leaving debt behind

[Fandango 1,439]

Man, there is some drama up in here!!!! I just read this whole thread and all I can say is

Judging ppl is stupid.

On a funny note...sorry I had to do this, but it really made me laugh....

[RANT]

We have become way to light on people not being responsible. If you can afford to immigrate you can afford to pay your bills.

I'm sorry, but that's not always the way it goes. I understand that there are people who genuinely are horrendously irresponsible, but for every one of them there are many, many more people who find themselves using credit simply to live. Not to live in a McMansion, but to get through their every day life. Do a little research into predatory lending, it will open the eyes of the self-righteous. As an interesting facet of that, did you know that Sears makes more money through it's policy of giving low-rating people a line of credit than it does from selling things? Check it out.

As for the "If you can afford to immigrate, you can afford to pay your debts", think again my dear! I left the UK owing a little on my credit card which I did pay back, but I also left over £7000 in student loans. There was no way I could have cleared that debt before I left - I couldn't even afford to move out of my parents house. Granted, I left to work and subsequently immigrated, but that debt is still sitting there waiting to be paid. My husband and I are barely making rent, groceries and his debts here in the US - what would you prefer I go without, Waiting in Vancouver; food, a roof over my head or should we ignore the debt that he has, or the utilities maybe? Sometimes you can't have it all and something has to give - in this case, my student loan was the one I could hold off on.

If you have been able to arrive in the US debt-free, that's wonderful. Congratulations. Here's my great big round of applause. It doesn't make you in any way better than the people who left behind debts though, and neither does it give you some kind of moral high-ground. The OP's other half is obviously not going to be able to clear their debts, and the reasons for it are, quite frankly, none of our business. The least we can do is to get off our damn soapboxes and answer the question based on the facts we have and not our prejudices.

[/RANT]

ROFL ... Your post isn't even worth responding too

Irony

[iceyspots 0]

You wont be denied for the visa, but for the protection of your credit and things I'd recommend wiring a certain amount of money every month back to the home country to someone that you can trust to do your bills. Should work out.

[mawilson 2,133]

Anyone feelin' da teepee thing?

I'm with ya -- I just need a roof over my head, broadband, and takeaways

[gwenneh 7]

There was a really REALLY good article on predatory lending in Family Circle. I know that my University was also taking steps to educate the students about it. Some kids I knew were in $30,000 worth of credit card debt by senior year. One of my roommates owed about that much, not counting his car payments and student loans...he could barely make rent every month!

Seriously...credit is a scary thing. Now that I'm out of the hole, so to speak, I don't ever intend to get back into it!

[Linababe 0]

Fiance will not be able to pay off all his debt before he gets here. It'snot a huge amount, but substantial amount. He is afraid that if he tries to go back to England for vacation that they will hold him at the airport and won't be able to come back to the U.S.

I dont know but he told me banks can prosecute if debt is over a certain amount and he's afraid hed get arrested or something at the airport because theyd flag his passport. I told him that sounds crazy.

Would they really do that??

Basically things like credit cards, I was told by my credit card company that I can still use my Visa card in the states and they can forward my statements to address in USA and I can carry on paying my card either via money order or if I keep my checking account open here with money in it - either pay direct debit or I also have online banking with my bank and pay that way. I will hopefully be lucky in a sense that I have a house to sell here and hopefully a very good profit on it and I am hoping to clear all my debts before I move to the states and also keep my credit card for emergencies.

Lina (UKC)