Hi,

I hope I am not being too nosey!! You mentioned that you took out loans in Canada so that you could pay off your U.K loans. Did you do this with your student loan as well?

I'm not sure how to go about paying off my student loan! It's a such a pain having to pay off U.K. pounds when earning $CDN!!

Thanks,
Interested

I just paid off the regular debts like credit card, overdraft and a graduate loan from Barclays. I didn't pay off the student loan because of several factors. Mainly because last year I didn't earn enough money to qualify for repayments so it hasn't become an issue yet. Also due to the amount of the student loan for 4 years of university, somewhere around say $25K there is no way I could get a loan that big here in Canada in addition to what I already got to pay off the other debts and make the repayments etc. My student loan is more than all the other debts combined.

I did get a letter from the Student Loan Company asking to submit financial info for 2003 which I did but due to moving and searching for work when I got here and so forth I didn't earn enough to go over the earning threshold so I didn't get any requests back for payment. I'm not entirely sure how it works but I think they just review your earnings every year and decide how much you owe them. So it's not like you have to transfer money every month, you do it once a year. Downside there I guess is you need to make sure you have 12 months payments available. Last time I looked it was something like 9% of any earnings over 11,000 pounds so given the exchange rate for earnings from C$ into sterling I doubt the repayments would be too high unless I get a bigger salary and then I'd have more money so I wouldn't be as bothered.

All I know is you have to inform them you left the country to do it properly.

Drew

I'm surprised it doesnt become instantly repayable in full the minute you leave the country - are they not worried you might disappear?

Mrs G

The student loans company have ways of tracking people down!! I was recently contacted by them to find out the whereabouts of a friend I had back in '96!

I don't think it's really realistic to demand the full 10,000 pounds back or whatever just cos you're leaving the country!!


Oh how easy life was for students back in the day's of grants and no tuition fees!!!

***** labour.

Thanks for the info! I remember now sending them statements to show how much I was earning now...not enough to start paying back, but that was a few years ago.