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Personal Finance. Credit Agencies Refused Access To Information About Student Loans

These days, when you apply for a mortgage, loan or other form of credit, the lending industry will automatically scrutinise your personal credit history. In practice, you hardly need to tell them anything as within a fraction of a second, the lenders computers will lock into your credit file held by any one of the big three credit agencies; Experian, Callcredit or Equifax And you’ll be amazed what they know about your finances!

For many years now banks, building societies and other lenders have been providing information about your finances to the credit agencies. They know about every credit applications you’ve made, the occasions you’ve been late or missed paying a loan, mortgage or credit card, the balances on your loans and credit cards and whether you just pay off the minimum each month – even your credit limits! The agencies also accumulated lots of other information about you provided by public records, the voters’ roll and the public register of court actions where all county court judgements are recorded. Their computers then statistically analyse all this information and assess your application. So in this context, the credit industry argues that the more information they have about you, the more accurately lenders can make lending decisions.

Yet within this mass of information, there is one notable omission. Despite representations to the government, information about student loans and their repayment history’s, is not provided to the credit agencies. The data is refused because student loans are a debt to the taxpayer, not a commercial business.

Prior to September 1998, graduates repaid their student loans by mortgage style direct debits collected once the graduate started earning over 15,000. But more than 59,000 of graduates from before 1998 graduates are understood to be in payment arrears to the tune, on average, of around 2,750 per graduate.

After September 1998, the system of collecting student loans changed. These days, repayments are deducted directly from salaries by employers along with national insurance and income tax. This method is far more efficient and avoids the possibility of bad debts.

The credit industry argues that it needs the information on student loans as they can represent a significant strain on the graduates’ finances especially following the introduction of top-up fees which results in the average student loans being much larger. These loans are repaid at the rate of 9% of the graduates’ income in excess of 15,000 and can represent a significant drain on their monthly income.

Therefore, to fully assess graduates’ financial situation the credit industry argues that it needs student loan information. The Association Consumer Credit Counselling Service agrees. A spokes person said, Knowing whether a young person has a student loan and whether it is being paid back, is useful.

Yet despite the pressure to share its information, the Department for Education and Skills remains steadfast in its decision to refuse permission to the Student Loan Company to provide information to the commercial sector.

Even the Citizens Advice Bureau wants this decision changed arguing that lenders need information on student loans to help ensure that graduates avoid taking on so much debt that they can’t maintain their repayments.

But for now at least, the situation remains. The credit industry cannot obtain any history about student loans.

When people are in debt there are a number of options that can be explored. The best one for you really depends on your circumstances and how much debt or uncontrollable debt you are really in. The best way to assess this is to be honest with yourself. Get all your paperwork out and list your debts one by one. At this stage dont miss any out because you feel we can handle that one. The art of dealing with debt is to look at the whole picture and deal with it all in an honest, open and critical way in order to choose the best vehicle to manage and eventually get out of debt. Which ever way you choose to get out of debt you must be committed to it. For example; an IVA or voluntary agreement usually plans around a five year plan. Therefore, too must be committed to the terms and conditions for five years to get out of debt. On the other hand a debt consolidation secured loan can be set up from five to thirty years. The important factor with the debt consolidation secured loan is to feel comfortable with the monthly repayments and that you can commit to this payment without leaving you short. If you leave yourself short you will end up creeping back into debt as you borrow bits here and there and end up back at stage one. In this case I believe that you should spread your repayments for as long as it takes making sure the monthly repayment is honestly affordable. This way you can begin a fresh with your finances only concerning yourself with one monthly repayment and never letting yourself get into debt again. When you take out a debt consolidation secured loan you must really see this as a fresh start, a new beginning of your financial life so once the secured loan is complete cut up all those credit cards. When loan adverts and applications come through the door rip them up. However, before we go into detail about the debt consolidation secured loan lets look at all the options you can consider to get yourself out of debt to ensure that you have made the right decision.

Debt Consolidation Secured Loan

A Debt Consolidation Secured Loan is a way of merging all your debts into one simple monthly payment. This monthly repayment is often a lot lower than you will be paying for all your debts at the moment. Anyone would be happy with lower monthly repayments. As mentioned earlier you can spread your repayments over a longer period and often the interest rate is lower , often a lot lower! Do be aware though that if your loan id over a longer period you will be paying interest over longer and so the overall actual repayment could in some circumstances be larger.

An IVA is known as the step before bankruptcy. It will effect your credit rating for some time and therefore I believe this avenue should be explored only when a secured loan or other debt managements plans are unavailable to you. An IVA is an official debt repayment plan that, in most cases can reduce the interest you are paying on your debts , sometimes even freeze the debts. It can sometimes reduce the total amount of debt that you owe. An IVA can also give you legal protection from the companies that you owe money to.

Debt Management plans

Debt management plans are an informal process of negotiating with your creditors. Again they can freeze or reduce the interest that you are paying. They can offer extensions on your debt repayment terms or periods of time the debt is spread over.Debt management plans can also sometimes involve writing off some of the debt you have. You should be aware however that these too can effect your credit history. They also often have providers hefty fees written in to the plan. These have on some occasions just increased the money owed dramatically. This has been hidden from customers by concentrating only on the management of a monthly repayment.

You can obtain a home equity loan even if you have faced bankruptcy or have a bad credit rating. There are institutions that cater to this segment, however, interest rates and terms are likely to be stiffer. Additional fees also could be charged. The lender may offer high down payment and lower interest burden or vice versa. Loans with both fixed interest and variable interest are available. The maximum repayment time may be up to thirty years.

Usually lenders depend on reports by credit rating agencies like TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian, together known as FICO, to evaluate an individual’s credit rating on a scale of 300 to 900. The factors considered by these agencies include, past payment history, recent credit applications, and outstanding debt. A score below 600 indicates that you are in the bad risk group. It is possible that the rating of the same person given by each FICO agency differ. Some lenders score in the middle range.

There are ways and means of improving the FICO rating. Certain banks also offer credit counseling. Agencies approved by the U.S. Department of Housing &Urban Development (HUD) too give free counseling, including review of your financial situation. Some lenders may not even bother with FICO ratings. In such cases the maximum loan would be only 70 percent of the net value. They may insist on the borrower paying off some of the outstanding debt with the money loaned.

Do some research and see what different lenders have to offer. Don’t blindly believe everything that is said. Study them, ask questions; there is no need to feel timid about your present financial situation. And be careful. There would be people waiting to exploit your seemingly desperate situation.