Student Finance - Is It Normal To Want To Go Postal On Them Already?

Anyone else having serious problems applying for student finance (2012/13) online? I'm going to be a first year next September and decided to get cracking early because of all the nightmare stories I'd heard about Student Finance. I can now see why many would want to hunt down and crucify those responsible.

First off, it is unable to find the University of Southampton on it's "Find your course" section. Secondly, trying to register my parents on the site in order to submit their income details has turned what should be a relatively simple task into sheer hell.

They have no accounts so I try and make them one; it says they already have one each. I ring Student Finance and get the customer reference number, password and secret answer emailed to me for both my mum and dad. I try to log them in with this info and it says it's incorrect.

Much love :smile:

Reply 1

glittersticks

Original post by TheWalkinDude

Firstly - you've got plenty of time and it's just opened so there may be glitches. The fact you're unable to find the university is their fault, not SFE's - universities upload their course details to SFE via a database and it's common this early in the cycle for some universities not to have added their courses yet. I'd wait a while.

The login system can be a bitch, though - try again and hopefully it'll work. If that fails when the paper applications become available you can always send one of those in.

Reply 2

Spogg

Because universities need to update SFE with regards to courses offered, you should give it until March/April if you're wanting to apply for academic year 12/13. You will still have plenty of time for your application to be processed.

Reply 3

zoeclarex

Original post by TheWalkinDude

i did mine on wednesday, I've got an unconditional from the University of Liverpool and it did not find that either (it found Lpool John Moores and Lpool Hope uni.. but not the main one). also how do you register your parents? :s

ahh i remember doing it all two years ago when i did a foundation degree course (which i only did a year of and this year now i'm technically in a 'gap' year because i missed the applying for 2011). its all such hassle, good luck thoughhh x

Reply 4

glf2110

SFE changed the dates of the launch without giving anyone adequate notice. They originally told HEIs that it would go live in February and they had until January to get their course details uploaded onto the system. Suddenly they changed the launch date to this week with TWO days notice. Impossible for HEIs to get their details uploaded. So it will be quite common not to find your uni details at this stage. Just wait until the New Year to give the HEIs a chance. Another load of hassle caused by the SFE.

Reply 5

askew116

It's ironic that I've had almost the opposite problem to you. I've tried searching for the University of Northampton, but it only displayed Southampton!! Maybe a bit of reverse psychology would work?!!

Reply 6

Cll_ws

I used to hate the log in bit for student finance, so long and such a pain.
And I also had that same problem as you with the parents accounts, they already had them but had no idea what the details were for them. So I had to phone student finance, who put me on hold for ages. And then it took them about a week to send the email with the detail in it.

A photocopy of my parents income details then either got lost in the post or they lost it themselves, so I had to send that again. I ended up getting it all done, but a couple of weeks late. Such a hassle!

Reply 7

glf2110

Original post by askew116

I haven't had a problem as I'm not reapplying yet. As Im not income assessed due to my course, they should automatically roll my Maint Loan over for another year, send me out the new assessment and signed dec for me to return and "Hey Presto" All is done. Yeah, right, let's just see that happen.