then flee back home.

PAYE is a terrible way to pay it off, your employer takes the money off and makes one payment a year on your behalf 😕 I only noticed my loan going down after I started to dd it myself, not that that didn't stop them threatening me despite me having references for the agreement to change to a dd....chuggers!

PAYE is a terrible way to pay it off, your employer takes the money off and makes one payment a year on your behalf I only noticed my loan going down after I started to dd it myself, not that that didn't stop them threatening me despite me having references for the agreement to change to a dd....chuggers!

No way, I only pay anything at moment because of the idiotic way I'm paid, but over the whole year I don't hit the threashold as I'm part time!

Hmmm, I'm slightly worried by all this!

I graduated in 2008, and have been paying off a reasonable amount since (got a job almost instantly), started at £70 a month, now quite a lot more, taken straight out of my salary on PAYE, I'd rather assumed it was going down, but I shall investigate! I've not had any correspondence from them for a long time, no idea what my online details are!

You should get an annual statement from them. Tempted to look into this DD alternattive to paye to see how much I would save.

Edit: you can only opt out of PAYE in the last 23 months though.

An annual statement goes to my parents, but I've not seen one for a few years.

Just managed to remember my login details, can't work out if they've taken into account my PAYE payments made this FY, but it's somewhere around £7000, so it's coming down!

Just to necro thread this, as it is April, my payment has been reassessed by them, and based on the "RPI" it has been adjusted from £131 to £77.

Originally it was about £111 in 2011, then increased last year, now it drops like a stone!

Seems to me someone thought shit, we are going to lose out on a lot of interest here, as at this rate the loan will be paid off in the next few years. Quick drop the payments so we make some more money!

We will see if they mange to take the right amount of money on the right day yet or if they will bugger that up again and try to blame me.

[i]PAYE is a terrible way to pay it off, your employer takes the money off and makes one payment a year on your behalf I only noticed my loan going down after I started to dd it myself, not that that didn't stop them threatening me despite me having references for the agreement to change to a dd....chuggers![/i]

So let me get this straight, if I make dd payments my outstanding balance will come down quicker than if I stick with PAYE?

go up a mountain or ride a bike ffs, live a little tarquin you troll ****.

Ell_tell

Aye. On paye the tax man takes all the payments stores them up and then once a year writes a cheque to slc on your behalf.

This means you accrue interest on the whole amount the whole time.

I phoned earlier this week and got a stop notice put on my account. Lets see if it actually works!

They are all paid off at last ! ( so they should be - due to the bonus scheme for working internationally at my work there were a few months where i was down on my paycheck by 10 times my minimum payment which believe me you notice..... )

Well to be the odd one out I've not had a problem with the SLC, they gave me the loan instalments when they said they would, started the repayments when they said they would and finally processed the stop notice a couple of months ago when I showed them proof from my payslips that I've paid the loan off - and in top on this already refunded a small over payment before the end of the tax year.

Each year I've had annual statements etc and access to my online account, when ever I've had a question they have answered my call after a couple of minutes, no worse than any other financial institution.

I think it is HMRC that holds on to the repayment reductions not your employee when repaying via PAYE until a few months after the end of each tax year.

[i]Ell_tell

Aye. On paye the tax man takes all the payments stores them up and then once a year writes a cheque to slc on your behalf.

This means you accrue interest on the whole amount the whole time.[/i]

Yep, I had heard that before but wasn't aware setting up a dd would get around this. Will investigate further thanks.

FWIW I graduated in 2003 with around £12.5k and have been paying back ever since, yet I still owe around £9k. Seeing as I'm stuck home with man flu this weekend I might tot up all my repayments from my payslips over the years to see what I've actually paid back as this doesn't seem right to me.

Outstanding. Just got off the phone with them.

Either they owe me 3000 quid, or I still owe them 3000 quid, and they don't seem to be able to make their minds up as to which is correct, so they'll carry on taking 344/m until they work it out 😯

i got my letter through about the stop notice - tomorrows payday ..... lets see if it still gets taken.....

i am on the old system and below threshold, I applied for a deferement sent off the paperwork, one month had a bonus that took it over the threshold for that month. If you read the pay slip it was quite clear it was the exception, so they refused the deferment, took a payment, i then cancelled the DD, called them up to ask what they were playing at. They apologised for their screw up, and asked if i would reinstate the DD.

They have asked every year since, **** will i. If i earn the money then i will reinstate, until then they haven't a hope.

I do wonder how much money has been lent out and how much will never be paid back? Even those on the newer above 15/16k loans probably never pay the amount back as payments stop after so many years.

trail_rat, in your last 2 years they write and say 'switch ti direct debit' as mentioned above the taxman takes it and them lumps it to them at the end of the year. So they don't take it, the tax office do. So they can't stop it when they need to.

the switch to DD was simple and painless for me and it meant I stopped paying when I was supposed to with no stress and no overpayments.

I have no complaints about the system or the way it was administered. I am glad to be shot of it though 🙂

the last 2 years ..... they started taking my payments last june - my last 50 quid is due tomorrow.