Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

This may be a common problem, but here's my situation:
Moved to the US in June 2008 on K1 fiance visa. Tried to fill out the overseas assesment form for repayments before I left but had no idea how much I would be earning for the next 12 months (the info they ask for) and certainly would not be earning anything into a UK bank account. When I called them, the response was repeatedly: "You must fill out the form before you leave". Helpful... so I let it be.

Anyway, 2 1/2 years later, married with a steady job, I'm thinking I'm actually gonna start paying this thing off. But now, I'm concerned that I'm going to get penalised for not declaring the money I've been making the last two 12 month periods. I also don't want to pay to constantly transfer money to a UK account (even Paypal charges).

Is anyone else in a similar situation or does anyone know if the SLC is open to you making regular card payments through their website instead? Its just that the only form they provide is not very sympathetic to my situation... :confused:

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

I was not in that situation but was in the reverse one, paying off US student loans from the UK. They don't care how much you make there (you just have to pay regardless) but did require that the funds come from a US bank account - so a few times a year I had to transfer money over to my US account so it'd be there.

They do seem to address the issue of being overseas on their site:

http://www.slc.co.uk/contact%20us/cu...html#repayment

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

They do address the issue, and if I just paid the money to transfer funds between accounts I can pay it the way they want me to, my real concern is if they are going to penalise me for my last few years of silence (even though I did not make enough to make repayments, you still have to notify them of how much you make).

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

There's several threads about this subject spread across many of BE's forums. Use the Search facility located in the pink bar at the top of the page...go to Advanced Search. Please give me a shout if you need help locating them.

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

Well...if they do, they do, and you'll have to clear it up in order to pay back your loans anyway...and the longer you wait the more any penalty might be, I'd imagine...so why not contact them and ask?

I don't mean to be flippant, and I know this is a matter of concern to you, but it seems to me that in the end it's up to SLC and nothing anyone else says will change that..

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

By the way, my low-cost method of transferring money might work for you if the circumstances are right. I found a bank in the US that didn't charge me to use my UK atm card to withdraw cash. I arranged for my brother (in the US) to have a card on my account and gave him a stack of deposit slips. A couple of times during the year I would email him and ask him to withdraw X amount from the UK account and deposit it into the US bank, and he'd go down to the bank after work and do it.

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

I was always planning to use paypal, but they seem to be sneaking in larger charges for their services. I guess fewer, larger transfers is the way to go, rather than lots of smaller ones. I also get a good rate of interest on my UK savings account, so the money could sit in there before it gets used.

And regarding your other reply, you are absolutely right; I will have to pay it anyway at some point (unless I wait it out til I'm 65 when it gets written off!). I have just read that on occasion the SLC decides to be rather mean and get you to pay the whole amount in one go as punishment. Hopefully I won't have pissed them off that much!

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

I did find a few threads on student loans - just wondered if anyone had any other experiences to bring to the table regarding scary penalties. I shall delve further though...

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

I forgot to say...kudos to you for wanting to pay off your debt. :thumbsup:

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

That's the thing, I want to pay it, I just don't want to get in trouble for the incredibly short period of time that I didn't! :o

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

We are trying to figure it out in reverse for DS He closed his US bank account when he moved to UK and needs to start paying his student loan next month. :banghead: Talk about wait till the last minute. We are hoping his HSBC account will let him pay international bills online he has to find out. You think they'd do this seeing they are an international bank and there are a lot of US/UK citizens about who need this service it seems.

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

I'd like to think if you're truthful and show that you are willing to pay you won't be penalised. Contact them and ask. Like I said take a read through the old threads.

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

They'll let you do it, they'll just charge you an arm and a leg for the privilege.

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

Can he open a new US account online? I did that with my bank when my old one couldn't graspt the concept of someone living overseas. I used my brother's house as a mailing address.

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

Crap.
Thats an idea he can still use our address. :thumbup:

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

I have an HSBC USA and UK account and you can transfer between the 2 online - its very easy, and you wont get charged - its just the exchange rate that you need to watch.

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

Thank you for that I'll let him know to open a US online account and go from there. :thumbsup:

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

Really? When I tried to do that they wanted to charge me at both ends. :frown: Part of the reason I closed my accounts there.

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

:eek:

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

To be fair, it was five years ago and maybe they've improved. It wasn't an online process then.

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

On the UK student loans side, I spoke with them earlier this week as I will soon be moving to the US. They said that rather than make monthly payments I could save up a bulk sum and do it less frequently to save on transfer fees. They don't mind how frequently you pay them as long as they get the correct amount for the 12 month period and you let them know.

They also said that as I wouldn't know what my income was going to be, I could get my partner to write a letter saying that he would be supporting me and that would suffice for the initial 12 month period.

However - with regard to penalties - you might want to bear in mind that if you don't tell them how much your overseas income is for the year then they have a default sum that they expect depending on the country you live in.

For the USA that's equivalent to £197 a month http://www.studentloanrepayment.co.u...ORTAL#countryu

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

Hi , I pay off my UK student loan from Australia and transfer the cash using www.tranzfers.com (very low fee transfer and great exchange rate).

I usually transfer 6 - 12 months worth of payments into my UK HSBC account and let the monthly direct debit come out of that.

Good luck.

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

I too am paying off my student loan from the States. I was told it had to be paid from a UK bank account, not sure whether you could use a credit card for it.

I knew that you could pay lump sums, but when I enquired they told me that since I knew what I was earning, I'd have to pay them monthly. I didn't really investigate the matter further.

It's a pain having to transfer $ every month just to cover the student loan repayment. I use xe.com which is pretty good.

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

I was in the same situation...... if you push them enough you should be able to convince them to allow you to pay quarterly, thus allowing you to choose when to transfer the mony to the UK.

This is important as it allows you to mitigate your foreign currency risk to some degree. (which can cause more financial pain than any possible bank fees - if your bank still charges them!)

Re: Paying my UK student loan from the US.
 

I had my current job (which definitely puts me over the repayment threshold) for a year before I started repaying my loans to the SLC. This was because of the time of year that they send out their income assessment forms to me. In short, they didn't seem to care and they didn't penalise me at all for it.

As for your second question: I just now set up something on their website that lets me pay them every month with my US debit card. I even set up a recurring charge so that I don't even need to think about it for the next year. I haven't had any problems with it, nor do I get charged a fee: but that's because my US bank doesn't charge fees for such things I suppose.

Good luck!