Student loan
#1
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 98
Student loan
Hey Guys,
I wonder if anyone can give me some advice. I have been in NZ for 10 years since graduating Uni. I had contacted the student loans company ages ago about living overseas and I heard NOTHING back from them. They have never sent anything to my parents home either.
Morally I would like to be able to pay back my student loan from 2001-2005 but now that it has gone on for so long I am now terrified to get in touch as I don't have any clue as to what I owe. It could be 1000s and 1000s. I think I earn enough here to be eligible to pay ($60,000K per annum before tax) but isn't there a minimum of $500 a month if you haven't been paying before? I'm lost and worried about this. I also understand that I could just contact them but I have read they are hard to deal with and I don't want to open the floodgates if I'm not going to get a straight answer from them. I will of course but on the off chance I could get some advice from someone here who maybe has a similar story I thought I would ask.
I'm not a 'runner' btw I have tried to contact them in the past but they have never contacted me in 10 years!
I wonder if anyone can give me some advice. I have been in NZ for 10 years since graduating Uni. I had contacted the student loans company ages ago about living overseas and I heard NOTHING back from them. They have never sent anything to my parents home either.
Morally I would like to be able to pay back my student loan from 2001-2005 but now that it has gone on for so long I am now terrified to get in touch as I don't have any clue as to what I owe. It could be 1000s and 1000s. I think I earn enough here to be eligible to pay ($60,000K per annum before tax) but isn't there a minimum of $500 a month if you haven't been paying before? I'm lost and worried about this. I also understand that I could just contact them but I have read they are hard to deal with and I don't want to open the floodgates if I'm not going to get a straight answer from them. I will of course but on the off chance I could get some advice from someone here who maybe has a similar story I thought I would ask.
I'm not a 'runner' btw I have tried to contact them in the past but they have never contacted me in 10 years!
#2
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Joined: Oct 2011
Location: Wellington - I miss Castles, the NHS & English school system
Posts: 9,077
#3
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 98
Re: Student loan
By all accounts I'll have 10 years worth of fines on my account to pay off as well...
#4
Re: Student loan
Likely a daft suggestion on my part but can't you log-in to the website with your student details and request your info from there?
#5
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Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 98
Re: Student loan
Gah yeah, been trying that for months with all my email addresses I've ever had including student one. No trace...
#6
Re: Student loan
They chased my daughter after leaving for NZ - she paid back for 1 yr whilst working in UK, emigrated and within 3 months had sent letters to our home address even though she had informed them of NZ address threatening of fines, eventually I rang and pretended to be her and then they wrote to her in NZ - she had to provide income figures, they then told her what she had to pay, I ended up paying as it had to be from uk bank! Eventually we withdrew some of her savings and paid it off as they were taking say £50/month and adding £10 month interest, they sent her forms every 6 months to provide income details- but we also kept up with her change of address in NZ which was several in her first 2 yrs in NZ.
#7
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Joined: Jul 2013
Location: Christchurch
Posts: 570
Re: Student loan
Hey Guys,
I wonder if anyone can give me some advice. I have been in NZ for 10 years since graduating Uni. I had contacted the student loans company ages ago about living overseas and I heard NOTHING back from them. They have never sent anything to my parents home either.
Morally I would like to be able to pay back my student loan from 2001-2005 but now that it has gone on for so long I am now terrified to get in touch as I don't have any clue as to what I owe. It could be 1000s and 1000s. I think I earn enough here to be eligible to pay ($60,000K per annum before tax) but isn't there a minimum of $500 a month if you haven't been paying before? I'm lost and worried about this. I also understand that I could just contact them but I have read they are hard to deal with and I don't want to open the floodgates if I'm not going to get a straight answer from them. I will of course but on the off chance I could get some advice from someone here who maybe has a similar story I thought I would ask.
I'm not a 'runner' btw I have tried to contact them in the past but they have never contacted me in 10 years!
I wonder if anyone can give me some advice. I have been in NZ for 10 years since graduating Uni. I had contacted the student loans company ages ago about living overseas and I heard NOTHING back from them. They have never sent anything to my parents home either.
Morally I would like to be able to pay back my student loan from 2001-2005 but now that it has gone on for so long I am now terrified to get in touch as I don't have any clue as to what I owe. It could be 1000s and 1000s. I think I earn enough here to be eligible to pay ($60,000K per annum before tax) but isn't there a minimum of $500 a month if you haven't been paying before? I'm lost and worried about this. I also understand that I could just contact them but I have read they are hard to deal with and I don't want to open the floodgates if I'm not going to get a straight answer from them. I will of course but on the off chance I could get some advice from someone here who maybe has a similar story I thought I would ask.
I'm not a 'runner' btw I have tried to contact them in the past but they have never contacted me in 10 years!
#8
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Joined: Jul 2013
Location: Christchurch
Posts: 570
Re: Student loan
Haha! They apparently changed from having a 12 digit student support number (optimistic about growth of student numbers in the UK maybe) to a customer reference number. They made it obligatory to use your customer reference number to get access to online services but never told me mine. When I told them they'd never told me they denied it and said they had despite no letters I recieved ever containing it. So I had to make several very expensive and frustrating calls to get told what it was, only to then get locked out of my account because it said I already had one and unable to reset my account because the helpline was UK only and they don't do email communication. Several more EXTREMELY frustrating phonecalls later and I EVENTUALLY had access. Of course it did refuse to accept my password everyvtime for about 6 months but now at last it appears to be basically functional.
#9
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Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 98
Re: Student loan
It just seems absolutely bonkers. The more I read about it the more stories I hear that are similar to yours Laura. Just constant headaches. I signed for these loans when I was 16 years old and had no idea I was going to emigrate, time passed and I heard nothing from them and I suddenly thought, jesus I best find out where I'm at with this. The trouble is, when I did all my stuff, there was no website, there was no way of paying back from overseas (I remember checking this at the time which probably added to the reasons why I didn't think about it for a while) I had no UK bank account, I shut that down within 2 years of leaving and at that point I wasn't earning enough to pay it back anyway. Time passed and now I'm wondering what kind of hellish fees I'm looking at for paying it back until I retire. Looks as though it would be $500 a month from NZ which on lower salaries here, house rent (impossibility of saving $100,000 for a deposit on a house in Auckland, you know the drill, which if I start paying $500 a month to the SLC I'll have to stop saving too) groceries which are double the price of back home, insurance, phone bills, electricity, water if I start paying that amount I will be left with absolutely nothing each month. Just because I'm on the threshold of being able to pay it back doesn't mean I can afford the default payments. Am I being stupid about this? Do they have any flexibility in that if I were to start paying it back I could get them to agree on what I could afford?
#10
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Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 98
Student loan
Ok so I know I'm going to get blasted for this but I'm terrified and looking for advice.
It's been 13 years since I graduated and yes I moved from the uk out this way shortly after.
I made contact with the SLC way back and then heard nothing from them and yes, I did forget about it for some time.
It seems they have caught up with me, anyone else dealt with them in this instance and can I work out a repayment plan with them that I can afford. I have every intention of paying this thing back....
I'm ashamed of myself for this and I know I'll get backlash but I wanted to ask so I can get some sleep again until I can sort it out with them.
Thank you
It's been 13 years since I graduated and yes I moved from the uk out this way shortly after.
I made contact with the SLC way back and then heard nothing from them and yes, I did forget about it for some time.
It seems they have caught up with me, anyone else dealt with them in this instance and can I work out a repayment plan with them that I can afford. I have every intention of paying this thing back....
I'm ashamed of myself for this and I know I'll get backlash but I wanted to ask so I can get some sleep again until I can sort it out with them.
Thank you
#12
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Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 285
Re: Student loan
I agree with no worries, it may affect better deals in the future but at least collection department always makes deals in the meantime because they want their money )
#13
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Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 98
Re: Student loan
So I've been sent home from work, absolutely worried sick. It's my own fault. I can't concentrate on a single thing, not sure if this will ruin me but it feels like it. You have all been exceptionally helpful even with something that should have incited more rage at me than I can fathom. So thank you for being a little bit patient with for want of better words 'a drop kick' I have no issue with paying back debt it's just that it's gone on so long now I'm unable to kick myself in the ass to do something about it. But I will, because I'm honestly not a cretin. Thank you thank you for not making me feel worse than I already do...
#14
Re: Student loan
FWIW, OP, I think making school leavers sign punitive loan contracts to get access to uni education is absolutely despicable. There has to be a fairer system. Have you been in contact with a UK citizen's advice bureau?
Are you intending to return to the UK? Check out this link, if you haven't already:
https://www.gov.uk/options-for-payin...debts/overview
Are you intending to return to the UK? Check out this link, if you haven't already:
https://www.gov.uk/options-for-payin...debts/overview
#15
Re: Student loan
FWIW, OP, I think making school leavers sign punitive loan contracts to get access to uni education is absolutely despicable. There has to be a fairer system. Have you been in contact with a UK citizen's advice bureau?
Are you intending to return to the UK? Check out this link, if you haven't already:
https://www.gov.uk/options-for-payin...debts/overview
Are you intending to return to the UK? Check out this link, if you haven't already:
https://www.gov.uk/options-for-payin...debts/overview