Student Loan pre-1998. Anybody got any experience or advice about this please?

Hello everybody

Just joined today after googling 'What happened to GOODF?' and finding this site, so please forgive me if I'm posting in the wrong section etc. (be kind ).

OK, so basically I cannot find any answers on this specific topic - hence creating this new one.

It has somehow got back to my mum that the person who bought my mum's house around 2001/2 has received a letter addressed to me and has said it is from Student Loans (don't know if they have opened it or the envelope is marked Student Loans because I have received this information 3rd hand).

Now, I haven't had any contact from Student Loans for years. I know I did take out more than one loan whilst I was a student between 1992 and 1995, but I don't know the amounts etc. I had honestly forgotten all about them. I remember a good few years ago answering my mobile and it being a woman from SLC. She was asking if I could pay anything...it was all VERY casual - nothing like the aggressive horror stories I've read about.

Anyway, I told her I couldn't - I actually admitted that I had forgotten all about any SL actually because it had been so long since I'd ever heard from them and she just seemed to fizzle off and said 'Oh ok' - there was no paperwork to complete, no proof of income required to back up what I'd said etc. Like I say it seemed weird to the extent that I wondered if it was even a genuine call or some scammer just trying to get bank details.

So, years pass by and I'm still not even thinking about Student Loans and now this letter has turned up at an address I haven't lived at since 2001 - and that my mum hasn't lived at either since around that time. I mean, I could possibly understand it if they'd searched the electoral register and seen the same surname registered there, but this is just weird again.

Has anybody out there got any experience of this from loans taken out pre-1998 (which, from what I can gather from information online are different than the current loans).

Any and all help is appreciated.

PS: I don't mean to be rude, but please no scaremongering. The last time I asked about debt advice somebody replied with a lot of [what turned out to be] nonsense that really put the wind up me and had me not sleeping for days. Anyway, when I get the chance I'll post it in 'Success Stories'.

Hi ,I've had a quick look & it seems your loan is still to be collected by HMRC & not sold off,
It seems you are OK if on benefits .However they should be able to trace you through your employer if you are working.



https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-launches-first-sale-from-the-student-loan-book

daveiron wrote:Hi ,I've had a quick look & it seems your loan is still to be collected by HMRC & not sold off,
It seems you are OK if on benefits .However they should be able to trace you through your employer if you are working.



https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-launches-first-sale-from-the-student-loan-book

Thanks Dave

I've been digging all day - been onto NationalDebtline.org too (the impartial charity...not the other government one) and it has been sold to Erudio and is either statute barred or - if they sent it to court and obtained a CCJ - it is still enforceable if they reapply through the courts again, though it is highly unlikely that the court will approve it because of the enormous length of time they have left it before contacting me [well they still haven't have they - I'm quite p***ed off that I even know about it and would much rather I didn't. Flipping gossipy ex neighbours].

Anyway, it seems like it's a typical case of 'buy a debt for next to nowt and then try to scaremonger the debtor into resetting the clock by engaging them in writing for deferment or payment arrangement. They're quids in if they can convince enough people to do that.

Ah well - yet more hassle for me I suppose and then I am totally debt free

Hi,
Sorry I was going by paragraph 7.and assumed it would apply to your case.
As its now in the hands of parasites it should be easier.If possible get the people from your former house to return
'addressee not recognised' any future letters. Keep your head down ,if they should locate you let us know.

Hi daveiron

I know you were just trying to help, so no worries.

I don't know for certain that it is Student Loans, but I'll have to see if I can find out and ask if the person living in that old house can just send any further such correspondence back 'Not Known At This Address'.

Anyway, like I say, it's just bad luck that she is still sort of 'in contact' - all be it on the fringes.  Why couldn't my mum have sold her house to some random 'never to be seen again' Joe Bloggs like everybody else does!  Then I'd be none the wiser.

My partner says tell her to go forth and procreate - you and your life are none of her business - and tell her to just send anything that comes for you back as NKATA (which, from what I can gather was something in 2003 and something last week - so hardly a frequent problem or a hassle for her).  

The thing is she's quite a busybody - she has no partner and no children to occupy her thoughts/time...not even a pet...lol/  Her own brothers and sister have sort of washed their hands of her cos of her constant inappropriate meddling in their families' lives (I won't bore you with all the details).  Therefore, it would be better to go the softly softly route even though it p***es me off that I even have to bother.

Anyway, it's weird because my 'digging' included contacting Nationaldebtline.org and it was they who said that the old style loans had been bought by Erudio, Thesis and Honours - basically 3 different debt collectors.  Now then - where it gets interesting is that when they said, Erudio I recognised that name.  I have loads of searches on my credit file that say 'searches that don't affect your credit score' (or something like that) and it's full of company names - some of which are household names and some more obscure.  Basically, all of mine are car insurance companies/brokers/underwriters and from quotes I've generated on price comparison sites, but Erudio, who also searched my file last year are - as I now know after talking to NDL - linked to student loans.

It means that if it is them who have written to that way back address (I'm living in my 3rd property since moving out in 2001), that it's even weirder.  Surely if they wanted to trace me they could quite easily do so.

All very odd.  Maybe it's actually an old insurance policy or some long-forgotten premium bonds from the 70s that has actually turned up and not SL at all.  

I was actually hoping that there would be at least one other member of this site who has had Student Loans or Erudio suddenly chasing them out of the blue for a debt that is so old it's ancient and whether they just told them to bugger off cos it's statute barred under the Limitations Act because it seems that this is what you can definitely do if you haven't paid anything or had any dealings with them in writing for more than 6 years.

Even if the debt was subject to a CCJ, they still only have 6 years to act on it and have to reapply to the courts if they want to enforce it.

They really don't have a leg to stand on, so I would have been really interested to hear from anyone who has any experience with these companies.

Just a thought,
If you can get it from her,you may be able to identify without opening. Or open it ,you can always write on it
'opened in error,not known at this address'

Hmmmm...

I never thought of that.

One part of me thinks, get it off her, ring them up (like I say, if it is Erudio/SLC), tell them who I am and that it has come to my attention that they have recently written to me at an address that I have not lived at since 2001 and which was sold by my mother in 2003.

When they ask me how I got the letter - just tell the truth - that my mum has the same mobile number she had when she sold the house and the pain-in-the-ass woman who bought it still has it and has told her there is a letter for me and that I've now picked that letter up from her.

Then - quite simply - ask them what it's about and why they are suddenly contacting me out of the blue? Basically the contact seems to have been 1997/98 - then nothing. Then 2003 after I moved out. Then nothing. Then 2018. Just ask them, 'What do you want?' and if they say, "You've got a Student Loan debt and you need to pay or defer" just say, 'No I don't'. If there were any debt then it would have become statute barred 6 years from the date you received the last payment from me or any acknowledgement of it in writing (I'm not even sure if acknowledging it in writing matters) and as I have already told you, I have had no dealings with or made any payment to the Student Loans Company in so long I can't even remember, but to hazard a guess I'd say somewhere in the region of 18 years or thereabouts. So, stop writing to me and if you persist I shall report you to the Financial Ombudsman.

I reckon it's all only kicked off again because Student Loans sold the debts last year.

But, what kind of nut-job Debt Collection Agency buys debts that they know haven't been serviced properly by SLC, thus rendering them unenforceable? Even if they buy a 10k debt for 1k, they've still got to collect 1k plus admin etc. to break even.

They can surely only be pinning all their hopes on lying to people and hoping that their hapless victims haven't got a clue about statute barred debts and the Limitations Act and end up agreeing to pay off the whole 10k plus some other bogus fees out of fear of what could happen.

I have to say, what was good about the old, old, old GOODF site is there were loads of people who could always chip in with their own experiences of having gone through the same thing - not matter what company or Debt Collector. The forums were a good information source in that way.

You are making the classic mistakes, do not contact them if they don't know where you are, why do you feel the need to contact them, in point of fact, why do people contact them?

They are on a fishing trip and nothing more, and they are playing the Chinese whispers game and hoping someone will speak to you and you will contact them, if you phone them they will have your telephone number, if it is a landline they can look up your address, if it is a mobile they can get your name and address from your account.

Do as Dave suggests, speak to your former neighbour and send correspondence back NKATA and leave it at that, if she gets regular correspondence then she can threaten them with a with an action under the Harassment Act. If your mother is receiving calls then get her to block their number.

moved to debt forum

Totally agree with @assassin

WHY WHY would you even consider contacting them ? they havent contacted you have they ?