Is anyone still around who knows me? If you are it would be great to hear from you. Leave me a messa...
Is anyone still around who knows me? If you are it would be great to hear from you. Leave me a message in my guest book to let me know that you are all ok and I will contact you back. It would be nice to know how everyone is doing.
Member since:30.07.2001
Reviews:218
Members who trust:66
Most people, if not a student or been a student will know about and heard of the student loans company so I wont go in to too much details about their establishment.
Basically they are a government funded organisation that provide finance to University and higher educational students. They provide you with a very cheap interest loan to help you through your studies and support yourself.
Being a student is extremely difficult I found and it wasn't for me and I quit after doing two terms at two different universities over 2 years.
But whilst I was there I was supplied with a student loan to help me for that period.
Since I left university and started empolyment I have been making contributions to my student loan.
Basically when you start working and if you earn over a certain amount you have to make contributions and pay them back the money you borrowed during your studies.
Thats the disapointing bit. Working hard and doing extra hours to pay them back.
Basically I left univerity in December 2000 and have been working since January 2001. Since working I have been making contributions through my salary to them through the P.A.Y.E scheme. This stands for pay as you earn, for those who don't know and depending on my salary that month, they calculate a percentage, just like they do with your national insurance and tax and deduct it from your salary.
At the end of end tax year, which is in April they are to send you a statement showing what you have contributed and what is outstanding and until
this date I have not received anything.
I can understand they are still waiting for the inland revenue to send them details of payments I made for 2002-2003 but surely not 2001 - 2002.
I have contacted the student loans company and they told me they would send me my statement for 2001-2002 and appologised for the delay.
I waited for two weeks and did not receive anything, so I had to make another call to them.
The same thing happens. They appologised and said it would be sent. Now each time I call I get someone different and it seems that all of them are incompetant and cannot even arrange to send me a statement. I have so far spoken to 5 people.
By this time I was fuming, as you can imagine and I since spoken to a further 5 people. On my tenth call I finally got a very helpful lady on the phone and have been dealing with her ever since I got to know her. Thankgod there is someone there that can do their job.
She told me what they received from the inland revenue and I said was she sure cos I was sure I made more payments for that year than she was telling me and she said that is all they received so far.
Because this is for the previous year she says they should of had them all by now and I am basically screwed unless I can provide proof that I made those cintributions. Unfortuantely for me I can't as I don't keep wage slips, p45, p60 or any of those documents after that tax year has ended. Well I think have learnt my lesson now.
I have luckily kept all my pay slips from my last employment to show what I have paid and I will from now on keep any important documents that show any of my earnings, tax and other deductions from now on. It has proved to me in this instance how important it is.
Let me recomend to you that if you are working and currently paying back a student loan or know of someone who is remind them to keep any of these documents as it is so important because copies can not be given to you. If there are any discrepencies at least you will have proof then.
Anyway since speaking to a helpful lady there who told me to send in any of these documents she would update my records and send me the statement.
She has called me back twice today and returned my calls and she has also given me her full name and a valid extension number.
I often find in call centres people give you fake extension numbers or names so you cannot ever contact them again. She also gave me the address to forward her any documents to her. So out of 10 staff there was only one prepared to take on my query and help me. I think that is extremely poor. Apart from that one lady I feel they get a score of 0 for service in my opinion. I hate their services.
Anyway after speaking to her I understood that all my payments are forwarded to them from the inland revenue so I got in touch with the inland revenue.
You need to go through to the last tax office you are registered with. These details can be obtained from your employer. Usually someone in payroll can give you the details.
So I called my last employer and got the number and then contacted the tax office.
The chap I spoke to seemed extremely helpful and looked into my query. He was not sure and had to call me back. He went away to find out the information and called me back within 10 minutes. I was extremely impressed. He also showed me empathy and was a very good listener. He told me the next thing to do and advised me not to worry it will some how get sorted out. As by law all employers have to keep details of your contributions for a minimum of 6 tax years. He told me to sort out 2001-2002 and hang fire on 2002-2003 as this is still being dealt with.
I am dreading my phone bill next month. All this calling is a nightmare and only if I kept all my documents since I have worked I need not of had to go through all this hassle.
Life is all about learning and at least I have learnt now and I just want to advise people what I have learnt so they don't go through the same problems or have the same hassle.
The inland revenue advised me to contact all employers for 2001-2002 and get them to send me details in the post of all my contributions that I made if any. As in this tax year I worked for 5 employers it meant lots of more calling and running up my phone bill. I was not letting them nick my money though, if they have. I want to know where it's gone and think I have the right to know. I know I probably didn't pay that much in that year because of all the changes, but it is the priciple of the matter.
I contacted all my employers and they are all sending me the details, some were even able to tell me over the phone. One was akward, well not akward because they are only doing their job and that is their policy but I have to write to them to request it. So this will probably go on for sometime yet. They will probably say they never got the letter and I will have to send another one etc.
At least I am on the case now and climbing the ladder slowly. Hopefully I should have it all sorted out within the next month.
It roughly takes 1 or 2 months to be with an employer before the contributions to the student loans company start being deducted.
If you are about to graduate and you are going to employment shortly and have a student loan to pay back and were thinking about paying it back through the P.A.Y.E scheme I do strongly recomend that you keep any of your pay slips, p45's and p60's from employers that you receive to show the contributions you are making and have made to them. At least then if there is any discrepecies you have the proof.
If you do what I do and don't keep a record of it and throw them away they could be taking your hard earned cash and pocketing it and not passing it on which I think may of happened in my case. As I have no proof of what I have paid to them I may have to pay more to cover these payments.
I recomend that you just pay it back to them yourself and not through the P.A.Y.E scheme, unless you are extremely organised and will keep all your documentation.
The student loans company is one of the only ways to get cheap finance for studying and is probably the best way but I just wanted to point out how poor I feel their service has been over the time I have been with them and I cannot wait to pay it off and have nothing to do with them.
They didn't even bother to send me the statement for last year. My partner, my friends and my brother have all automatically received theirs each year.
At the moment I have no idea where I stand with them and still have a lot of sorting out to do to get to the bottom of it.
Hopefully they will of received the correct ammounts for both the years and it will be all sorted out in the next couple of months and I will not of been conned.
So let it be a lesson to you all and parents also advise your children to keep payslips, p45's and p60's as they are important documents. You are not able to get copies of them and it is a lot of hassle and calls to make to contact each individual employer and trying to get them to find out for you if you did make any payments to the student loans company.
Thanks for the read and I hope this has been helpful to many people.
Take care now
Chantal
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I am having a similar problem with them now! I hope you sorted it out in the end? I have spent the last few weeks on the phone trying to work out what has happened to the repayments that came out of my wages for the 02/03 tax year. The SLC said they haven't received them and asked me to send in my P60 as proof, so they could update their records, but when I sent it in I then received a letter (which made no sense - the sentences weren't even complete) stating that sending my P60 in wasn't good enough and I'd need to sort it out with the Inland Revenue (who I had already been to see, and who couldn't help). I rang the SLC and spoke to someone who just agreed with what the letter said and was of no help at all, but later I rang again to speak to someone different because I was unhappy that I had been given incorrect advice in the beginning, and they said that the person who sent the letter and spoke to me after that was incorrect, and that the P60 was sufficient proof. However, my records won't be updated for 3 months because of system problems, and I doubt it'll ever happen unless I chase them up again. To think that I might have to go through this every year until my loan is paid off!
onkar 23.11.2003 12:04
Hi,
The same problem is happening to me..finally I found someone who also has this problem. I started work Sept '01 and you start paying back from the nxt tax yr i.e. April '02. I have been paying back and in April '03 I expected a statement. Still nothing. I have been ringing and all. Still same answer..waiting for IR to get back on us. Its Nov '03 (7 months), still nothing. I will do what you did and forward them my P60 so they can update my balance...
Fiz_whiz 23.06.2003 14:41
wow. seems you've been through a lot with this. I've gotten a loan from these aswell. Am really dreading having to make repayments. Good luck with the rest of your case and thanks for the good advice! :) Fiz
Advantages: Instant money, Availability to lend every year. Disadvantages: The fact that there is interest on it, A fear of getting a loan because of this.
eaglesas 22.09.2001 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Student Loan Company
Advantages: Easy money, financial support when you can't really support yourself Disadvantages: Interest really mounts up, repayments swallow up payments for things that you should be considering after uni i.e. nice house, decent holidays
LindsxDx 19.03.2007 (19.03.2007)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Student Loan Company
Advantages: The cheapest form of credit you can get (except for your parents), repayments only start once you earn £10k+ Disadvantages: Ultimately it is still a loan, and it does need repaying, also the forms are a pain - but it's the best you can get, and a degree is worth it
Advantages: A student loan works in the same way as a loan with the advantage of lower interest rates- fluctuating with inflation rates. By and large a loan is easily obtainable as all students qualify for one. Disadvantages: The main and most annoying disadvantage is the amount of paperwork required to apply for a loan and the time it takes for the innefficient LEAS to go through them.
May 15th, 2003
very helpful by (95%):
helpful by (2%):
somewhat helpful by (2%):
