UK Student Debt and moving to the US

[smilingstone 269]

Hi VJers,

 

I'm interested in hearing from those who have immigrated from the UK to the US and took student debt with them (specifically Student Finance England debt) and how to approached it.

 

Before moving, my repayments were taken straight from my pay at my last employer. My last pay was in January and since moving to the US in mid-January, I have no income, my husband (USC) is the current sole earner.

 

I'm aware that I should be updating my personal details with them, so that they can chase and rinse me for repayments keep their records up to date, but would like to hear about other's accounts before I move forward with it.

 

Thanks.  

[Boiler 46,757]

Did you keep your UK Bank account open? real pain if you did not but doable.

[appleblossom 3,765]

Dead easy to do, but you do need to tell them asap. They’ll reassess you for payments and the income threshold is higher in the US than for the UK so you won’t have to pay for a while. 
 

You’ll just continue to pay as normal but directly rather than through PAYE once you hit the threshold. It’s just an online card payment (you can use a US card). 

Edited Saturday at 02:33 AM by appleblossom

[smilingstone 269]

1 hour ago, Boiler said:

Did you keep your UK Bank account open? real pain if you did not but doable.

 

I did, yes, going to keep it active, see no reason to close it as I also have some direct debits I need to continue paying. I updated my UK account with my US address. 

 

I guess my question really revolves around if anyone can provide info on how they determine the repayment amounts and frequency if you're not in the UK and not earning. I've read some say that they update details and SFE just starts to demand money immediately at a much less forgiving rate than the typical UK wage deduction. 

[smilingstone 269]

2 minutes ago, appleblossom said:

Dead easy to do, but you do need to tell them asap. They’ll reassess you for payments and the income threshold is higher in the US than for the UK so you won’t have to pay for a while. 
 

You’ll just continue to pay as normal but directly rather than through PAYE once you hit the threshold. 

 

Ah, that sounds more promising than what I've been reading! Is there any way to get confirmation of this from them without roping myself into giving them all my current details? I'm just scared to put more financial pressure on our single income household before I'm able to work. 😔

[appleblossom 3,765]

3 minutes ago, smilingstone said:

 

I did, yes, going to keep it active, see no reason to close it as I also have some direct debits I need to continue paying. I updated my UK account with my US address. 

 

I guess my question really revolves around if anyone can provide info on how they determine the repayment amounts and frequency if you're not in the UK and not earning. I've read some say that they update details and SFE just starts to demand money immediately at a much less forgiving rate than the typical UK wage deduction. 

Depends on which Plan, here’s Plan 4 for example - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/overseas-earnings-thresholds-for-plan-4-student-loans/overseas-earnings-thresholds-for-plan-4-student-loans-2024-25

 

 

[yuna628 9,812]

You have to tell them via a form that you've moved. It's been a long time and still paying for us, but every year you upload your paystubs and they assess how much the repayment is going to cost. We used to have to do this manually (with the long turnaround for mail they threatened us once and it required an expensive phone call to sort out and some documents back and forth), but thankfully they updated options on the website and you can now update the info from there. Then we just pay every month. Easier if you still have UK banking. IIRC we did not pay them a thing until my husband was working.

[appleblossom 3,765]

Just now, smilingstone said:

 

Ah, that sounds more promising than what I've been reading! Is there any way to get confirmation of this from them without roping myself into giving them all my current details? I'm just scared to put more financial pressure on our single income household before I'm able to work. 😔

Afraid you do have to tell them, you’re supposed to if you know you’ll be out of the UK for more than 3 months. Far better to tell them (as above, the threshold is higher so you shouldn’t have to pay anything straight away anyway) than risk the penalties if found out. Particularly if you’ve already submitted a P85 to HMRC so they know you’re no longer resident. 

[RambaCat 644]

Hi! I think it depends which plan you're under, but I'm a plan 2, and I haven't paid a penny towards student loans in the 7 years I've been here in the US. It's a bit of a pain doing the reassessment every year (it happens in June, and you don't need to wait for the letter that tells you they need info), but worth it besides. You'll need some proof of your income; paystubs, letter of employment detailing how much you earn, or an affidavit stating you don't currently earn anything. 

 

If you don't provide info then they charge you a generic predetermined amount of a couple hundred a month i think, so definitely don't do that.

 

I'll probably have to pay something towards it this year though as I think I'm finally just above the threshold. :')