Mr. H -v- SLC (now possibly Smith Lawson as well)

[master woody]

"Your arrears will be increased on the 15th day of each month by £51.57 until all the arrears have been setteled. Once this happens your account will be returned to our client for further monitoring purposes".

 

They are talking about your "arrears" not your total owed blance, basicaly moving it from your defered pot to the give all this now pot, so no real problem as such...

 

I think the actions you have set out is the best course of action, you need to write to SLC too and tell them your reporting them to Trading standards unless they take the "debt" back :D

[daveydavey]

...what happened to your formal complaint(s) to the SLC ??

 

A number of us have had success with complaints being successfully resolved, i.e. all non-deferred 'arrears' moved to amounts outstanding & charges removed, at the latter stages of the complaints procedure, i.e. stage 2 / stage 3 etc. - see the 'student loan deferment conspiracy' thread. Also you can now complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service if still dissatisfied after stage 3 , for pre-1998 loans. You can still complain to the SLC even if the file has been passed onto a debt collector. Didn't you have acknowledgement of your deferment on your website which was then not processed, which then led to an arrears figure ? If that is the case keep complaining using the formal complaints procedure, move to stage 2 / stage 3 etc. state you 'remain dissatisfied' etc.

[daveydavey]

also see the official gov't response to a suggestion to the BRE link here :

 

Better Regulation Executive (BRE): Let us have your ideas:

 

point out this response in the next stage of your letter of complaint. SLC / capquest's actions are incompatible & inconsistent with the Gov't's own official response.

[BillyTheFish]

Yeah i've very similar fun with Smith Lawson and now CapQuest...

 

I CCA'd them on the 11th last month and they put my accounts on hold while they 'looked into my request'. They're now well over the 28 day limit set out in the CCA request.

 

All my loans are from 95/96 and given CapQuests lack of reply its starting to look like they don't have any copies of my paperwork.

[Mr. H]

I wrote to CapQuest in April giving them 14 days to supply me with a copy of their authorisation from SLC to act on their behalf, as well as demanding a breakdown of their fee/charges structure in order that I could see how they arrived at there figures.

 

In July (3 months later) I received another letter from CapQuest saying that they were referring my case back to SLC.

 

I've revamped my website,Beware of the Student Loans Company Ltd

.

 

Oh I did submit a complaint to SLC, however they felt they have acted correctly!?!?!?! Shame they haven't got the confidence of their convictions to take me to court in respect of the 'outstanding arrears'

Edited January 20, 2009 by Mr. H

[emmaf01]

You could still claim for unlawful charges!

[daveydavey]

Have you thought about moving on to the next stage of the complaints procedure ? In my case (Student Loan Deferment Conspiracy? thread) , had to go to stage 3 before all £20 charges were removed & the arrears falsely created by the SLC's to process deferment forms were moved to the amount outstanding. All harassment & constant phone calls then stopped. The SLC's continued threats to take me to Court never materialised either. For pre-1998 loans / arrears, you can now complain to the FOS once the three complaint stages have been exhausted, so at stage 3 (executive level) they may take your complaint more seriously & address it properly. You can email your complaint SLC's site has the email address.

 

Dealing with the SLC & their constant harassment based on their false claims of arrears arising from their maladministration had a profoundly negative effect on my quality of life until it was resolved. Glad it isn't hanging over me anymore, but also glad I didn't back down & continued to contest the arrears. Their tactic seems to be to psychologically bully & pressure people into paying arrears even when the SLC has falsely created them, they know their claims arent justified in many cases hence their unwillingness to issue court proceedings. Large chunks of Student Loan debt have been sold off to private companies, how on earth are the student loan companies going to recover the loans unless they resort to these tactics ? If you don't fit the graduate stereotype of having a well-paid, high-flying job above the loan repayment threshold (& very many don't) then you end up caught in the crossfire. The last thing they want is borrowers exercising their right to deferment! Then they can't recover any money!

 

To end your state of limbo I would formally complain through all the stages then to the FOS if necessary. The account would be in dispute until these complaints are resolved. I'd imagine that at the stage 3 level of complaint they'd grant the deferment they should have applied years ago.

[emmaf01]

I just followed the bank charge stages because I felt I was getting nowhere and won. I had to get to court though, as their solicitor had problems getting the correct details out of the SLC- poor woman. Very pleasant to deal with.

 

Then I got the rest deferred.

[pdc.withy]

The SLC's continued threats to take me to Court never materialised either.

 

They have been threatening me through many companies for many years, I would imagine the first 'we will take you to court in 7/14/28 days letter,' came about 5/6 years ago. They phone me up 2-3 times a week at present and I always say that I don't owe them any money, it's a dead debt to which they get humpy. About 18 months ago I asked them to take me to court if they felt they had a case, the chap on the phone paused and said that they didn't want to do that. I asked if they ever took people to court but he could not confirm this. The longer it goes on the more confident I get that they are grasping at straws (cue summons in the morning!). I've been nonco-operative for many years and feel that if it were a bank/credit card company I'd have come a cropper a long time ago. My loans are from 92-95.

 

A long winded way of asking: Do they ever take people to court? If they are not doing so with me is it because they lack the paperwork/wherewithal to do so? When can I stop worrying?

[emmaf01]

I think I heard of someone in the DAG section- but I think that was through an external DCA for a post 1998 loan- but don't quote me- I read too many threads and can get muddled.

 

It might be an idea to search the site.

[Mr. H]

I'm sure that any claim by SLC be frowned upon by the County Courts if it was demonstrated that SLC had delayed in bringing their action.

[pdc.withy]

I've searched this site and googled regularly over the last year or two. Have not come up with anything other than people being threatened, which they seem to do for a pastime.

[Mr. H]

Still nothing has happened, but guess who acquired the web-domain studentloanscompany.co.cc a few months ago:cool:

[kurvaface]

quality

[disgruntledofcornwall]

Thinking that is it coming around again to deferment time, thought it may be helpful to post that I WON the argument with the SLC, they complied with the SENDA request in a roundabout way, refunded all the charges and interest and defered the loans back about 8 months.

 

Sadly, tried it on again in the same way in 2008 and 2009, lost forms etc.

 

Again, I won the argument! They went so far this year up their own @rses that I think I can sue for damages for maladministration, I caught them making up lies to cover their backs. But because I now insist in dealing with the **** only in writing, I have the paper trail to nail them.

 

Given that they have wasted over 200 hours of my time with vexticious actions, I think I have a fair chance of getting something back for my time.

 

Will start a new thread on this when I get the evidence into one pdf.

 

I must insisit that YOU NEVER GIVE UP FIGHTING THE SLC. They are so bad at what they do they always trip up and they are so arrogant that it is easy to trap them into absolute statements if you are clever enough.

 

Persist and you WILL win out in the end.

 

No.1 bit of advice.

 

TELL THEM IN WRITING THAT THEY CAN NOT CONTACT YOU BY TELEPHONE FOR ANY REASON AND TO REMOVE YOUR CONTACT DETAILS FROM THE DATA BASE AND NEVER EVER EVER CALL THEM!!!!!

 

All in writing. They hang themselves in the end. Hope this helps motivate someone

[Mr. H]

Thanks for reminding me about this thread - Things are now resolved.

SLC passed the account the an company in wales that administrates their Student loans, and after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing eventually agreed to backdatethe deferrment to when it originally should have been deferred. of course they havn't admitted liability in any way, nd have done this as 'a gesture of goodwill'

 

Obviously not a total win, but at least there are no arrears or undue interest charges on my account