Job Discussion Forums

[MarquisMark]

Sorry if this has been posted before...could not find it in the search part.

Okay, my situation is as follows. I am considering taking a TEFL course in Mexico and then getting back into the ESL groove after being out for a while. Office jobs might be steady paychecks but after a few years, they can really suck the life out of you and I really need to see and learn some new things.

I think Mexico would be a nice place to live. I've wanted to learn Spanish for years now and I'm fairly certain that I wouldn't be shoveling any snow there in the first weeks of April (like we had too in Cleveland).

Anyhow, there's nothing really tying me down here except this one credit card that has a substantial but not astronomic balance riding on it. I doubt I would be able to get it all payed off before I leave (or before I want to leave). I could probably take a chunk out of it but...

Have any of you had to deal with this situation (i.e. paying off debts from abroad)? Were you able to arrange making payments or paying off credit cards while in Mexico? Did you find you were able to earn enough to do so? I'm curious to learn how one could get around this. I don't know if credit card companies they will allow an EFT from abroad...

I've considered a year in South Korea, where one can save piles of cash, just for this purpose but in the end I'm more drawn towards the Americas where I can learn Spanish and absorb some sunlight into my UV starved skin.

I'd love to hear your thoughts...muchas gracias.

[ls650]

You can probably save more money working in your home country than overseas.

In Latin America, it's difficult to find a job that pays you enough to live both a comfortable 'western' lifestyle and to make substantial savings.

Asia can be different: the cost of living there is significantly lower in comparison with the wages you can earn. If you find a well-paying job and are reasonably frugal, you can save up a decent amount of money.

Still, I recommend staying home, getting a McJob of some kind and pinching your pennies to get the debt paid off before heading overseas.

[seanie]

The other thing you need to consider is how you'll get the money to your bank. The easiest way to deal with the credit card payment would be to just transfer money from a saving account back home. But if you have no savings, you'll have to send the money from here. Unless you are going to send traveller's cheques by regular post, you'll have to spend anywhere from about 20 - 50 USD to have each payment sent to your bank. The cost depends on whether you get a giro, t-cheques (then send by courier) or a bank transfer. (If there's a cheaper way of sending money, I hope someone esle will post and tell us about it.)

[moonraven]

Well, I guess it depends on how obliged you feel to the credit card companies.

When I found it difficult to pay off my balances from Mexico, my attorney in the US said: "Forget about it. You're in Mexico." I followed his advice.

[MarquisMark]

Those are some good suggestions. Thanks. It would probably be easiest to pay it all off before hand, but...

[Guy Courchesne]

If this were a case of student loans, then you could defer them. However, credit card companies don't offer such an option, at least not that I'm aware of. You would only be putting off a problem that would be worse upon arriving home.

I suppose that if you don't plan on going home again then you could ignore the problem. In Canada, it is possible to have your passport seized if there is a court judgement against you. Not sure if it is the same in the US.

[saraswati]

Years ago, I thought I had paid off my credit card. I had my bank in Mexico cut a check via Chemical bank of New York and I sent the check and I mailed it to the credit card company. I thought this was the end of it, but no. It seems that the credit card company NEVER received the check. Last Christmas, 10 years after I sent the check, the credit card company lucked out when they tracked me to a relative's house in the States. The amount I owed was the same as the check I'd sent, so to answer your question, no, it doesn't accrue more interest. But, I would hazard a guess that my credit history is completely *beeped*.

[moonraven]

I am not recommending this to everybody--our circumstances are all different, and these are very individual decisions.

In my case, they hassled my mother for a few months, then I happened to be in the States for a short visit--at which point I sent the creditors letters telling them to not harrass my mother anymore or my attorney would take legal action, and that I would pay them when I could. They stopped calling my mother.

I have been back to the US a number of times for visits since then--this was more than 10 years ago now. As my attorney also said, they do not have process servers lurking at the airports.

For those of you who do plan to return to the States to live (which I do not--only for visits to see my daughter and friends) --I understand the bankruptcy laws are in the process of being changed, so it might not be as easy to declare bankruptcy as it has been--you should probably talk to an attorney there.

Now, from the standpoint of an accountant (I had my own firm for several years in the States), I can tell you that debts of that kind are written off rapidly by the companies. They can't keep a receivable on their balance sheet as an asset when it clearly isn't collectible. And 7 years USED to be the end of the black mark on your credit report, too.

[thelmadatter]

If your conscience does not bother you, then I suppose stiffing a credit card company is an option. But I am not one to advise not paying debts ... especially ones that a person freely incurs (as is the overwhelming majority of CC debt).

All the justifying that CC companies are evil corporations or that they are rich does not justify breaking one's promise to repay - which IS stealing.

Fortunately, I can pay the minor debt I do have back in the States ... If I couldnt I wouldnt be here.

[moonraven]

Uh, Thelma: I didn't advise that either. This is an individual matter--primarily economic--and conscience did not have to be dragged into it.

Holier-than-thou really doesn't become you.

[thelmadatter]

MR youre right.... youre a hell of a lot better at the holier-than-thou game than I am.

[Guy Courchesne]

Moonraven, I can't see how your posts would be interpreted other than advice to 'stiff the credit card companies'. Most people are concerned about credit rating and long term planning, even if people like you and I are not. I think your comments to Leigh are unwarranted.

[ls650]

I'm a big believer in karma. It seems to me that if one made purchases with a credit card, one should pay back those debts.

You reap what you sow. If you don't pay back what you owe, sooner or later the universe is going to find a way to get even with you...

[Samantha]

Oh, isn't that the truth? Karma works in not-so-mysterious ways.

[MixtecaMike]