Student Loans Company Reviews 

Student Loans bodged my repayment figure and added £2000 to converted wage from euros. It was painful to get in touch with them. No email, and they won't pick up the phone.

I got them on Twitter in the end, only for them to blatanly ignore me and every major banks FX calculator. In the end I was forced to pay, as overseas recipients can face debt collectors and harsh penalties. How is this even allowed?

Why can't the government reform this ridiculous system and actually bring in an annual repayment system for overseas students? Bring in a graduate tax for God sake.

Save yourself time avoid, they don't have an ounce of common sense

Absolutely impossible to communicate with.
I was away travelling (and not working) for a number of months, during which time SLC sent me multiple letters demanding information and threatening increased interest rates on my account. I had followed all their processes to inform them I was away and not working. If I'm out the country, how am I supposed to respond to letters being delivered to a UK address? In the end I had to reach out to them on a facebook message, send multiple bank statements across 4 different accounts (including credit cards which aren't anything to do with my student loan) to convince them I'm not being paid. Upon my return, I updated the necessary details and repayments were being taken from my pay, but they still send letters saying I owe money, despite being on track with repayments. Loan sharks are easier to deal with! At least they'd have an email address.... Makes me wish I'd never bothered

I've been waiting for a rebait for over a month. I called SLC on Monday to say the money promised within 5 working days hadn't reached my account. The man I spoke to was rude and implied the money wasn't due for another 2 weeks. I then had a call yesterday to say the money bounced back to the SLC I asked why and was told that it was because they were using the bank account from 20 years ago when I had as a student account.
Ironically, all my bank information had been updated when I applied for my refund.

I have now been told it will take another month to receive this payment, and apparently, a member of staff says this happens a lot.

I still can't understand why I am still paying my student loan when it was supposed to be written off years ago but the goalposts keep moving!

This is the WORST service I've ever used in my entire life. It took me 5 months to get an update on my application. I swear to God, this service ruined my mental health.

shocking. never answer the phone - i waited over an hour and then the line disconnected. is there anyone actually working for student finance or are they all just at home watching daytime tv?!! They should have completed a change over a month ago but they still havent and I have no way of finding out what they are up to ..and I pay their wages in my taxes....totally unsatisfactory

Very bad service many delays In them contacting university’s for confirmation. And they don’t even know what emails to use for communication and always giving students conflicting information and causing student so much stress

Sadly my experience seems to be the 'norm' for when dealing with SLC. The customer service is dreadful. I have had to contact them several times and again, it seems my experiences were not unusual. Long wait times, missing correspondence, denial that they've received notifications, different information each time, all delivered with attitude. I did submit a complaint - needless to say they felt 'all processes were adhered to' and that 'there was no evidence that the staff member had been rude' - I do wonder what happened to the call recordings! I suppose as they can access your earnings there is no real need to provide a decent service. And who sets the interest rate?? For shame, in the current economic climate. Lazy, shoddy and incompetent.

Ali from SLC is fantastic. I spoke to 3 people so far since April and have just gone round in circles. It took him 5 minutes to explain to me how repayments work so credit to him!

Just had yet another call from honours student loans acting for student loans company, my loan was taken in september of 1997, I became a full time carer for my son in 2003, and despite sending in deferment paperwork every year quite often paperwork is lost within the offices, I now have a disability myself and have sent documentation and raised complaints with financial ombudsman and numerous complaint with honours student loans, nothing is ever upheld due to the fact that I can't provide evidence of them losing paperwork. Disgraceful company's both student loans company and honours student loans. Penalizing graduates for falling on hard times and being unable to continue their career, harassing them for proof of income and payment of arrears which only exist due to their mis- administration. The deferment forms themselves dont consider carers, or disabled people.

I have a son who has had surgery and is awaiting spinal surgery and I am his carer but I've also been facing eviction in my old flat and had to move house all while the Honours Student Loans have hounded me and made my life hell. I sent them various forms of evidence that I have Aspergers Syndrome and mental health conditions, evidence of my circumstances and my income and even a medical letter to which they have ignored and gone right ahead and sent my file to the debt collectors. How can this happen?? I meet the criteria as a person with mental health history and provided all the evidence to support that I don't have enough income and that they are causing me serious stress and they don't care. WHO is the manager of HSL? why is there always someone hiding behind their staff and not wanting to reveal themselves? I think everyone needs to come together and sign a petition in order to force the HSL to take responsibility for the malpractice and the negligence it has caused so many people. They will never change unless everyone makes a public stand against the way they operate and how unethical they are. There is something terribly wrong with them victimising and harassing people even after they have supplied sufficient evidence to support that they are unable to pay back their loans. Someone is negligent and the incompetence needs to be addressed.

Im glad I read these reviews as I was thinking it was personal, what an absolute nightmare. This service is a joke. Agents provide misleading advice, evidence submitted is never surfice more is always required. Call times are beyond belief. 6 years of being rejected for maintainance loans and still no further forward. The customer service and run around they give impacts your ability to study to such an extent I nearly had to drop out ar year 5 due to health and financial issues still advised my evidence and forms were incorrect even though they sent them to me and request I had them filled in by GP and returned, misleading guidance , round in circles year after year. True students can't get support or even adequate services whilst organised criminals milk this system by using agents to make claims for fraudulent applications. Parliament are aware snd its been reported in the news and yet it continues ! The whole system is a corrupt shambles and is not at all fit for purpose

So, although I do agree Student Finance’s communication is shocking, after today’s call with Linda, I feel a lot of issues I’ve been having are finally being resolved. I explained my rather complex situation with the University and Student Finance and she was able to come to a conclusion on what I need to do next, and how to resolve an issue of being overplayed. She was more than helpful. So, although my situation should’ve been resolved much sooner by Student Finance, Linda was fantastic and I solely wish that every employee would be as superb.

My wife is applying for a teaching education to become a teacher for PGCE primary schools. We were under the impression that UK need and wants UK teachers so we moved from Norway to UK, believing that UK would support us and help us especially given what our true intentions are.

It's been nothing but an absolute nightmare and I'm getting the impression that we're being scammed (as in they've promised my wife support in terms of covering tuition fees and giving her maintenance loan). Both me and my wife have been on several phone calls with student finance and each time it sounds like they're making random excuses to stall my wife receiving her student tuition payment and maintenance loan. Now because of this, we're in huge debt after spending our entire savings AND we have 2 children whereas one of them are attending nursery and because of the delays from student finance, we can't even get the child funding grant which forces us to pay the full price for our child's nursery fees which is over £1000.

We've been here for over a month now and I've been trying to support her ever since we've arrived but now my savings are being quickly depleted and we're at risk of going financial bankrupt.

Student finance claims they record calls, and so have I on every call I've had with them. Thanks to the records I've made lately they've been nothing but contradicting and spewing lies. My wife has given consent to share over on the phone at least 2 times but latest they claim she needs to be physically present. She's given every evidence they've been requesting, even as far as writing handwritten letters for her proof of address that has to be sent physically and not digitally. They've told us that "this" is the last of their requests, however whenever she sends in the exact requirements, they come with NEW requests.
Honestly this is a horrendous experience and it's shocking that this is from a governmental website.

Personally I've had my share of bad experience with office people from NAV (Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration) and UDI (The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration), however I've never experienced as bad as student loans company. This is as bad as scammers I've encountered when I've tried to purchase used laptops or mobile phones from marked places such as Facebook market.

At this rate, I think we'll be forced to move back to Norway and leave UK for good (my wife is british and raised in London). I personally wanted to give it a chance, given how UK wants to "copy" Norway AND the fact they need teachers but I think we've overstayed our welcome.

My advice would be to not even bother with these guys as clearly I can see they've got tons of other terrible reviews and they've done nothing to improve their service. Go study in another country and hopefully they'll provide better support than Student finance. I know personally Norway's service (statens lånekasse) are WAY better and more professional than this from my own experience and my network who's been using them.

Really poor customer service. Send threatening letters but only way to contact them is by calling them during working hours. I previously asked for an email address and advised to contact me via email as calling me during my working hours is not going to get them anywhere. When I call them outside my working hours the lines are always closed. It infuriates me that I have to go through 50 options to select only for them to tell me the lines are closed. Why not say it as soon as someone calls? Tried to check what I need to pay them online. It says the site is not secure or doesn't exist. This was a link on their website so not sure what is going on there. I live abroad so calling them is not only time but also quite a bit of money. Called just now during my working hours and the cue is 30+ min for a line I have to pay for. Ridiculous. Please contact me via email as we are not getting anywhere.

Shockingly hopeless. Nobody knows what’s going on with the important personal documents you send them. Everybody you speak to will have a different excuse for their rubbish system. You send them all the documents they want by special delivery, they are unable to apply them to your application then ask you to send the documents you already sent and put you to the bottom of the 4-6 wait queue again. I absolutely do not trust them and have no confidence in them what so ever. Who knows if I will ever get my original personal documents back. No one takes any responsibility for anything. I am in debt so that I can start my course because they have mishandled my application and I have no idea if I am just going to keep going round the same loop whilst my personal document have been sent to the wrong department with the wrong description. They absolutely could not care less. The stress and anxiety they are causing students and parents is hideous

Abysmal .dont oay people on time . Lie and try and blame universities for it . When it isnt their fault . They need shutting down .

Wish these people would fxxk off and stop sending me stupid random emails I've now blocked them they are perfetic

Firstly, why did i just receive an email from Student Loans Company at nearly midnight!? the email is incorrect about my status of employment. I have responded to that email.

Secondly, i had emails before that about updating my employment status - yet when i log into the account, i couldn't see where the section was to inform the status - i had emailed back to the email i received about it, and await response.

Thirdly, and this disappoints me to have to do this as obviously the purpose of the Student Loans Company was to ensure that those few who had talents to go on in life to higher education but didn't have the financial support to do so would have this made available - when i was younger (in 2007) i had particularly unusual circumstances that didn't fit the typical 'tick boxes' and thus i had approval for additional support as well as a portion of my loan as a bursary i wouldn't need to pay on. I was also told before i filled out the form, and long afterwards, that 1) i wouldn't be paying anything back onto the student loan till i had a certain amount of income from a work salary (the Student Loan Company kept true to that) and that 2) after a certain amount of time, regardless of how much or not had been paid, the loan would be waived, and finally 3) i was also told the loan was free from interest.

I really don't want to have to leave a partially negative review, but a review must be left in order to see a point for improval, but i certainly didn't expect to see just how bad it was on this review page.

I’m not really sure how but since I went to uni 10 years ago they have actually managed to get even more incompetent. But yeah we will pay 6.5% interest for you to act like dumb frogs. Also waited almost an hour to be told she couldn’t discuss my own child’s account with me and now asking him to phone again and be told they can’t do anything. Really just hopelessly crap.