student-finance.service.gov.uk Reviews 

139
TrustScore 1.5 out of 5

1.5

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Review summary

Created with AI, based on recent reviews

Looking at 48 reviews, most reviewers were let down by their experience overall. Customers frequently reported facing extremely long phone wait times, unhelpful automated menus, and entirely unresponsive support teams when trying to resolve urgent personal issues. Many people also highlighted significant difficulties with the online platform, experiencing consistent error messages, frustrating login problems, and missing application documents. Some people were satisfied with helpful staff members who efficiently assisted them through the complicated application process and quickly resolved their account access troubles. Reviewers noted that these specific advisors were kind, straightforward, and made the whole procedure much simpler to navigate during incredibly stressful moments.

What people talk about most

Customer service

People report negative experiences with customer service due to long waiting times and unhelpful staff.... See more

Website

Reviewers express strong frustration and dissatisfaction with the website, describing it as an unusable and... See more

Service

Clients share profound dissatisfaction with the service, describing it as appalling, broken, and completely... See more

Response time

Users describe negative interactions with response time, reporting severe frustration when trying to reach... See more

Reviews shaping this summary

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Goodness the staff were clearly untrained and I could barely understand a word they said. I can only assume we were being transferred to a call centre overseas. After speaking with three different cal... See more

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

I am writing this to highlight a major gap in staff training regarding immigration and refugee status. I spent two months calling repeatedly because I did not have physical ID, but the frontline... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Shocking, absolutely shocking!!! Student Loan company does not recognise my course despite my university providing a reference number. I have checked my account and the course title is correct!!!! Do... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

ZERO STARS They have given me wrong information multiple times, are unresponsive. I am still getting rude demanding letters despite providing evidence about income, updating location details as a... See more


1.5

Bad

TrustScore 1.5 out of 5

139 reviews

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1.5

All reviews

(139)

41 reviews in the last 12 months

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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Goodness the staff were clearly…

Goodness the staff were clearly untrained and I could barely understand a word they said. I can only assume we were being transferred to a call centre overseas. After speaking with three different call handlers, they simply sent a form to my daughter’s online account, despite the issue being urgent. In the end, I had to Google the problem myself and discovered it could be resolved by selecting a few options on my daughter’s online account. This caused unnecessary stress for my daughter, who has health issues. Thank goodness for Google!

8 October 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

29-9-25 DISABLED STUDENT WEEK 3 NO DSA ASSESSMENT APPROVED SO FAR

29-9-25 DISABLED STUDENT. Completed standard SFE paperwork before the start of term for a full time post graduate course at York.
I completed the DSA form at the same time and posted LOTS of evidence of my severe needs before the course started (recorded delivery).
The agreement for general course fees were approved pre-start BUT AS YET THERE HAS BEEN NO AGREEMENT FOR ME TO GET AN ASSESSMENT FOR DSA. This is the start of week 3. I have no additional support in place. Everyone has a copy of my old DSA assessment from 2018. I am going to resend all my evidence again tomorrow morning to SFE just so they cannot say they have no record of my DSA application.
I’m going to update this review on a weekly basis until I get help. The Equality Act 2010!!!!!

29 September 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

hire a bunch of temps every SFE season…

hire a bunch of temps every SFE season and don't bother training them or actually making an effort to fix systems which repeatedly make mistakes concerning finances nearly every student in england needs to buy food and pay rent, then have the worst support system in the world to fix any issues. f&cking SFE

22 August 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Degraded application process and clear they don't want to talk to you

So this year for some stupid reason I now have to fill in a form and upload it instead of doing it digitally. OF COURSE THERE ARE PROBLEMS. The form gives errors consistently, and there's no where to sign it digitally. So I try contacting SFE, waste of time as their automated phone service just sends you in circles and then gives you no option to speak to someone because obviously civil servants dont want to talk to you. They then send you to their live chat, which you can find when you log in, only you can't. So I have 4 weeks to apply, but can't.

Absolute joke. I am fuming.

12 September 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Useless

They're a complete joke. They endlessly chase and harass you wanting to see everything in your banks, every transaction and every piece of information they can get. They will never believe you if you say you're unemployed and traveling using previous savings. Even if you have saved for multiple years before traveling. You upload evidence - they want more, so you upload more and they still want more. No amount of evidence is enough for them. If I had the choice again I wouldn't go to uni just so I wouldn't have to deal with these incompetent idiots. Years ago I sent them bank statements that covered months in the post which was tracked and signed for when it arrived. They then said they never got it. I can't wait until the day I never have to deal with them again. The benefit of paying off the loan isn't the extra money - it's a life without having to deal with student finance.

9 September 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Poor communication and service

Had my student finance application cancelled as i received an email in April, the email stated if i didn’t submit the necessary documents it would be cancelled in May, they didn’t cancel it until September, which has produced multiple problems for me. if they had either sent me a follow up email, updated my website to say their was an issue or cancelled the application when they said they would, id have no problem right now. awful communication

4 September 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

utter shite

very poor website , needs multiple needless passwords and secret answers (as fraudsters will obviously want to hack in and pay my kids student fees) - no point ringing the contact number as its just automated telephone hell with zero chance of speaking to a human

3 September 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

locked me out of my account

locked me out of my account, when tried to change password I used my name and details, and it sent the password login to someone else's phone and email (thinking I was them). when called, the useless phone just gave me the same password reset link which already hasn't worked. Useless corporation, might not be able to attend 3rd year of med school this year. Thanks for all the stress.

28 August 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Delay updates so much

They delay all the updates, changed mine instead of my sister’s course details because we have the same surname and doing same course (different years), now both of us have to wait for them to review everything and change our courses with less than a month for classes to start. I do not understand how and why they can be so bad at their job!!

27 August 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Terrible experiences... yet one!

I have had terrible miscommunication issues with SFE for the past three years with people like Kelly and Hazzam (apologies if spelt wrong), and all of them have either given me misinformation, given me wrong forms to fill out, or told me misinformation about my debt. However, Kasan did such a good job and navigated my problem so easily and efficiently. He went straight to the point, and I was only put on hold for less than 5 minutes, unlike others who have left me on hold multiple times for 30 minutes or more. He was kind and stayed on the call when filling out the form just to ensure I was not making any mistakes.

15 August 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Non existent service.

just like the most recent comment...I went to university 15 years ago and cannot log in. The phone numbers are an absolute waste of time, automated and tell you to do it online. you send them a complaint; they will tell you that they read it but reject it and go online. But online; they have the wrong details about me so cannot log in.
Non existent service.

11 August 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I am trying to help my daughter for her…

I am trying to help my daughter for her loan application. I went to university 20 years ago and cannot log in. The phone numbers are an absolute waste of time, automated and tell you to do it online. Hopeless example of a government organisation.

6 August 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Difficulty contacting this organisation

This must the least online user friendly service I know. I am attempting to submit information for my sons student loan application and its just nigh impossible. I'm unable to access my account and am taken on an endless Kafkaesque circle of revolving menus.
When i finally got to speak to someone in person they claimed they could not hear me on the phone properly....they refused to call me back to better the line and I was forced into hanging up and starting the whole dispiriting exercise again....... minus point out of 10

23 July 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

The most and longest frustrating year I ever experienced

I made the mistake and clicked on something which I misread in the first place. As soon as I noticed it, I contacted SFS. They asked me to provide several evidence, a cover letter (twice, because they don't read their own notes) and a Marital form, even though it doesn't make sense to fill it out in my case. Still every time I call them, there is a new case worker and I have to explain all over again and they asked me to provide the same evidence AGAIN. It is all in my file, and they don't even bother to look deeper into it, as my case started a year ago, but no one seemed to care. I have been on it for more than 1 year now and tried my best to help them, but my god, it seems no one is actually doing their job. Now they are asking for childcare funds back after I just finished Uni and I have to start from Zero again. This is the most frustrating company I ever had to deal with.

7 July 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Rubbish company they come back in a…

Rubbish company they come back in a years time and start harassing young British born citizens and civilians for money and your life is put at immediate risk please don’t put yourself in future stress and turmoil by taking their loans

4 July 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

One star seems generous

One star seems generous. I have never encountered a system that is so rubbish. I am on day 4 of trying to do a simple application. No one on the phone is any help (they seem nice enough but i couldnt tell you why theyre there). A rubbish, broken system that heaps on massive amounts of stress during an already stressful period and there is nothing you can do about it as they have you backed against the wall.

30 May 2025
Unprompted review

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