Lionel_in_Ontario

Wow, you certainly did your research! Quiet night? Even I don't remember the threads i've posted in

Anyway, thanks for your reply and everyone elses (yes - including the ones telling me i'm bad).

I just wanted to see what has happened before with other people...

I'm going to carry on paying since there's hardly anything left - there literally is only 10% left to pay.

Then I can work on the other half's student debt. THAT is going to take a lot longer!

Have a good weekend everyone...

dbd33

On a slightly related issue, one of my children is about to finish undergrad. She intends to take a year off and sail around the world (again!) before starting on a masters. Most of the schools she's looking at are in the US but one in London has been mentioned. Does anyone here know:

- are tutition fees for advanced degrees less for UK citizens resident in the UK?

- how long does it take to establish residency?

Biiiiink

Long time ago but it was the previous 3yrs they looked at for me - I'd been out the country for 1 so had to pay foreign fees for the 1st year. All this despite the fact my parents hadn't left Britain's shores for the duration

There was a good thread on this here semi-recently. I'll see if I can find it again.

dbd33

Thanks, we're not above constructing an elaborate lie; cheating the government being a crime of a different moral dimension than borrowing and failing to repay!

Biiiiink

My stupidity in applying with a foreign address was slightly compensated for in that they put "foreigners" into the halls of their 1st choice. I got a smoking room, in the coolest block with ensuite. That was a big deal back in the day, and almost worth the extra fees

Can't find thread - maybe it was in Moving Back to UK?

Edit:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=419970
or
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=369832

...I thought there was a better one but I can't find anything else.

stepnek

This is an issue that I've noticed has surfaced across the forums quite frequently not perhaps always to do with student loans but loans in general. The thread always takes on quite an indignant tone because of the cheek of someone suggesting they might run off and not pay a debt. I do wonder how many might actually be tempted if they thought there was a guaranteed chance of it not coming back to haunt them.

I paid of all my debt before coming to Canada and it was a great feeling to be finally free of it. I know that credit card companies write off a large amount of debt each year and I wondered if I could negotiate a lower final payment that might have been acceptable considering how much interest had been paid over the years. In the end I didn't bother but I do question if I should have tried.

Anyway a couple of months after we got here I got a call from my Mum in England who had been contacted by a debt collecting agency chasing £40 that I apparently still owed Sky TV. Not only did I not know that one more payment was still due but I was shocked that somehow they had contacted my Mum who of course lived at a different address to where I had lived.

Anyway I swiftly paid my last debt without any hitches but it does seem that you can run but probably not hide.

dbd33

Thanks. I suppose in the end I'll just be told what's happening so there's little point in me fretting.

Danny B

If you can lie low for 6yrs the Limitation Act should wipe out any outstanding balance you owe.
Just do a Google for "Limitation Act 1980"

dingbat

Absolutely not true. It depends on the type of debt, whether there has been court action within a reasonable time and before the six years are up and whether there has been any acknowledgement by the debtor.

Danny B

Yes there are certain 'limitations' to the act for example Income Tax & VAT, those buggers will hound you to the grave.
But in general if you do not have a CCJ, and it is unsecured debt and the creditor has made no contact with the debtor for 6 years, (12 years for a mortgage) then this act will make the debt "Statute Barred"

Personally I couldn't live a day looking over my shoulder, let alone 6yrs...

brightmidnight

Just be thankful that you have British loans to pay rather than American-- or you'd be paying them off longer than you have been.

The point is not that you haven't paid taxes-- it's that you took out a loan of other taxpayers' money at one time and agreed to pay back with interest. If other taxpayers did the same thing with your taxes, you might not like it either. That private corporation is getting plenty of government money to pay for it, so it's not a matter of that, either. Government is certainly not a "I give this, I get the same back" type of situation. Usually people give and get little back, and others give little and get a lot back.

Anyway, the student loan debt would appear on your British credit report, not a big deal if you never want to return. It could also cause a court judgement and you could be arrested upon return.

wizzard

It could also end up on your Canadian credit rating if they ever find out you are in Canada because they can sell the debt like a commodity to a Canadian debt collection agency who can then use local laws to collect and can write to your Canadian credit beureau. If left for a long time before they find you then the interest and penalties could be sizeable.

I mailed a payment to the Student Loan Comapny just before Christmas that got delayed in the mail and I got a letter from them in less than a week after the due date asking me to call them immediately regarding my fialure to pay. It got there a few days later and wasn't an issue but they certianly don't make exceptions just because you are out of the country, they deal with the issue specifically on their website and brochure information on repayment. If you don't inform them of your foreign income when requested each year they put you on a default repayment plan of over £200/month which is no small amount when converted to CAD$.

When I closed my Barclays graduate account not long after moving to Canada and payed off a graduate loan they screwed it up and forgot to check a box and sent it to collections instead of closing it off and I got calls in Canada from a UK debt collections place. Took a bunhc of calls and faxes to Barlcays to get them o fix their mistake and correct it. I don't think it is hard for them to find out you have moved to Canada even if you don't tell them.

Almost Canadian

Unfortunately it would appear you did not read as far as section 33 of the Act. If a trial is still possible, the periods stated in the Act will not be applied. It would be fairly easy to argue that in the OP's case a fair trial would still be possible (usual excuses are documents no longer exist or all witnesses are dead.

Contact with the debtor has nothing to do with it - the periods referred to are the dates by which proceedings must be commenced.