Moving From UK to US - Student Loan Repayments

Hi, all. I'm a UK citizen and I have been very fortunate to get a fairly big offer from a a firm in the US. I still have a considerable amount of student debt outstanding with the Student Loan Company, who are currently able to recover payments at source with HMRC. If I moved to the US, they have no jurisdiction, and would require self-reporting with voluntary payments. I have estimated the monthly repayments would be in excess of 1,000 USD, which is less than ideal. Putting the morality of this aside I was wondering if anyone here shared a similar experience and could give insight into the practical realties of non-compliance. (For US folks, the loan is fortunately a lot "softer" than the one you're shanghaied into taking.) 

11 Comments
 

Don't have experience in moving to US and student loans but don't risk it. 

If you want to move from UK to Thailand or Angola etc. for the rest of your life, sure just pretend you don't make above the threshold and never repay it back but SLC and HMRC have gotten better at cracking down on this and they'll definitely have info on you/be able to track you down if you move to a developed country i.e. EU/USA

+ you're just letting the 5.6% interest accumulate and snowball. Either pay it off or just try refinance it on a lower interest rate through commercial company/family

Just my two cents

 
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You’re a god damn idiot trying to shirk off loans for what £9k tuition + living expenses for 3 years. That’s like £50k in loans max. That is literally nothing. You’re willing to jeopardize your entire career over this? Idk how the FCA works but FINRA it’s pretty cut and dry you’ll run into major issues for defaulting or have creditor actions taken against you. If you’re on the buyside then less regulation but the background checks still ask those questions.

You are in a career where you will pay back the full value of the loan from student finance. The US and UK have a ton of financial transparency on their citizenry.

 

only on WSO will an Investment Banking Vice President ask how to avoid paying student loans.

"fairly big offer from a a firm in the US" + "I have estimated the monthly repayments would be in excess of 1,000 USD, which is less than ideal." what kinda big offer did you receive that you cannot pay $1k per month. it should be nothing for you. people drop this much on food and drinks over the weekend. and you're willing to risk going to jail and getting ass raped to not pay the loan you yourself took which allowed you to be where you are.

 

Take your point. However, the loan was initially 0% p/a (at least, when I agreed to it), and the UK govt changed it to 5.5% p/a only a few years ago. They could technically sue me (and the estimated 300,000 others who do exactly what I'm proposing) but they won't and never will. In practice, they will increase the interest or maybe (and this is what I care about) damage my UK credit score.

 

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