I have received a letter from Smith Lawson & Company - that is the collection arm of the Student Loans Company Ltd. They are actually part of the same Ltd company but just use a different name to try to scare you into paying up. Anyway, the letter from SLC (luckily they have the same initials too!) was asking me to make a payment regarding one of my loans. Here is the reply that I intend to send. I would appreciate your comments/advice on whether I've worded the letter correctly. Smith Lawson & Company 21 Thomas Street Bristol BS1 6JS Dear Mrs D Hay Re: Ref XXXXXXXXX Further to your letter of the 17th October 2006 requesting payment for The Student Loans Company Ltd please be advised that I do not recognise any debt to the Student Loans Company Ltd. I wrote to you (the Student Loans Company Ltd) on 25th July via recorded delivery, requesting a true copy of the signed agreement under the terms of the Secs. 77(1) and 78(1) of the CCA 1974,enclosing the statutory maximum fee of £1 in the form of a cheque. I have not been provided with a signed agreement under the consumer credit act, I have not been provided with a statement of account, and I have not been provided with a true copy of the deed of assignment, despite my properly formatted and paid for request. I therefore do not acknowledge any debt to the Student Loans Company. I will not be making any payments against this "debt" as it is unenforceable. I also believe that you may have committed a criminal offence under the terms of the Consumer Credit Act, and non compliance with the original request is therefore a complete defence to any court claim that is issued. As I believe that you may have broken the law this will result in a report being submitted to the relevant statutory authorities. I require repayment in full of any monies taken by yourselves in connection with these loans within 14 days or I shall begin a claim against you for the full amounts plus interest plus my costs and without further notice. Yours sincerely Nurselayer So how's that sound? Or would I be better off just sending a one line reply saying "I do not acknowledge any debt to the Student Loans Company Ltd" without giving a reason? Thanks in advance for your help

Well, it's been a while since I did anything about my claim against Barclaycard. I've really been waiting to see what the Information Commissioner's response to Abbey would be. Anyway following that here's the letter I'm going to send to Barclaycard. I'd appreciate any advice/alterations that anyone could make. Further to your letter of 5th August 2006, I am writing to re-iterate my request under the Data Protection Act 1998 that I originally made to yourselves on the 26th July 2006. I believe that your microfiched method of storing statements is a relevant filing system and as such the information should be provided to me under my Data Protection Act 1998 Subject Access Request. I am prepared to allow you 7 days in which to send me the information requested however if you still do not provide me with the FULL information then I will have no choice but to pursue this matter. I look forward to receiving your prompt reply. Yours sincerely PS You might see from my signature, I'm no longer a novice at this ;-)

Just seen at the bottom of their settlement letter they ask me to contact the court to discontinue proceedings. Have just written the letter to the court and have sent a copy to the LOSERS

Thanks Vampiress, Last question though (on this thread anyway) do I need to contact the court to tell them that the defendant paid in full? Thanks

Oh, and I guess this thread should now be moved to the successes sub-forum.

Hurrah, guess what I got through the post last Wednesday? Yep, a cheque for the full amount claimed!! I'd like to say a massive thank you to everyone on here that has helped me to reclaim these unlawful charges. I'm now going to concentrate on getting the charges that I'm owed from Barclaycard and then I'll be taking on Lloyds. Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah! PS I'm just about to make my donation to this site - make sure that you donate when you win too!

The Defendant filed an Acknowledgement of Service on 20th September 2006. The acknowledgement was filed by the solicitors acting for the defendant who have given the following name and address for service of documents: Royal Bank of Scotland PLC, 1 Princes St, LONDON, EC2R 8PB They have ticked the "I intend to defend all of this claim" box. I think they now have until the 16th October to submit a defence now. (I'll have to check the actual date of service.)

Thanks Orfoster, will keep you updated as it progresses. Hi Tom999, good luck I'm glad you've found it. Set up a thread of your own (Tom999 v Greedymoneysnatching Bank) and keep it updated on how things progress. You'll find it really useful to chart how you are getting on. The biggest advice that I can give you on this site is to read, read and read. Once you've read everything and understood what you're doing, read through it again. If after all that you have a question or query then ask. Best of luck

Thanks Jimfishybob, Just to clarify, my next step should be to write to both the FSA and the Trading Standards office nearest to the registered office of the SLC and complain that I think the SLC have committed a criminal offence by not complying with the CCA1974. What happens then? Will the debt then be unenforceable for ever? (All of this is of course providing that the SLC is covered under the CCA1974) Thanks

Last time I was on this section I was reading that the DPO were going to make a ruling on or about the 11th September as to whether Barclaycards microfiche system was included as a relevant filing system. I haven't read anything to let me know whether or not this decision was made. Can anyone update me on this please?

I've received the court details through. Natwest have until the 2nd October to submit a defence.

Thanks for replying to my post Jimfishbob. I strongly believe (and have had confirmation from the NUS) that Student Loan Agreements made before 1998 are regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974. They also responded to Giveitback when he made a request under the CCA for his signed agreements. If they weren't covered by the CCA1974 then I would have expected them to return the money I paid for disclosure and a letter stating why they were not going to comply. I suppose that I will find out for definite when I take the next step against them:) but I need to know what the next step to take is. The more I get into this the more confusing it seems to become and I've read so many contradictory threads through this site that I really don't know what to believe. Some are saying that after 30days the debt is completely unenforceable as the company committed an offence, some say that the debt is only unenforceable until the company comply and send the copies of the agreement whether or not the lending company has committed an offence, some say do nothing, others say write and get the loan written off. As you can see I'm a bit muddled as to what my next step should be. I've been advised by someone else to inform the FSA and trading standards about the non compliance of the CCA. Should I?

Hi all, Having requested a signed copy of my loan agreement under the CCA1974 rules, the lending company have not supplied it within the proscribed time. (See here for details http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/other-institutions/18775-nurselayer-student-loans-company.html) It is now over 30days since they went into default and I believe that they have now committed an offence. What is my next step? I really want to get written confirmation from them that they acknowledge that the debt now is unenforcable. I've looked through various posts on here and the templates forum but cannot find a example of a draft letter to send. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Is there anything else I need to do? Report them to the Police? (or someone else?) Many thanks in advance for your help on this.

Any help on this please?

Have you read through this thread Loan Company Cannot Supply The Original Agreement ? It shows where other lenders who've not been able to supply the original agreement within the terms of the CCA1974 have used this technique to get loans written off.

How long does it take for the court to process the claim? I sent my claim off on the 4th Sept and haven't heard anything at all from them yet. How long is it likely to be before they contact me? Thanks

Is it 30 days from default or before that they have to SEND them or 30 days or before that I have to have RECEIVED them?

Does that mean that if I just pay this amount now (within 28 days of the judgement) then it is wiped off too? It's £100 and I don't want to risk my credit rating being for the next 6 years.

I have just found out that the DVLA have been given a judgement against me. The Northampton Court said that they never received my defence and that even if they had it would not have been looked at as it was in the form of a letter, not on a legal form. What can I do? They are sending me an application for the judgement to be removed but I don't really understand what's happened, what the consequences are, or what will happen next. Please help me. I did ask for additional time in order to send my defence and then I did send a defence letter within the 28 days. The woman that I spoke to said that I now have a CCJ against me and that it'll ruin my credit rating for 6 years - whether or not I pay it off.

kathieathome, I would put in your appeal as many reasons for the adjudicator to rule in your favour as possible. Eg 1) You were only in a bus lane so as to turn left. 2) The suspension date was wrong 3) Etc, etc, etc. Again I would look very, very carefully at everything that the council has sent you. In my case part of my appeal was that the law states that the council must put the amount on any increased fine on a PCN and Haringey didn't. Read the law, (most of it is in the LLA Act) and then check that the council have complied with every part of it. If they haven't then put it down in your appeal. If the appeal is unsuccessful then state that you should only pay the reduced amount as you should not be penalised for appealing. You may find that the adjudicator will agree with you and move that the council accept the lower rate. If he/she asks you why you didn't pay the £50 before the appeal tell him that you thought that this might be construed as an admission of guilt.

Thank you for your quick reply Stonelaughter. I'm not convinced that student loans pre 1998 are not regulated under the CCA 1974 act as I've been advised that they are. As you can see SLC have responded to Giveitback under terms of CCA1974 which would lead me to believe that they are bound by it's rules. And if they are bound by it's rules I intend to ensure that the SLC abide by them, I do not see this as morally wrong. The SLC run their own DCA and are as capable of harassing people and applying outrageous fees as any other DCA. I'm not 100% sure of the exact penalty charges but just like banks they apply automatic charges of £30 (I think) per letter. It is the Student Loans Company LIMITED. It is just another Limited company, I cannot see why they should be treated any differently from Joe Bloggs Loansharking Company Limited. I decided to cancel my SAR request with them. I rang them. I was told by the person that answered the telephone that I couldn't speak to Joan McArdle in the Customer Assistance Team as they were not allowed to put calls through to that team. I explained that Ms McArdle had already written to me and that I wanted to speak to her about an issue involving the Data Protection Act, again I was told that I couldn't speak to her and that I could only speak to someone in collections. I asked to speak to the person in charge of Data Protection, again I was told that I could only speak to Collections! In the end I ended up leaving a message saying that I no longer required the SAR information for which I have paid £10. It'll be interesting to see whether I get the SAR information, the CCA information or indeed any or all of it.

am I right about the 12 days and then plus a calendar month? Interesting that they sent your information to you under the CCA, does this mean that they accept that they are governed by it? I shall ring up and cancel my SAR request under the DPA tomorrow. - I'm praying that that'll throw them enough not to think to respond to the CCA request. Out of interest Giveitback, did you make a separate CCA request to them or was it like mine a joint one with a DPA request too?

It seems that you may well be right Giveitback. Loans taken out before 1998 are governed by the CCA. It has now been well over 30 days since I made the CCA request and so I am about to compose my letter asking them to confirm that they accept that the debt is now unenforceable. I'll put it up on here before I send it. EEK, I've just read that it is 12 working days and then another calendar month. Is this right? This would mean that my request was deemed as received on the 27th July, 12 working days would be 14th August and now they have another calendar month to take the date that they need to respond back to 14th September! Am I right on this? If I think that they'll send the information that I asked for in my DPA request on the 6th September and this could well include copies of the signed agreements. If necessary can I instruct them to cancel my DPA request? I think that if I do that then they won't send the CCA information that I requested. Any advice is much appreciated.

Claim sent to Bow County Court today.

You will need to formally challenge their decision. I think you have a good chance of winning from the information that you have provided - if the bus lane is suspended on the day when they caught you I can't see how they can try to enforce it. Make sure that stick to time limits and read very carefully everything that they send you.