leaving debt behind

[ChristinaM 0]

Why not, Waiting?

Tell me. Tell me what I should be going without to pay my student loan? Tell me where I find $14,000 from. Tell me what you know about predatory lending and what it's doing to this country's economy and financial demographic.

Until you can, I will consider you both ignorant and rude for that response.

Edited February 6, 2006 by clmarsh

[RichiJenny 14]

I wouldnt even rise to it clmarsh.

Let those, who can afford to pay their bills, be...and those who cannot, be, also.

You'll always get judgmental fools on here who have no idea of how life is in the real world.

Along with the money lenders....they're the mugs!!

[Waiting in Vancouver 6]

Why not, Waiting?

Tell me. Tell me what I should be going without to pay my student loan? Tell me where I find $14,000 from. Tell me what you know about predatory lending and what it's doing to this country's economy and financial demographic.

Until you can, I will consider you both ignorant and rude for that response.

Well I guess I never got myself in debt with student loans so you got me there I no nothing about em ... And before you say it Yes I did go to college and yes I paid my own way through it ...

Like many others on VJ I too am leaving a very good paying career here to move to the US ... But that is a choice that I have made .... Just like a choice if I choose to pay my debts here or not ...

Like I said earlier it's all comes down to what you are comfortable with ... As long as you can sleep and night and not worry about it then it really doesn't matter what myself or others here on VJ think ....

Btw I appologize if you felt that I was ignorant and rude ... I just felt that you were saying that it is okay to walk away from debts .... People may be able to walk away from debts without consequences but does that really make it right ??

I wouldnt even rise to it clmarsh.

Let those, who can afford to pay their bills, be...and those who cannot, be, also.

You'll always get judgmental fools on here who have no idea of how life is in the real world.

Along with the money lenders....they're the mugs!!

I am starting to get the impression you hate banks

[RichiJenny 14]

Why not, Waiting?

Tell me. Tell me what I should be going without to pay my student loan? Tell me where I find $14,000 from. Tell me what you know about predatory lending and what it's doing to this country's economy and financial demographic.

Until you can, I will consider you both ignorant and rude for that response.

Well I guess I never got myself in debt with student loans so you got me there I no nothing about em ... And before you say it Yes I did go to college and yes I paid my own way through it ...

Like many others on VJ I too am leaving a very good paying career here to move to the US ... But that is a choice that I have made .... Just like a choice if I choose to pay my debts here or not ...

Like I said earlier it's all comes down to what you are comfortable with ... As long as you can sleep and night and not worry about it then it really doesn't matter what myself or others here on VJ think ....

Btw I appologize if you felt that I was ignorant and rude ... I just felt that you were saying that it is okay to walk away from debts .... People may be able to walk away from debts without consequences but does that really make it right ??

I wouldnt even rise to it clmarsh.

Let those, who can afford to pay their bills, be...and those who cannot, be, also.

You'll always get judgmental fools on here who have no idea of how life is in the real world.

Along with the money lenders....they're the mugs!!

I am starting to get the impression you hate banks

You're dead right. If one can sleep at night without worrying, then its all good.

Me, hate banks? Nope, but I'll always fight the corner of the underdog!

[Waiting in Vancouver 6]

Why not, Waiting?

Tell me. Tell me what I should be going without to pay my student loan? Tell me where I find $14,000 from. Tell me what you know about predatory lending and what it's doing to this country's economy and financial demographic.

Until you can, I will consider you both ignorant and rude for that response.

Well I guess I never got myself in debt with student loans so you got me there I no nothing about em ... And before you say it Yes I did go to college and yes I paid my own way through it ...

Like many others on VJ I too am leaving a very good paying career here to move to the US ... But that is a choice that I have made .... Just like a choice if I choose to pay my debts here or not ...

Like I said earlier it's all comes down to what you are comfortable with ... As long as you can sleep and night and not worry about it then it really doesn't matter what myself or others here on VJ think ....

Btw I appologize if you felt that I was ignorant and rude ... I just felt that you were saying that it is okay to walk away from debts .... People may be able to walk away from debts without consequences but does that really make it right ??

I wouldnt even rise to it clmarsh.

Let those, who can afford to pay their bills, be...and those who cannot, be, also.

You'll always get judgmental fools on here who have no idea of how life is in the real world.

Along with the money lenders....they're the mugs!!

I am starting to get the impression you hate banks

You're dead right. If one can sleep at night without worrying, then its all good.

Me, hate banks? Nope, but I'll always fight the corner of the underdog!

Your funny !!

[ChristinaM 0]

There are very few UK students who don't have a student loan, because of the structure of higher education. University education is very different in the UK than it is in the US and Canada - we don't work on credit hours which you can build up over a course of many years. Part-time university courses are a downright lousy way to get your degree, because they haven't really designed them to be run that way. But since you bring up working your way through college, I was in school for 40 hours a week, I worked 20 hours a week at one job and anywhere from 10 to 20 hours a week at my other. Just to pay my rent and keep myself in food, and close out some debt.

I left a lousy-paying job in the UK to work on a cruiseship. That was an extremely well-paid job, and I used a lot of what I earned to pay back debts which I had left in the UK. That was my choice - and an easy choice to make when I had the money available. Now that I don't, it's a case of priorities. With the limited resources I have, my priority right now is not paying back my student loan. They are, as I said, keeping a roof over mine and my husbands head, making sure we get fed, and paying the electricity bill.

And no, I don't for one minute consider it to be right to walk away from one's financial obligations - when I had serious debt issues (which were of my own making and I did pay off) I couldn't sleep at night. It made me physically sick, and eventually was a very large contributory facter to my nervous breakdown.

It matters not to me what you think, but it does matter how you treat people. Tearing strips off someone who has merely asked a question based on assumptions and no facts is, in my opinion, unfair. Which is what I said; let's stop with the moral judgements and answer the question.

Apology accepted, thank you.

[ceriserose 1]

Just as an FYI re the bankruptcy comment. If that is a route you're investigating (rather than deferring the payments/working with the creditors for a longer term plan), make sure you know the laws regarding when and how you can file. I understand that depending on the amount and/or where you're from that you may not be allowed to file bankruptcy in a country of which you're no longer a permanent resident....so that option may not be viable once he's in the US.

In Canada there are non-profit agencies for confidential credit counselling (i.e. your creditors don't know). Often accountants will do a free preliminary assessment and offer options. I don't know if there are similar in the UK but if there are it might be worth it to have a chat with them and find out what can be done.

[Cassie 8]

I guess to answer the OP's original question -- I would be with those who suggested making arrangements to continue payments from the US, and then the possible worries may be lifted for you. With online banking and all that good stuff, it really is much easier these days to arrange repayment. When I left Canada, I had credit card debt, and a fairly substantial student loan amount, and there was NO WAY I could have paid it off before leaving. So I consulted my bank and set everything up to continue payments online, and my husband and I have worked together to keep them up.

Tell me. Tell me what I should be going without to pay my student loan? Tell me where I find $14,000 from.

Well, I can tell you what we are doing without in order to pay back my student loan and credit card debt back in Canada ($15,000+):

We haven't bought new clothes for ourselves for a year.

I haven't bought books (reading is one of my big passions) for full retail price for a year.

I cut coupons and search for sales at the grocery store, and rarely buy brand name stuff (the last time we bought ice cream was in November for our anniversary -- it's just way too expensive).

We've had 2 big yard sales, and planning to hold a third one in the spring (we've made almost $400 this way).

We don't eat out much, and when we do, we try to keep the final bill low.

We made a lot of our Christmas presents, and kept to a strict budget when buying for each other.

We've put a hold on minor repairs, etc on the house, and put my plans for a garden on hold.

Our income tax return is going directly to reducing debt.

We don't have a new car, by any stretch of the imagination.

A good chunk of the money we received at our Canadian wedding reception went towards debt.

Jerry's working on some side jobs, and I am working on starting my own business that doesn't require a lot of start up money to generate extra income.

etc etc etc.

By making this list, I am in no way suggesting that you are not doing the same, if not more. What I am saying is that Jerry and I have made the concious decision to cut way back and squeeze all the pennies we can to pay off our debt as soon as possible.

Jerry makes decent money -- it *just* covers our monthly bills, so it makes things interesting, but we're doing all we can to get out from underneath our debt. Not paying back my loans was not an option for us -- we plan to eventually move back to Canada in a couple of years, and we didn't want to have that hanging over our heads and possibly affecting things, like re-establishing credit. I have been paying back my student loans for a number of years, and I never missed a payment, despite periods of unemployment, so going without stuff (like food on occasion) to make my payments is something I have lived with since getting out of university. I guess I am just used to it now.

Just my 2 cents plus interest.

Edited February 6, 2006 by Cassie

[Welshcookie 17]

One debt I never worry about is my student loan.....I have never earned enough to have to start repayments...which I think is 12,000 pounds pa. I don't see that changing when I move to the US.

[ChristinaM 0]

Cassie, those are some great ideas for people on here looking to save some money. I'm not going to go through the list piece by piece, because it's starting to feel a little personal here and I don't want to be upsetting people by getting defensive of something I really don't have to defend.

[britbird 4]

clmarsh, I'm sorry you are having troubles with your student loan.

I am assuming you used the Student Loan Company? Well, the good thing (there's nothing nice about paying loans back of course) about the SLC is that you only have to start paying back the loan after you make a certain amount of money.

Say you make the equivilent of 15,000.00 pounds per year (which is about $28K give or take) you don't have to pay back any money. If you earn more than that then you start paying back the money, and even then it's not very much money per year at all (unless you personally are earning a good deal more than that amount, in which case you should be okay to make a contribution anyhow).

What you do is send them a letter to let them know you have left the country and your new address. They will send you a very short form that you fill out so they can assess your payments.

I did this, though admittedly the idea of just leaving and not doing anything was very tempting...I just didn't like the idea of the law changing and then being saddled with a huge amount of debt. I also plan on having a good international job and don't want this coming back to trouble me in the future.

In my opinion it's far better to let them know what's going on and to pay a small amount back, than to leave them in the dark and potentially open yourself up to troubles in the future. That's just a personal choice though.

[ChristinaM 0]

I paid it whenever I hit the threshold in the UK, right now I don't earn enough on base salary to be eligible, but come the end of the year I may well have earned enough to have to pay it. It's not that I object to the principle of paying it back, it's more that assessing my income doesn't assess my outgoings and to be frank, I can't afford to pay it even if I hit the threshold.

[desert_fox 32]

ppl dont pay off their loans and credit cards because of predatory lending practtices???? gimme a break!!!!

Im sure you thought of that when you charged that new washing machine at Sears, or bought that new outfit that you just had to have on you credit card.

I hope that the credit ratings of the deadbeats here catches up with them in the US when they try to qualify for a home loan. Im glad Im not the bank that is thinking of lending you money.

[RichiJenny 14]

ppl dont pay off their loans and credit cards because of predatory lending practtices???? gimme a break!!!!

Im sure you thought of that when you charged that new washing machine at Sears, or bought that new outfit that you just had to have on you credit card.

I hope that the credit ratings of the deadbeats here catches up with them in the US when they try to qualify for a home loan. Im glad Im not the bank that is thinking of lending you money.

A very blinkered view, in my opinion.

[ChristinaM 0]

ppl dont pay off their loans and credit cards because of predatory lending practtices???? gimme a break!!!!

Im sure you thought of that when you charged that new washing machine at Sears, or bought that new outfit that you just had to have on you credit card.

I hope that the credit ratings of the deadbeats here catches up with them in the US when they try to qualify for a home loan. Im glad Im not the bank that is thinking of lending you money.

That's risible.

You assume "new washing machine" and "new outfit". The vast majority of the clothes I have bought since I came to the US came from the Goodwill store. Why did I have to have them? Because I signed off a cruiseship, I didn't come in on a K1 with the ability to bring everything I owned. I arrived in the US with two short-sleeve shirts, three skirts, a cocktail dress and a pair of jeans. Washing machine, what a fcuking joke. Living somewhere where it would be possible to have a goddamn washing machine would mean paying rent higher than we can afford - because we consider our debts to be more important. I can't afford to do my laundry weekly, dude.

If you don't think that predatory lending exists, do your research and get your head out of your backside.

http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/buying/loanfraud.cfm

http://www.responsiblelending.org/abuses/evolution.cfm

http://www.blackcommentator.com/48/48_acorn.html

http://www.responsiblelending.org/pdfs/Quant10-01.pdf

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/st...1468689,00.html

There's a few places to start. I can recommend a very good book, too.

You know what, my credit rating here in the US is pretty damn good. My credit rating in the UK was, at my time of leaving, pretty damn good. The bank has offered to lend me money, I have credit cards which I don't charge on, and you know what, I qualify for a mortgage.

But then, everybody qualifies for a mortgage. The sub-prime sector is the most profitable one to lenders - especially if they sell you a mortgage THEY KNOW YOU CAN'T AFFORD, and they get to foreclose on your home as well!!! Oh wee, what FUN!!!

If you think it doesn't exist, go back and live with the fairies and elves at the bottom of the garden.

I'm out. This thread has brought out a lot of prejudice and ignorance from people who should know better.