How do Sallie Mae and Uncle Sam get their cash from outside the US?

July 31, 2005 5:35 PM

How do expatriates pay their financial debts still held in their home country?

My husband and I are considering moving from the US, but we still owe on student loans. The total debt amount is too great to pay off before we leave.

Have other MeFites had to deal with this issue?

Did you wire the payment each month (that seems like it'd be very expensive). Did the loan holder send a bill to your overseas address? Or could they do a direct payment from a bank in your country of residence? What happens if you miss a payment?

posted by luneray to work & money (9 answers total)

I maintain a U.S. bank account and use billpay to take care of monthly payments. You can then wire from your foreign account in bulk when the account gets low.
Or depending on where you are moving, Citibank makes moving money from international citibank accounts relatively painless.
posted by arruns at 5:46 PM on July 31, 2005

My Canadian bride* would just send a periodic check in USD to her parents in Tronna, who could easily deposit it into her account. Then she'd either transfer stuff around electronically, or have her parents do it. Later, the exchange rate started turning agin us, so we took out a loan here to pay off the loan there.

*as opposed to my bride from Remulak, or my zombie bride; they don't need money.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:55 PM on July 31, 2005

I also use a US account to pay my bills. I keep my address on file as my inlaws' address so I don't have to worry about my statements being sent to me here. Sallie Mae can be set up so you receive your bills via email and I believe you can pay through their website. With online account access, it's not to hard to keep making payments on US things from abroad.
posted by wallaby at 6:47 PM on July 31, 2005

Sallie Mae says that they only accept payments drawn on US banks, so if you were going to be paying from a foreign account you'd have to either wire the money or send a money order/cashier's check. It seems as if it would be easiest to maintain a US bank account and submit your payments electronically. An acquaintance of mine did this and as far as I know had no problems with it. Some lenders even give you a slight discount on your interest rate if you pay electronically - a definite bonus.
posted by Aster at 6:56 PM on July 31, 2005

In Japan, as arruns writes, Citibank has become popular despite, ahem, irregularities that required shutting down some of its corporate operations here. Also:
International Postal money orders
GoLloyds
posted by planetkyoto at 7:48 PM on July 31, 2005

I too recommend using a citibank account, but don't expect a lot from them with regards to customer service.
posted by nightchrome at 8:05 PM on July 31, 2005

I'll speak up for the non-Citibank option. I pay mine using Telegraphic Transfer, as I no longer have a US bank account and the bastards at Wells Fargo won't let me use a credit card or anything useful like that. It costs me about AUD $20 every time I do it, so I try to pay two or three months' worth at a time and have them advance my due date. They send me the statements here in Australia just as if I were at home.
posted by web-goddess at 1:31 AM on August 1, 2005

I just send cheques in foreign currancy. They figure out exchange rates and deal.
posted by duck at 8:50 AM on August 1, 2005

Whoa, duck, really? That would save me a heap. Who's your loan with? They don't bitch about it at all?
posted by web-goddess at 3:09 PM on August 1, 2005