Tuition fees - Sta chasing

[BBBlue]

Hey all,

 

Really panicking as I've been contacted by the dreaded DCA, STA International, regarding some 'alleged' outstanding tuition fees.

 

Long story short, I attended Aston University from October 2008 to March 2009, which the full tuition was paid for that academic year. Upon leaving in March 2009, I notified both my department - who advised me to write a letter (which I did) - and the accommodation service, who refunded me in excess of £300 pro-rata for the rent I had paid up front (I have the proof of this).

 

Following this, I notified the students loan company and tied up all the other loose ends. I then took up a place at another University in September 2009 and continued through and graduated. However, I recently started a new job in the finance industry and the job insisted on referencing Aston (this has been done before by my previous employer as well). Since then, Aston University has come back to me and stated that I now owe them £3,150 for the follow academic year of 2009/2010.

 

I did not re-enroll for the second year as I had left the University and begun attending another one. In actual fact, I would not have been allowed to as I did not sit my Spring exams in the first year. What's panicking me is that my job credit checks all employees each month (part of our contract) and if I fail it, I lose my job. On the other hand, I don't have £3,150 to pay out just to clear the matter up, and that's if I did believe that I owed the money.

 

Aston University are notorious for ignoring students and just plundering ahead, so I was wondering what I should do next - should I contact Citizens Advice Bureau? Should I advise the debt collection agency that this balance is under dispute? I intend to contact Aston anyway, however, I need to prevent this from damaging my credit file for the aforementioned reasons.

 

Many thanks guys. B

[unclebulgaria67]

I thought that student loan debts did not appear on credit records.

 

Anyway, I think this will be easy to clear up. Write to the head of the faculty department at Aston University asking them why you are being chased for tuition fees for a year that you did not attend Aston University. Explain what happened. You would have had to enrol for the year for the tuition fees to be due, so Aston Uni have just made a mistake.

 

Send a copy to STA. What you could also do is contact the Student Loan company as presumably they will have full details of the tuition fees that were due to which university. So they could probably clear this matter up as well.

 

I doubt this will cause you any problem in regard to employment provided that you deal with it and don't sit on it for a long time until a CCJ is obtained.