Honours Student Loans

[sick of thames credit]

i took out student loans between 1994-1997, last contact with SLC was mar 1999, was then chased up by DCA honours student loans in may 2005.

 

have made an agreeement to pay £20 a month, once a year they pester me to pay more, we discuss it for a while and then eventually agree not to increase the payments.

 

i've not had contact with them for 2 years now though.

 

one strange thing i have had from them a few times, is that for each student loan I have recieved letters stating I owe them nothing, i.e. outstanding balance is £0.00, when i phone them about it, they say it just something the computers throws out and means nothing.

 

having been on this site, i know what parasites these companies are!

 

are they having me over ? anyway i can tackle this debt ? they have told me I cant get out of it as it is a student loan.

[kurvaface]

"they have told me I cant get out of it as it is a student loan."

 

:eek:Sounds like crud to me. Student loans from that era are no different to other credit agreements. Maybe the balance is zero and the DCA is taking you for a ride. Everything I have read about DCAs suggest they are vitually indistinguishable from conmen.

 

Check it out! (CCA, subject access rights request, assignment etc)

Edited April 3, 2009 by 42man

[master woody]

KEEP THE LETTERS

 

If they ever took you could say look i have zero blance, if stopped paying you could say well you gave a zero blance!

 

I pay 10 mquid a month for the last six years and had nothing more then the odd threat-o-gram which i always read then throw in the bin....

Edited April 3, 2009 by master woody

[cerberusalert]

If a clear period of a six years has passed where you made no payment the debt would be 'Statute Barred'.

[Kraken1]

I've got a vague recollection that there are two types of student loan. one where the Limitation Act applies and one where it doesn't because payments can be taken from source or similar, no court action isn't needed.

 

Not sure where I've got that from or if it is right. My mind turns to mush when sober.

[42man]

I'll add to what has been said here - if there is a gap of 6 years at ANY stage where you have not made a payment then it WILL be statute barred, nothing can unbar it....even if you have made some payments recently....if there is a 6 year gap STOP paying them...

 

Taken from the National Debtline website...

 

 

STUDENT LOANS

Student loan agreements are simple contracts

and this gives the Student Loans Company

(SLC) six years from the date you last paid or

acknowledged the debt to go to court to

enforce the agreement. There are two sorts of

student loans and different rules apply

depending upon when you took out the loan.

Old style student loans

Old style or ‘mortgage’ student loans are

consumer credit agreements. Payments cannot

automatically be deducted from your wages.

The SLC has to go to court before they can

enforce the debt against you. This means that

the Limitation Act can apply if you have not

paid or acknowledged the debt for over six

years.

WARNING

Asking for the loan to be deferred could

count as acknowledging the debt and start time

running again.

New style student loans

From

September 1998 new style or ‘income

contingent’ student loans include rules to say

that repayments will be automatically deducted

directly from your wages or through your tax

return if you are self-employed. This means

that the SLC are still allowed to take money

from your wages for a loan over six years old

 

as they do not have to go to court to do so.

[Kraken1]

Aha! Brain not mush!

 

The new style loans can sidestep the LA1980.

[sick of thames credit]

OK I'm thinking about doing the unthinkable, and that's paying up a DCA in full. The company in question is honours student loans(HSL), who I gather dont negotiate on debts.

 

At the moment I currently have an arrangement to pay them back £20 a month, but they currently dont know where I am (I've made a point of not giving them forwarding addresses). now and again, they track me down (It seems to be whenever I go on the electoral register that they suddenly appear). They give me a little hassle, and then agree to let me stay on my £20 pm payment arrangement for a year.

 

To be honest,I have found HSL the far best DCA to deal with I have ever come across.

 

There was a time, when I didnt ever want to pay this debt back because

 

a) I couldnt afford it.

b) My degree was a waste of time

 

However in the last two years my circumstance have taken a turn for the better so that

 

a) I can afford to pay it back

b) After 15 years! My degree was instrumental in my change of fortunes!

 

However my concern is that whenever in the past I have volutarily contacted a DCA to come to a amicable arrangement,its always seems to be used by them as an oppurtunity to screw me over in some way.

 

In fact, by using the tactic of never leaving forwarding addresses, but continuing to pay whatever arrangement is in place seems to lead to the least hassle. Letting them know where you are and offering to pay more always feels like your rocking the boat and you come out worse despite the fact that your trying to resolve the situation!

 

Obviously it sounds like I have answered my own question here, in that I should leave things be and just pay £20 pm for perpetuity, However I was reading on here now that SLC and HSL can start reporting people to CRA's.

 

and as reported on another thread on here, I have received my credit report and my credit score is perfect! and as mention above, cirumstances have improved dramatically. In fact to the point that I went househunting today!

 

So having finally got my life on track at the age of 35, having spent all the time since I graduated being chased for debts I couldn't afford to pay back. I am now in the clear, but am beginning to worry, that HSL put a default on my file and I've got another 6 years for my credit file to clean itself up.

 

What is the best thing for me to do ? especially considering HSL dont know where I am, so for all I know they could be sending threatening letters to a previous address and at some point I get a default.

 

Thanks in advance

[NailPost]

First of all make sure that the debt collector has the right to collect. Its their responsibility to do this and they must do so on request. Many will try and fob you off but stick toyour guns and insist they prove the debt. If they can't or don't then you don't have to pay the leeches anything at all. If they do have the proper paperwork then offer them less than 10% of the value in an F&F. get that in writing and make the payment through a third party. End of. You have the upperhand so make sure it stays that way.

[sick of thames credit]

Im not sure how many of the standard CAG tactics work with Honours Student Loans as the rules are slightly different about the debts.

 

e.g. on the downside, I can never bankrupt the debt away, on the other hand (until last year) I could never be reported for the debt.

 

Remember this is a government debt so its harder to avoid this one.

[harrassed senior]

You say you are prepared to pay up, well heres' an idea, get a friend to get a Bankers' Draft payable to the DCA for a little less than you owe. Then get him to send it to the DCA without any of his details, but saying you have left the Country permanently and have given him the money (which you will of course have done) to pay the debt off. All your paperwork was destroyed prior to your move so you had to 'guesstimate' the settlement figure.

I am sure, that there are 'flaws' in the above, but just the beginnings of a possible answer.

[sick of thames credit]

When I say Im wanting to "pay up", I dont mean pay it all in one go, I mean increase the payments.

 

i.e. because I currently pay £240 a year, yet the interest this year is going to be approx £300. in other words I'm not strictly paying it off at the moment as the debt is still increasing!

 

so when I say "pay up" I mean start paying off the debt in real terms, although I am envisaging a short pay off time, e.g. approx a year.