Erudio - chronology of correspondence - are they chasing you..README

[JonCorzine]

Complaint upheld :: Financial Ombudsman Services

 

I decided to lodge a complaint with the financial ombudsmen a few months ago and this week they honoured my complaint; please note, every complaint raised costs Erudio £550 plus any remuneration for stress and duress.

 

Summary of my case

 

I refused to use their deferment form and sent off the old SLC form. Erudio started to lie saying they couldn't read my bank statements and I needed to use their DAF form. They refused to defer and made up spurious arrears for the sum of ~£1k because of non-deferment.

 

FOS letter

 

Dear Mr xxx,

 

Your complaint about Erudio Student Loans Limited

 

I am writing to set out my assessment of your complaint. In reaching my assessment, I have considered everything that you and the business have sent us.

 

Complaint

 

You complain about the delay in processing your deferment request for your student loan. The business confirmed your bank statements were unacceptable. Arrears have accrued on the account as a result.

 

Bank statements

 

You applied for deferment by sending the business your deferment form and bank statements. The business confirms they were received on 23 July 2014. They then wrote to you on 30 July 2014 to confirm your bank statements were illegible and further copies were required to confirm your benefits.

 

I have checked the statements that you originally provided to the business. I can read them and can see no reason as to why they were illegible and therefore unacceptable. It clearly shows the benefits that you were receiving.

 

Deferment form

 

The business confirmed that you needed to send in further statements but made no mention of your old deferment form being unacceptable.

 

You received letters confirming the evidence provided was not valid and followed this up with email correspondence. You were advised that legible bank statements were required in order to complete the deferment process, these were reissued.

 

It wasn’t until 26 November 2014, around five months later, that you received correspondence confirming that you needed to complete a new deferment form.

 

Customer service

 

I consider that you were not provided with accurate information confirming what was required to enable you to complete deferment. I consider this to be the major cause for the delay in the deferment process and therefore why arrears have accrued.

 

I believe that had it initially been explained to you why the new deferment form was required, you would have accepted and signed it. The trouble you encountered with regards to supplying bank statements led to you losing confidence in the information that was being given by the business.

 

Conclusions

 

As you provided legible bank statements and the business confirmed they were not, I consider it understandable that you may find it unreasonable to be advised that you now needed to sign a new deferment form. However, you have now confirmed that you are prepared to sign the new form.

 

Because of this, I am of the opinion that the complaint should succeed.

 

I consider that once a signed Erudio DAF has been received by Erudio Student Loans Limited, they should:

 

• Allow you to defer.
  
• Remove all loan arrears.
  
• Remove any entries on your credit file from 24 May 2014 to date of acceptance of this proposal.
  
• Pay you £50 for trouble and upset caused.
  

I hope you will accept my assessment. However, if you have any new points that you would like us to take into account – and which you think could make a difference to the outcome – please let me have them by 15 June 2015. If you want to reply but you do not think you will be able to by then, please let me know as soon as possible.

 

To accept my opinion in full and final settlement of the complaint, please sign, date and return the attached settlement form so that it reaches me by 15 June 2015. I will then ask the business to settle the matter with you directly.

 

As a reminder, you have the right to ask the ombudsman to review your complaint – as the final stage in our process. However, I hope this will not now be necessary.

 

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Yours sincerely

 

xxx

adjudicator

[dx100uk]

aha it happened

that's a very good result

 

 

now their deferment form.

 

 

if you feel its too intrusive, then you need to use the FOS to your advantage.

 

 

dx