University goers are paying a high price when it comes to making enquiries about their student finance, new research has found.
According to This is Money, scholars are spending a combined £324,872 a year on telephone calls to the Student Loans Company (SLC).
The portal noted the firm does not have a facility in place whereby those heading into higher education can contact it, nor a free phone service.
Instead, the organisation can only be approached on a 0845 number that generated almost one-third of a million pounds between April 2010 and March 2011.
A spokesman from the SLC – which was incorporated as a private limited company in 1989 before starting trading one year later – explained revenue received through telephone calls are used to offset the overall cost of its phone network, adding: “The amount invested in providing a telephone service to our customers is greater than the revenue made on these numbers.”
The company claimed it is currently looking into ways of developing a messaging product that will enable it to liaise with customers in a safe and secure environment.