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Fleeing the country to escape student loan debt?

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Team Alucard

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I'm still in undergrad and have been fortunate to avoid taking out any loans yet, but I have very little faith in the future and I want to develop a contingency plan in the event that I am unable to find employment in this country.

I hear a lot of stories online about people deep in debt from student loans who leave the U.S. to teach English in foreign countries and never come back. My question--is that legit? Like, can you actually do that and get away with it? Obviously the interest and fees on the loans would just continue to compound and you'd be even more fucked if you ever chose to return, but as long as you stayed abroad you'd be able to avoid collections and wage garnishments, right?
 
The government will gets its way.

Do not mess with the government when it comes to money. They are ruthless. They have vast powers of law to garnish wages.

The issue with going to another country to run away is that you'll need your work visa extended.
 
Team Alucard said:
I'm still in undergrad and have been fortunate to avoid taking out any loans yet, but I have very little faith in the future and I want to develop a contingency plan in the event that I am unable to find employment in this country.

I hear a lot of stories online about people deep in debt from student loans who leave the U.S. to teach English in foreign countries and never come back. My question--is that legit? Like, can you actually do that and get away with it? Obviously the interest and fees on the loans would just continue to compound and you'd be even more fucked if you ever chose to return, but as long as you stayed abroad you'd be able to avoid collections and wage garnishments, right?
Click to expand...

This... must be a federal crime.
 
Used to work collections. If you move to a country outside the U.S. and the company is officially stationed in the U.S. then they can still garnish your wages. That's the worst they can do. If the company you work for isn't in the U.S. then there's really not much they can do. They can try to contact you and your employer but they can't force anything.

A lot of doctors would do leave the country and ignore almost a million dollars in student loans.
 
im not really sure what would happen . after not making any payments on the loans , your credit would obviously tank . but i believe that the concept of credit and credit scoring is mostly an american thing ?
 
Whether it's a thing or not, if your first thought is to flee from debt you knowingly racked up, I say grow up. There are plenty of legit ways to help you get a handle on your debt out there than running from responsibility when it comes calling.
 
H.Protagonist said:
Whether it's a thing or not, if your first thought is to flee from debt you knowingly racked up, I say grow up. There are plenty of legit ways to help you get a handle on your debt out there than running from responsibility when it comes calling.
Click to expand...

I would agree with this.

Don't bother if this is gonna be your solution.
 
NotTheGuyYouKill said:
Huh. For some reason, I assumed that it would be equivalent to tax dodging or something.

Still, it sounds like a really extreme contingency plan.
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The US is acting like a bank. It guarantees student loans, which some argue have inflated college cost. The US Dollar is backing up these loans.

But it's not a crime.

Taxes dodging is a crime, because that effects the US bottom line directly.

College is optional, but everyone with an living income pays taxes.
 
Team Alucard said:
I'm still in undergrad and have been fortunate to avoid taking out any loans yet, but I have very little faith in the future and I want to develop a contingency plan in the event that I am unable to find employment in this country.

I hear a lot of stories online about people deep in debt from student loans who leave the U.S. to teach English in foreign countries and never come back. My question--is that legit? Like, can you actually do that and get away with it? Obviously the interest and fees on the loans would just continue to compound and you'd be even more fucked if you ever chose to return, but as long as you stayed abroad you'd be able to avoid collections and wage garnishments, right?
Click to expand...

Stop panicking, man.

Aren't you getting a finance degree? You're still in a 1st world country. Many, many will love to trade places with you.

Have some perspective.

If you don't want to get loans, get a non degree entry level job and work your way up.

Or start a business.

You have options, man.

You sound like a desperate man when you're really privileged but can't see it.

Even if you get loans, you should be able to pay them off in time.
 
So I kind of didn't pay back my student loan until they finally chased me down after I emigrated. I'd sent them all the appropriate paper work... but they never came after me for the money.

So I just didn't pay it.

When they finally caught up with me about ten years later...

My payments didn't reflect any penalty. They calculated the interest for all the time I should have been paying it at the same rate, and I'll be finished paying it off in less than a year from now. It caused me zero harm...

And it gave me more disposable income while my earnings were low.

I have zero regrets about it.

Basically, no one is going to extradite you over this, and when you *can* start paying they'll be happy to accommodate what you can afford to pay in a monthly payment without causing too much fuss, because there's nothing they can do to force you to pay them anything.

Just make sure you plan on having it paid off before thinking about moving back to the country.
 
H.Protagonist said:
Whether it's a thing or not, if your first thought is to flee from debt you knowingly racked up, I say grow up. There are plenty of legit ways to help you get a handle on your debt out there than running from responsibility when it comes calling.
Click to expand...

I'd like to build a life and a career in this country.

But if I find myself in a situation where I have to choose between living in destitution with collections breathing down my neck, or leaving the country to start fresh, I'm going to choose the latter.

I mean, just consider the following situation: a chronically underemployed law graduate (there's a lot of 'em) with 6 figure student loan debt. What is that person supposed to do? Their economic future is irrevocably ruined. Why should they continue to live in abject poverty with loans that they're never going to be able to pay off. Why wouldn't they leave the country?

Like I said, this is a last resort in case the worst possible situation comes true. I just want to know if it's feasible.
 
plagiarize said:
So I kind of didn't pay back my student loan until they finally chased me down after I emigrated. I'd sent them all the appropriate paper work... but they never came after me for the money.

So I just didn't pay it.

When they finally caught up with me about ten years later...

My payments didn't reflect any penalty. They calculated the interest for all the time I should have been paying it at the same rate, and I'll be finished paying it off in less than a year from now. It caused me zero harm...

And it gave me more disposable income while my earnings were low.

I have zero regrets about it.

Basically, no one is going to extradite you over this, and when you *can* start paying they'll be happy to accommodate what you can afford to pay in a monthly payment without causing too much fuss, because there's nothing they can do to force you to pay them anything.

Just make sure you plan on having it paid off before thinking about moving back to the country.
Click to expand...

Your credit score must have taken an atom bomb, no?

Team Alucard said:
I'd like to build a life and a career in this country.

But if I find myself in a situation where I have to choose between living in destitution with collections breathing down my neck, or leaving the country to start fresh, I'm going to choose the latter.

I mean, just consider the following situation: a chronically underemployed law graduate (there's a lot of 'em) with 6 figure student loan debt. What is that person supposed to do? Their economic future is irrevocably ruined. Why should they continue to live in abject poverty with loans that they're never going to be able to pay off. Why wouldn't they leave the country?

Like I said, this is a last resort in case the worst possible situation comes true. I just want to know if it's feasible.
Click to expand...

There's hardship deferments. The government is very generous with that if you have issues.
 
honestly if you're looking to scam student loan debts, at least try domestic scams first.
-Max out a credit card paying them, then claim bankruptcy on the cards (which has a low chance of actually working, but still better than trying to claim bankruptcy on student loans).
-Ask your parents to get a divorce, then get claimed as a dependant on the poorer one to lower the costs of school
-Try good ol' fashioned theft
-Get a job and pay them off, it'll be bad but not that bad. I mean, shit, assuming you're smart about it (go to community college than public university) you can limit it to under $50k pretty easily.
 
Hatchtag said:
honestly if you're looking to scam student loan debts, at least try domestic scams first.
-Max out a credit card paying them, then claim bankruptcy on the cards (which has a low chance of actually working, but still better than trying to claim bankruptcy on student loans).
-Ask your parents to get a divorce, then get claimed as a dependant on the poorer one to lower the costs of school
-Try good ol' fashioned theft
-Get a job and pay them off, it'll be bad but not that bad. I mean, shit, assuming you're smart about it (go to community college than public university) you can limit it to under $50k pretty easily.
Click to expand...

I knew someone that max out credit cards via cash advances to pay part of their tuition instead of taking loans.

Credit isn't as freely available post 08 crisis.
 
entrement said:
Your credit score must have taken an atom bomb, no?
Click to expand...

Nope. My credit score here is influenced by precisely zero of the things I do and have done overseas. When I first moved here and before I was working (so at the time I didn't have to make loan payments) the fact I had been making regular payments on my student loan while living in England wasn't recognized by any bank at all. They all told me I had absolutely no credit record.

It made buying a car pretty annoying.

My credit may be bad in England (and honestly I have no idea), but I'm not borrowing money there.
 
plagiarize said:
Nope. My credit score here is influenced by precisely zero of the things I do and have done overseas. When I first moved here and before I was working (so at the time I didn't have to make loan payments) the fact I had been making regular payments on my student loan while living in England wasn't recognized by any bank at all. They all told me I had absolutely no credit record.

It made buying a car pretty annoying.

My credit may be bad in England, but I'm not borrowing money there.
Click to expand...

I'm not following you.

Are you American and lived in England, while escaping you student loans from America?

Or are you English and came here to escape them?

Credit score reporting bureaus tend to be domestic.
 
entrement said:
I'm not following you.

Are you American and lived in England, while escaping you student loans from America?

Or are you English and came here to escape them?

Credit score reporting bureaus tend to be domestic.
Click to expand...

I'm English, studied in England and moved to America. Not to escape student loans, but that kind of happened for a while. I knowingly let it happen and have suffered zero ill effects and am currently less than ten payments away from having paid off my student loan in England.

My student loan in the UK has zero effect on my credit score here, which is where I need to get car loans and mortgages and the like.
 
Team Alucard said:
I'd like to build a life and a career in this country.

But if I find myself in a situation where I have to choose between living in destitution with collections breathing down my neck, or leaving the country to start fresh, I'm going to choose the latter.

I mean, just consider the following situation: a chronically underemployed law graduate (there's a lot of 'em) with 6 figure student loan debt. What is that person supposed to do? Their economic future is irrevocably ruined. Why should they continue to live in abject poverty with loans that they're never going to be able to pay off. Why wouldn't they leave the country?

Like I said, this is a last resort in case the worst possible situation comes true. I just want to know if it's feasible.
Click to expand...

You want a career and a life in this country but don't want any hardship. You will (if needed) knowingly pursue an expensive degree without tempering your plan at all (because taking time off to earn money IS a thing or taking your degree slowly IS a thing) and then if when it comes time to pay for what you have knowingly accepted you're going to bugger off instead of try anything entrement has already suggested or themultitude of debt management programs out there. It's the height of selfishness.

Your scenario of a law student is also absurd. That student could have done any number of things to better their outcome rather than just rack up loans and then cry about it later as if they had no idea it would happen. Consider a trade school instead of law and do a law degree while you work a job that exists, aggressively pursue scholarships, work part time, work during the day and school at night, work any job you can and slowly work your way towards that degree, go after the degree loans and all and then enroll in a debt management program to make it affordable, etc. etc.

EDIT to ADD: Two seconds in Google revealed that you can even have all your law loan debt forgiven if you work in the public sector (Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program). There are options upon options.

You already say you have no loans which puts you leaps and bounds over most people in school as it is. Stop considering fanciful escape plans and approach your concerns like an adult.
 
Team Alucard said:
I'm still in undergrad and have been fortunate to avoid taking out any loans yet, but I have very little faith in the future and I want to develop a contingency plan in the event that I am unable to find employment in this country.

I hear a lot of stories online about people deep in debt from student loans who leave the U.S. to teach English in foreign countries and never come back. My question--is that legit? Like, can you actually do that and get away with it? Obviously the interest and fees on the loans would just continue to compound and you'd be even more fucked if you ever chose to return, but as long as you stayed abroad you'd be able to avoid collections and wage garnishments, right?
Click to expand...

My cousin did this and they actually tracked him down with my family down in Mexico somehow, even after moving between 2 different states!!. He eventually came back and settled in court with them and obviously had pay, but only for the original amount no interest fees of any sort (all of this was after a little more than a decade of exile btw ).
 
Besides the fact that it is highly illegal and probably immoral, I've heard that exile is one of the harshest things to endure. It may seem to be just "being away from home, people move to other countries all the time", but it's also never being able to come back. It's like comparing being jailed to staying inside all the time, the loss of freedom is the punishment, not the cell.
 
plagiarize said:
I'm English, studied in England and moved to America. Not to escape student loans, but that kind of happened for a while. I knowingly let it happen and have suffered zero ill effects and am currently less than ten payments away from having paid off my student loan in England.

My student loan in the UK has zero effect on my credit score here, which is where I need to get car loans and mortgages and the like.
Click to expand...

Ah that makes total sense, since the UK and US don't share the same credit bureaus.

The OP talks about coming back and him defaulting on student loans would sure affect him coming back.

I have no idea about UK laws regarding loan defaults. The US is pretty insane--wage garnishments being one.

Your lack of credit score here was due to lack of credit history, which would make sense being an expatriate.
 
Alx said:
Besides the fact that it is highly illegal and probably immoral, I've heard that exile is one of the harshest things to endure. It may seem to be just "being away from home, people move to other countries all the time", but it's also never being able to come back. It's like comparing being jailed to staying inside all the time, the loss of freedom is the punishment, not the cell.
Click to expand...

It wouldn't be like exile. They don't seize people at immigration because they defaulted on a student loan. You could come and visit regularly. You just wouldn't be able to move back and get a place to live or a job until you had settled your debts.
 
entrement said:
The government will gets its way.

Do not mess with the government when it comes to money. They are ruthless. They have vast powers of law to garnish wages.

The issue with going to another country to run away is that you'll need your work visa extended.
Click to expand...

Can't garnish your wages for student loans in Texas.
 
BoboBrazil said:
Can't garnish your wages for student loans in Texas.
Click to expand...

His credit will still take a huge hit, which could affect getting hired, getting an apartment, getting a car. He could lose his Social Security--this doesn't matter anyway because for most Millennial, this will be dried up anyway. It's also not enough to retire anyway.

Nice Texan law, though. Good on Texas for protecting its citizen from the might of the Feds lol.
 
If you're scared of debt then try contacting these guys.
63Nv2H3.jpg
Click to expand...
 
I've long wondered why more people don't. I hope a lot of people do skip out. Making the problem worse is sometimes the best way to get the problem solved. If enough people stick taxpayers with hundreds of billions in defaulted loans then we might finally have the catalyst to bring European-style "free" college to the U.S.

No just reason to burden young people with that much debt just because they don't want to be burger flippers. And universities need a massive price control beat down for unreasonable tuitions and massively inflated administrative costs.
 
entrement said:
His credit will take a huge hit, which could affect getting hired, getting an apartment, getting a car. He could lose his Social Security--this doesn't matter anyway because for most Millennial, this will be dried up anyway. It's also not enough to retire anyway.
Click to expand...

Most auto finance companies don't care about student loans or medical collections. Same with apartment leasing companies. Credit score will take a hit though for sure. Social security won't exist and most likely laws will be passed to forgive student loan debt if democrats continue to get in the whitehouse.
 
entrement said:
His credit will still take a huge hit, which could affect getting hired, getting an apartment, getting a car. He could lose his Social Security--this doesn't matter anyway because for most Millennial, this will be dried up anyway. It's also not enough to retire anyway.

Nice Texan law, though. Good on Texas for protecting its citizen from the might of the Feds lol.
Click to expand...

This is all true of course, but it only effects him when he wants to come back. Which is why I keep saying he'd want to square away his debts before coming back... But that he'll be in a pretty good position to do so down the line (cf the other story in here of the cousin who had to pay up, but at zero interest or penalty).
 
old said:
I've long wondered why more people don't. I hope a lot of people do skip out. Making the problem worse is sometimes the best way to get the problem solved. If enough people stick taxpayers with hundreds of billions in defaulted loans then we might finally have the catalyst to bring European-style "free" college to the U.S.

No just reason to burden young people with that much debt just because they don't want to be burger flippers. And universities need a massive price control beat down for unreasonable tuitions and massively inflated administrative costs.
Click to expand...

I can tell you why this isn't common.

Getting a work visa without a sponsor is very difficult.

Completely cutting off your support network, family, friends, is incrediby hard for most people to do.

Language/culture barrier.

Homesickness.

Traveling is expensive. We're talking about poor college students with little experience.

Job opportunities are more plentiful for citizens in the US than working abroad--have you looked the Eurozone unemployment rates? Especially youth unemployment?

BoboBrazil said:
Most auto finance companies don't care about student loans or medical collections. Same with apartment leasing companies. Credit score will take a hit though for sure. Social security won't exist and most likely laws will be passed to forgive student loan debt if democrats continue to get in the whitehouse.
Click to expand...

Those auto finance companies and apartment leasing companies do look at credit scores, though. That will be affected.

A coworker's husband of mine destroyed his credit score not paying a loan and the apartment they applied to required an extra month of security due to the poor credit score.
 
As horribly shitty as the U.S. student loan situation is, fleeing the country entirely is pretty drastic. Loan forgiveness is pretty good now at least, and there's a stigma for any immigrants in any country being paid particularly well starting out, even in favorable circumstances.You'd have to be well off to begin with.
 
H.Protagonist said:
Your scenario of a law student is also absurd. That student could have done any number of things to better their outcome rather than just rack up loans and then cry about it later as if they had no idea it would happen. Consider a trade school instead of law and do a law degree while you work a job that exists, aggressively pursue scholarships, work part time, work during the day and school at night, work any job you can and slowly work your way towards that degree, go after the degree loans and all and then enroll in a debt management program to make it affordable, etc. etc.
Click to expand...

Is it really? Sure, you can argue that the person made a mistake, or that they could have done things better, and I'm sure if given the chance to do it over many would have avoided law school like the plaque. But that doesn't change the present reality of their situation at all. Someone who has been out of school for 3+ years and either been unemployed or working Mcjobs during that time is clearly never going to work in the legal field. Even if there was suddenly a massive spike in demand for lawyers, the people getting recruited and hired would be fresh graduates. For those individuals who are marooned, and have already incurred overbearing debt, what exactly are they supposed to do? You can't discharge student loans in bankruptcy. Are they just supposed to accept a life of poverty because of a mistake they made in their early 20s?
 
You cannot go to prison for failing to pay for a “civil debt” like a credit card, loan, or hospitable bill. You can, however, be forced to go to jail if you do not pay your taxes or child support. The U.S. Supreme Court has outlawed the use of prison to punish indigent criminal defendants who fail to pay for court costs and fines as part of their sentence. However, many state and local courts skirt around this by assessing fees, fines, and costs as part of a civil fine or “criminal justice debt,” or a condition of someone's probation or parole. In that way, if you fail to pay these fines, you may go to jail.

You should not go to prison for failing to pay civil debts. Indeed, federal and state consumer collection laws, including the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act (FDCPA), prohibit debt collectors from threatening you with criminal prosecution for failing to pay a debt. Yet, there is a growing practice - especially in states like Ohio, Missouri, Minnesota, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and more - by judgment creditors who use the court system to put debtors in jail if they don't pay their debts.

At the very least, you'll have a tarnished credit file.
 
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