Re: Paying back student loan
 

I love the way that they do that. The letter you get when it is deferred or they have assessed your monthly payments says in bold that you don't need to do anything for 12 months, at which time they will send you an income assessment form. However, before they send the form and a couple of months before you are due reassessment, you receive the stroppy threatening letter! Don't most companies do it the other way around?!

I can't offer any advice on the original question. I left enough money to pay off the loans in an English savings account. Given the subsequent shift in exchange rates, I wish that I had brought it over, but I took the safer option.:zzz:

Re: Paying back student loan
 

I'm in the same situation and have just been re-assessed; payments will start this month. I too haven't been impressed with my dealings with the SLC but I won't dwell on that right now...Anyway to start with I have set up a Direct Debit from my UK bank account so the payments will go straight from there each month, but then when the money in my UK runs out (which it will in a few months, there are no funds going into that account) then I will probably just pay by Canadian credit card and incur the fee (1.5% I think?). To transfer funds regularly would work out more expensive in bank transfer fees I think, and there's no way I can afford to transfer funds in bulk or pay it all off unfortunately :(

Hope it all works out ok for you,

Adele :)

Re: Paying back student loan
 

Thanks for your comments on this everyone. Adele, I will probably go with your option and just pay on a Canadian Credit Card. Looks like it will be the cheapest option. I double checked with TD bank yesterday and it would actually be $30 dollars extra each time i want to wire the money! Thats ridiculous especally if you have to do it every month! Will see how credit card payments go.

Re: Paying back student loan
 

Oh shoot... I was hoping and had been told by a few people I could do EXACTLY that, but I guess not. :sneaky:

I have a serious case of sour grapes with student loans anyway, in that if i'd been born a couple of months earlier, I would've come under the old grants system, I guess I'll just have to blame my parents for their unfortunate timing :lol:

Re: Paying back student loan
 

Yeah that was my plan but after speaking to a number of people it would appear its not a good idea!

I also have very sour grapes with them, not only did i not get a grant but because I started my degree after 1998 i don't even have the option of deferring for a year! double screwed. I hate the SLC

Re: Paying back student loan
 

I know. Damn the buggers for lending people money, providing a payment scheme much more attractive when compared to other financial organisations, and, to cap it all off, having the audacity to make the borrower pay it back :thumbdown:

Re: Paying back student loan
 

The terms and conditions of these loans may be more generous than those of loans to buy televisions and soft furnishings but, since the borrowers have no choice but to take out the loans and people only slightly older than them had no need to take out such loans, I think they have legitimate reason to be pissed off.

Re: Paying back student loan
 

As unfortunate as it may be, the SLC are merely providing a service due to funding changes back in the 90's. To be pissed of at them for these changes is a little off.

Re: Paying back student loan
 

Thanks for understanding.:thumbup:
I was feeling unsure about having to take out the loan in the first place, but my parents certainly couldn't afford to support me and as it was I was only just able to make ends meet with my loan and a part time job in the evenings and on Saturdays. Unfortunately, you have it drummed into you in 6th form college that University is the only way. If I had realised then that over 10 years later I would still be in debt, perhaps I wouldn't have gone, but as we were the first year of having the new system, no one really knew how it would pan out in the future.

To clarify I am not annoyed with the student loans company for the fact that I was forced to take out the loan (I am annoyed with the government for this). What does annoy me with the SLC is their complete inability to get anything right. since I have been dealing with them, I informed them 3 times of my change of address and they still kept sending correspondence to my old address. I have also not had a statement from them in 2 years despite repeated requests, so I don't even know where I stand with my loan at the moment. If they can't even cope with simple administrative matters while I am in the same country as them, I do worry about how things will turn out being separated by several thousand miles.

I had been told by a few people who had already done so that if you left the Country, you didn't have to continue paying, but as this is not the case, I will have to bite the bullet and keep on paying.

Re: Paying back student loan
 

My understanding is that things continue in much the same manner except that you'll have to "get up in the middle of the night to call bloody Scotland".

Re: Paying back student loan
 

I doubt people are "pissed of" (sic) at the SLC for the changes in government policy. I expect they are able to differentiate between being pissed off at the then government for changes in policy and being pissed off at the SLC for having the competence and public relations skills of a Canadian phone company. I don't blame them for either.

Re: Paying back student loan
 

I have been paying back my student loan every month, using their payment scheme, since 2001. When I say 'paying back' I mean paying the interest. The actual sum that I owe has changed very little in the intervening 9 years.

Since moving to Canada, I have spent more time than I feel is reasonable communicating with the SLC. The only silver lining to the whole issue is that, I believe your loan is written off once you hit the age of 65 (or retirement age, or something). They only need to keep dithering for another four decades or so.

Re: Paying back student loan
 

We have to wonder about their ability to track down someone who does not tell them they have left the country (not that I am suggesting anyone should do this, of course).

My husband has a student loan taken out as a mature student. Despite us filling in all the forms, telling them where he works, and where we live - and they send statements to our address - they are still not making deductions. If we were younger we would be worried, but as he is in his mid 40s, and the loan is huge, he will never pay it all back as it is indeed written off when you retire - or stop working for any other reason for that matter. So we wait and see.

Re: Paying back student loan
 

I'm merely using the postings within this thread as a basis for my comments, and clearly people cannot differentiate, based on what's written here.

I do agree that it's a pisser with the timing for students heading out to University immediately after the changes came into effect.

Re: Paying back student loan
 

It is actually very easy and, relatively, cheap. I used to do this all the time acting for creditors in England. We would trace people all over the world. This was before the days of Facebook etc. I would imagine that it is even easier now.