Bo-Jangles

Same pain I feel at having to pay close to $3 to the £ for most things in this country regardless of what has happened to the exchange rate over the past seven years - but as we're so frequently told, build a bridge, get over it - it's such a small price to pay for living the dream in paradise.

LauraNotts

Just an update because I need to rant somewhere.

I have been waiting ALL ****ING YEAR for that company to reassess my payments to bring them in line with where the currency actually is rather than where the SLC think it is.

Last year they assessed that I should pay £127 a month which in April 2015 was worth $254 dollars.

This years new thresholds have just been worked out. As of just now Google indicates to me that £127 is worth $269 dollars.

So can someone who is more logical than me tell me how that works out to my payments being just £1 less???

The only logical explanation is they've dropped the repayment threshold from the current £17335 ($38000 ish) to something lower than that. We repay 9% of our income over this threshold (which by the way when I work out mine is no where near $269 dollars). If this country somehow got miraculously cheaper in the last 12 months I didn't notice. Those scringing money grubbing bastards.

simonsi

So you will be paying GBP126/mth instead of GBP127/mth and paying your loan off a bit faster? (assuming a lower threshold actually applies hence more of your NZD after conversion is going into payments rather than reducing your GBP payment).

I'd call that financially sensible but maybe thats just me. Sounds a lot better than your payments being in NZD hence you carrying the currency risk.

LauraNotts

I'd much rather my payments were in NZD so I knew what they would be rather than being subject to currency fluctuations as has happened over the last year.

I agree it makes sense to pay it off as fast as I can, that's what I am telling myself as I try to work out how to manage their crazy system. What I take exception to is how rubbish their system seems to be and how they don't stick to their own guidelines for assessing my income.

quiltman

your student debts were incurred in UK pounds, so need paying in UK pounds. Unless you have kept a UK bank account which has UK pounds going into it, I would say it's up to you to accept the exchange risk in getting UK pounds to pay it off. Think yourself lucky the SLC will accept NZ dollars and it's their right to choose an exchange rate beneficial to them. If they have to set a rate for the next 12 months then they are going to go for worse rate than is current purely due to the way the exchange rate varies. As an aside, do the UK SLC have a legal right to collect the fees in NZ or are you being one - of the few from what I read - of those who believe a debt is a debt? If the latter then congratulations, if only others had the same attitude!

LauraNotts

They don't accept NZD I have to pay in pounds. I accept a few cents variation but the currency dropped 20% last year. That was hard.

I am one of the ones who has faithfully submitted my address and details of my income to them year on year because yes I believe I should pay my debts. I just wish they wouldn't make it so difficult and stressful to do it.

janiejones

The pound is weaker than it has been for a while at the moment, but it's quite volatile at the moment, because of the impending referendum. If you can, it might be an idea to take advantage of the good rate and buy some extra pounds now, before the rate changes and the pound gets more expensive.

(I'm crossing fingers that the pound improves, as we've got a house sale going through.)

LauraNotts

That's a great idea if you have the money to do that. I don't sadly.

LauraNotts

Also to add, if I had spare money to buy spare pounds I wouldn't be having the problem I am currently having trying to cope with a wildly swinging exchange rate. I'd have paid off the loan in full outright.

quiltman

Well, Kudos to you LauraNotts! If only others had the same moral compass.
I assume from your user name you come from n
Notts? I was born in Hucknall, my BILs live in Mansfield and Newark.
Again, so nice to hear of someone who cares about what they owe, instead of the "I'm out of UK so up yours" attitude others seem to have.

scrubbedexpat045

I worked for SLC years ago before rage quiting. I've been on both sides of the fence here, and have recently recieved a letter stating I need to start paying off my student loan, despite having done so for the last two years...

What really narks me off is the likes of my neighbour who has had numerous loans and resits and never actually gained a qualification, who is now sitting on her butt, and not paying any of it off.

I'm looking at paying the last bit off in one chunk, but they can't even tell me how much is left on it.. ugh!

Tom H

Sorry to bring this back to the board but do any of you use the student loan repayments website???

If so, have you started getting tons of junk mail from vanquis credit card and other "loan finance" companies????

LauraNotts

Yes I do and no I haven't.

They did manage to send me their yearly threatening letter again as they continue to refuse to use email or adjust their expectations of how fast their letters get to NZ. They sent a letter on the 5th May which arrived on the 17th May to request my payslips and income assessment form. I posted it back by courier and it arrived on the 24th. Of course this didnt stop them from sending another letter on the 15th May before their first had arrived so they could threaten me for not having answered the letter I hadn't recieved.

Idiots.

RobClubley

Aaaargh, my wife's teacher salary has just passed the threshold where she has to pay off her 20+ year-old UK student loan. We've been putting it off as it's such low interest, though it's not that big an amount.

Her NZ student loan will be paid off in about 3 months so it's not bad timing I guess. We really don't want to make monthly payments though, wondering if they accept larger quarterly or six-monthly payments.

PB65

I guess just contact them and make an offer given after 20 years they will probably accept any payment plan assuming of course the SLC is still chasing after this time. On the positive side not many years left before the balance gets written off so still only pay the minimum amount that you have to whether that is in a quarterly or 6 monthly sum assuming SLC agrees.