What does happen to my Student Loan??

[alexandra84]

Hi there,

 

I have heard lots of different responses to the above question and the most popular (and preferable) answer is that after 10 years of not living in the UK, the debt is wiped!

 

Please can anyone on here actually tell me what the crack is??

 

I'm planning on notifying the SLC but as it's currently deducted from my salary via my NI number, how could they want me to pay it off if I'm living and working in Melbourne, and contributing to the state of Vic and no longer the UK?

 

Thanks,

Alexandra x

[AJ]

Hi there,

 

 

 

 

I'm planning on notifying the SLC but as it's currently deducted from my salary via my NI number, how could they want me to pay it off if I'm living and working in Melbourne, and contributing to the state of Vic and no longer the UK?

 

Thanks,

Alexandra x

 

How could the UK want you to pay it? Because you borrowed off the UK - not Australia thats why!

[noworriesmate]

How could the UK want you to pay it? Because you borrowed off the UK - not Australia thats why!

 

AJ,

 

I don't think the OP meant it the way you have taken it, I think they are asking how do they practically take the money when they are going to be in Aus and will not be using their UK NI Number. I don't think they would be contacting the SLC if they were thinking of 'doing a runner'

 

NWM

[Dan Collins]

Hi

 

It seems there is no escape from repaying the money, as set out on page 16 and 17 of the link:

 

http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/documents/digitalasset/dg_194538.pdf

 

It also states 'You may have to pay the costs of any agents which SLC employ to find you'.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Cheers

[lebourvellec]

Your loan is after 1998 therefore it is never wiped off - until it has been paid - or depending when you got the loan turn 65.

 

You will still require to pay your loan even if you are in Australia and you will need to make direct payments to your loan account

 

http://www.studentloanrepayment.co.uk/portal/page?_pageid=93,6678653&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

http://www.studentloanrepayment.co.uk/portal/page?_pageid=93,6678668&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

 

Dont mess around with the SLC- even though they are useless lose all your forms even when your send them recorded deliver and they have been signed for.

 

As once they start putting your account to one of the collector agencies, they charge £25 for each letter and £30 for missed payments.

[Dan Collins]

Good point lebourvellex

 

That loan might not seem relevant to your new life anymore, but with the potential to compound fees, it could be an even bigger problem than it is now.

 

You also you might one day need to return to the UK for that 'dream job', want to buy a house and you can't due to a poor credit rating. Perhaps talk with the SLC about the practicality and frequency of the payment, as surely this is a common event for many Brits.

 

Cheers

 

 

 

[alexandra84]

Your loan is after 1998 therefore it is never wiped off - until it has been paid - or depending when you got the loan turn 65.

 

You will still require to pay your loan even if you are in Australia and you will need to make direct payments to your loan account

 

http://www.studentloanrepayment.co.uk/portal/page?_pageid=93,6678653&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

http://www.studentloanrepayment.co.uk/portal/page?_pageid=93,6678668&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

 

Dont mess around with the SLC- even though they are useless lose all your forms even when your send them recorded deliver and they have been signed for.

 

As once they start putting your account to one of the collector agencies, they charge £25 for each letter and £30 for missed payments.

 

Thanks that's really helpful - much appreciated.

[alexandra84]

How could the UK want you to pay it? Because you borrowed off the UK - not Australia thats why!

 

You totally misunderstood what I was asking - thanks for the 'advice' though, I think I know where I borrowed the money from!

[nicolac34]

I didn't inform the SLC that I was moving to Australia (mainly because when I've informed them of anything else they promptly lose the information or ignore it i.e. me changing my name when I got married) but it only took them 4 months to cotton on to the fact I wasn't paying it anymore and try and find out where I was. Ok, so wasn't hard, all they did was send me an email saying they wanted to 'discuss my time at University' - Lol!

 

Anyway, they sent me out an overseas assessment form where I had to fill in details of my job and what I was doing and send evidence of my contract and payslips. They then sent back a schedule of payments for the next 12 months. They only wanted £41 a month from me (which seems insane considering they were taking £220 a month when I was in the UK!) so instead of setting up a direct debit monthly from my UK account I paid the whole year in full.

 

I'm due another assessment in November, but it's at around £2,000 now so I'll probably just pay it off this year, save me the hassle!

[Dan Collins]

I didn't inform the SLC that I was moving to Australia (mainly because when I've informed them of anything else they promptly lose the information or ignore it i.e. me changing my name when I got married) but it only took them 4 months to cotton on to the fact I wasn't paying it anymore and try and find out where I was. Ok, so wasn't hard, all they did was send me an email saying they wanted to 'discuss my time at University' - Lol!

 

Anyway, they sent me out an overseas assessment form where I had to fill in details of my job and what I was doing and send evidence of my contract and payslips. They then sent back a schedule of payments for the next 12 months. They only wanted £41 a month from me (which seems insane considering they were taking £220 a month when I was in the UK!) so instead of setting up a direct debit monthly from my UK account I paid the whole year in full.

 

I'm due another assessment in November, but it's at around £2,000 now so I'll probably just pay it off this year, save me the hassle!

 

'Discuss my time at University' - must've taken them all day to think of that one to lure a reply from you.

 

Very handy experience to know. Thanks for sharing it.

[RN2RAAF]

I didn't inform the SLC that I was moving to Australia (mainly because when I've informed them of anything else they promptly lose the information or ignore it i.e. me changing my name when I got married) but it only took them 4 months to cotton on to the fact I wasn't paying it anymore and try and find out where I was. Ok, so wasn't hard, all they did was send me an email saying they wanted to 'discuss my time at University' - Lol!

 

Anyway, they sent me out an overseas assessment form where I had to fill in details of my job and what I was doing and send evidence of my contract and payslips. They then sent back a schedule of payments for the next 12 months. They only wanted £41 a month from me (which seems insane considering they were taking £220 a month when I was in the UK!) so instead of setting up a direct debit monthly from my UK account I paid the whole year in full.

 

I'm due another assessment in November, but it's at around £2,000 now so I'll probably just pay it off this year, save me the hassle!

 

Thank you for this 'real time' experience answer on the issue. I haven't made the move to oz yet and I have a daughter in the final year at Uni. She doesn't want to join us but your actual experience has provided a definitive answer. We now appear to have the right advice if she changes her mind.

 

Thanks again

[nicolac34]

It's also worth noting that if you are travelling or not working overseas as yet they do take this into consideration and 'suspend' your payments for a year. You have to prove how you are going to support yourself for the next year (such as savings or a partners income) instead of sending work information.

 

When I sent over the info I was only on a WHV so I stressed that the employment I was in was only temporary and a six month contract, so I'm guessing the reason my payments were so low is because they took my six month salary and divided it up over the whole year.

 

They certainly have decided to up their game when it comes to finding out where non-payers have gone, they've got their own 'tracking' department now who's sole job is to find people who aren't paying and haven't told them why. For such a little amount it's not really worth trying to avoid them.

[fourcorners]

I have recently paid off mine, yey!!!!

 

But I do have friends who lived here for 5 years and never declared their Australian income to the student loan company, just claimed they were 'travelling'. So now they've returned to the UK they have 5 extra years of interest to pay off, and on lower incomes than what they were earning here. Some others have been here 6 years now, both mining engineers earning fantastical Rio Tinto wages, but still not paying it off!

[Paul1Perth]

Your loan is after 1998 therefore it is never wiped off - until it has been paid - or depending when you got the loan turn 65.

 

You will still require to pay your loan even if you are in Australia and you will need to make direct payments to your loan account

 

http://www.studentloanrepayment.co.uk/portal/page?_pageid=93,6678653&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

http://www.studentloanrepayment.co.uk/portal/page?_pageid=93,6678668&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

 

Dont mess around with the SLC- even though they are useless lose all your forms even when your send them recorded deliver and they have been signed for.

 

As once they start putting your account to one of the collector agencies, they charge £25 for each letter and £30 for missed payments.

 

Sounds like you've had a bit of experience with the SLC.

[nicolac34]

I have recently paid off mine, yey!!!!

 

But I do have friends who lived here for 5 years and never declared their Australian income to the student loan company, just claimed they were 'travelling'. So now they've returned to the UK they have 5 extra years of interest to pay off, and on lower incomes than what they were earning here. Some others have been here 6 years now, both mining engineers earning fantastical Rio Tinto wages, but still not paying it off!

 

I know similar people, I'd just want it gone and rather not avoid the inevitable really! My OH didn't pay his for about 2 years in the UK whilst he wasn't working, or they didn't take it out when he told them too, now his is still at £7k whilst mine is at £2k and ready to be paid off. It's been 7.5 years since we left Uni - it's about time it was gone!!!

[fourcorners]

I know similar people, I'd just want it gone and rather not avoid the inevitable really! My OH didn't pay his for about 2 years in the UK whilst he wasn't working, or they didn't take it out when he told them too, now his is still at £7k whilst mine is at £2k and ready to be paid off. It's been 7.5 years since we left Uni - it's about time it was gone!!!

 

It feels pretty good when you're talking to them over the phone and pay it off, and they tell you 'your balance is now zero'. It's taken me 7 years, and mine was about £14k. I paid off the last £4.5k the other week. But I just think if I were still in the UK it would probably have taken me another 5 years to pay it off. Now I get to keep the $600 a month it was costing me here!

[nicolac34]

It feels pretty good when you're talking to them over the phone and pay it off, and they tell you 'your balance is now zero'. It's taken me 7 years, and mine was about £14k. I paid off the last £4.5k the other week. But I just think if I were still in the UK it would probably have taken me another 5 years to pay it off. Now I get to keep the $600 a month it was costing me here!

 

I can't wait for that phone call! This is the last bit of debt I owe, having left University with 5 credit cards maxed out, 3 student accounts all with overdrafts and 2 more consecutive loans for cars and stuff - we're talking like £40k+ and £1,000 per month at one stage in various repayments. Now it's just this £2k to go (which I'll be paying off in November) and then I will be DEBT FREE!!!! Wooo! Never, ever, ever again will I take out a loan or spend on credit cards! :biggrin:

[Paul1Perth]

I can't wait for that phone call! This is the last bit of debt I owe, having left University with 5 credit cards maxed out, 3 student accounts all with overdrafts and 2 more consecutive loans for cars and stuff - we're talking like £40k+ and £1,000 per month at one stage in various repayments. Now it's just this £2k to go (which I'll be paying off in November) and then I will be DEBT FREE!!!! Wooo! Never, ever, ever again will I take out a loan or spend on credit cards! :biggrin:

 

Makes me realise how lucky I was when I went to Uni and got a grant that I lived off. My nieces both went to Uni in the UK and I couldn't understand their reasoning. They came out here on holiday and were buying clothes and stuff like money was no object. When I asked them how they managed (They were both running cars, had nice digs, laptops, mobiles) they told me how much debt they were in. I couldn't believe it. When I asked if they were worried they just said everybody else is doing it. Like that made it OK.

 

They are both still paying off the debt now I think. One of them is a teacher and married with a mortgage and 2 kids and the other is an architect with a house and getting married next year. The eldest one was complaining not long ago that they wanted to move as the house wasn't big enough and the bank wouldn't lend them any more.

[nicolac34]

Makes me realise how lucky I was when I went to Uni and got a grant that I lived off. My nieces both went to Uni in the UK and I couldn't understand their reasoning. They came out here on holiday and were buying clothes and stuff like money was no object. When I asked them how they managed (They were both running cars, had nice digs, laptops, mobiles) they told me how much debt they were in. I couldn't believe it. When I asked if they were worried they just said everybody else is doing it. Like that made it OK.

 

They are both still paying off the debt now I think. One of them is a teacher and married with a mortgage and 2 kids and the other is an architect with a house and getting married next year. The eldest one was complaining not long ago that they wanted to move as the house wasn't big enough and the bank wouldn't lend them any more.

 

Yup, sounds very familiar. I spent like no tomorrow when I was at Uni, it was all going to be paid back in some dim and distant future when I'd be earning enough money to pay for it all. Every time I maxed out a card they'd write to me and let me know that they'd increased my limit by another £1k - which I saw as the perfect reason to go out and buy new stuff. I drove around in a new Corsa after I wrote off my Clio (that I'd just finished paying for!) and went on so many holidays, I went on Safari to Kenya and spent 6 weeks in Australia in my final year and spent a small fortune! It was only when I went out and got a job and realised that, actually, it was going to take me forever to pay all this back. I had no money for the first few years after Uni because I'd exhausted all lines of credit and I was making humongus repayments (and paying rent in London!). I realised at this point, when I was seriously considering bankruptcy, that I had been so very stupid with debt.

 

Luckily for me I've had well paying jobs since I left Uni so I was able to service the debt and I've managed to drag myself out of the giant hole I created for myself. But I tell my sister on a daily basis that she should never get a credit card or a loan - although she's the total opposite, she doesn't spend anything!!

[Paul1Perth]

Yup, sounds very familiar. I spent like no tomorrow when I was at Uni, it was all going to be paid back in some dim and distant future when I'd be earning enough money to pay for it all. Every time I maxed out a card they'd write to me and let me know that they'd increased my limit by another £1k - which I saw as the perfect reason to go out and buy new stuff. I drove around in a new Corsa after I wrote off my Clio (that I'd just finished paying for!) and went on so many holidays, I went on Safari to Kenya and spent 6 weeks in Australia in my final year and spent a small fortune! It was only when I went out and got a job and realised that, actually, it was going to take me forever to pay all this back. I had no money for the first few years after Uni because I'd exhausted all lines of credit and I was making humongus repayments (and paying rent in London!). I realised at this point, when I was seriously considering bankruptcy, that I had been so very stupid with debt.

 

Luckily for me I've had well paying jobs since I left Uni so I was able to service the debt and I've managed to drag myself out of the giant hole I created for myself. But I tell my sister on a daily basis that she should never get a credit card or a loan - although she's the total opposite, she doesn't spend anything!!

 

My eldest niece is Nicola too. Pleasant change to have someone admit where they went wrong. My niece still thinks it's everyone elses fault and that's after they wrote most of her loan off as she took a job as a maths and science teacher. You would think someone that clever would realise it would all have to be paid back one day.

 

I just thought I was being old fashioned or something but I went to Uni as a mature student who'd been working from 16, Always used to having money in my pocket and had a Lotus Cortina and loads in the bank when I started Uni. In the second year (after blowing all my savings on a Bermuda holiday with my girlfriend) the diff on the car started making a noise and I didn't have enough money to fix it. Took it home and used public transport from that day on. Didn't have mobiles, laptops or any of that stuff to pay bills on. Even refused to have a phone in the digs we were in as it would have cost too much.

 

On the upside though we used to spend heaps on beer, socialising and played squash just about every day. Couldn't wait for Uni to finish as I was desperate to get back to earning a living again. Had to start at the bottom too as a new graduate on lower money than I'd been on as a 20 year old.

 

Glad my eldest chose an apprenticeship.:cool:

[AlloVera]

I didn't inform the SLC that I was moving to Australia (mainly because when I've informed them of anything else they promptly lose the information or ignore it i.e. me changing my name when I got married) but it only took them 4 months to cotton on to the fact I wasn't paying it anymore and try and find out where I was. Ok, so wasn't hard, all they did was send me an email saying they wanted to 'discuss my time at University' - Lol!

 

Anyway, they sent me out an overseas assessment form where I had to fill in details of my job and what I was doing and send evidence of my contract and payslips. They then sent back a schedule of payments for the next 12 months. They only wanted £41 a month from me (which seems insane considering they were taking £220 a month when I was in the UK!) so instead of setting up a direct debit monthly from my UK account I paid the whole year in full.

 

I'm due another assessment in November, but it's at around £2,000 now so I'll probably just pay it off this year, save me the hassle!

 

Hi nicolac34,

 

I also pay £220 a month over here in the UK but can't fathom how they calculated your £41 a month in Oz? From what I've read on their site the earnings threshold is still £15,795 and then 9% on anything over that is what you pay back so I would have thought the monthly amount is more as you earn more GBP in Oz than you do in the UK? Did they give you a breakdown of how it was calculated at all?

 

Be nice if it was only £41 per month!!!

[nicolac34]

Hi nicolac34,

 

I also pay £220 a month over here in the UK but can't fathom how they calculated your £41 a month in Oz? From what I've read on their site the earnings threshold is still £15,795 and then 9% on anything over that is what you pay back so I would have thought the monthly amount is more as you earn more GBP in Oz than you do in the UK? Did they give you a breakdown of how it was calculated at all?

 

Be nice if it was only £41 per month!!!

 

They do calculate it differently when your abroad to when you're in the UK, I think if you look on their website there is an explanation there somewhere. You find the country and they have an equivalent salary that they use (for Oz I think it was like £18,000 or something instead of £15,000 that they use for the UK) so they are trying to factor in the cost of living in the country you move too.

 

They didn't give us any breakdown at all, the only reason I can see that it was only £41 is that I told them I was on a six month contract, so they divided up what I would earn in that six months over the whole twelve months to spread the cost - if that makes sense?!

 

So if they'd calculated it based on me earning that salary for 12 months then it would have been £82 per month - still a very low amount though! No idea what goes on in their heads over there!!

[nicolac34]

http://www.studentloanrepayment.co.uk/portal/page?_pageid=93,6678668&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

 

I stand corrected, they do use the £15,795 threshold for Oz, so at the rate they are using (0.643819) that would be 9% of everything over $24,533... I calculated that based on my salary at the time to be $401 per month (£258), if they divided it over 12 months for a six month contract that would still be $200 per month (£128).

 

So maths is obviously not the SLC's strong pont!!

[nicolac34]

Ok, just got my student loan assessment for the next 12 months.... wishing I'd just not replied and left it at the default £250 a month!!!!

 

They've come back with a repayment of £364 per month for the next 12 months - considering there is only a balance of £2,522 that means I'll have paid it off in 7 months time, so why they don't put this instead of saying that I have to make these repayments for the full 12 months I've no idea.

 

The original plan was to pay this balance off next month, but since the OH isn't working we can't do this - at least he doesn't have to make replayments on his loan!

[Guest guest73691]

I pay about 3 x more back a month over here in Oz than the UK, guess I'll pay it off earlier but it is annoying having a bigger chunk coming out of my pay packet each month!

 

The SLC always calculate it over 12 months and don't check how your balance is looking until the end of a financial year, so I know a few people back home who ended up overpaying as the money kept being taking out of their salary each month even though the loan had been paid off. They then had to claim refunds back. As my loan repayments are no longer automatically taken, it is great being able to control when they stop!!