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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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 Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 1:33 am Post subject: |
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| northway wrote: |
| Weigookin74 wrote: |
Let me add, student loans are the worst to default on. If you are or know someone back home thinking of coming over and doing this, try to have a card with another bank. Keep that one and the student loans in good standing by paying on those. Let the rest go if you must. When your credit clears in several years, you'll have good standing and you'll be surprised how quickly your credit limits rise after this and you'll have an easier time transitioning to life back home after this.
Even with these steps, if you come here in your late 20's, it might take you till you're 40, which will be frustrating as it seems your fellow English teachers are partying it up while you're not, but it will work out for you in the end.
Good luck whatever you decide.
(PS America might be different in these regards as may be other countries. You have to research more yourself.) |
Student loans can't be discharged in the States... |
Well that sucks. In Canada, you can be harassed and even sued in court if you live in the country. But it gets written off after six years from the last payment just like credit cards do. But, you use to be able to wait 10 years, declare bankruptcy, and then wait six years to get your life back. Sixteen years is still a long time, however. But, if you're successful at hiding out and not being traceable you could get away from it. Had some friends do that. Government couldn't sue them because they didn't know where they were.
Now, it has been changed to seven years waiting time to declare bankruptcy down from 10. But, the old interest relief periods where the government paid the interest on your behalf now requires you to pay some of that interest cost yourself. Meanwhile, the principal remains frozen in time. I changed my major from business to arts back to business. Put me on the 5 year plan and I graduated with 50 K in debt. Kept that frozen for a few years before coming over here. Did rack up some CC debt for a time over here too (partly my fault; partly circumstance). Loans aren't the problem as bad as interest is reasonable but those cards will eat you alive with interest once the balance starts climbing. |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 1:37 am Post subject: |
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| Fox wrote: |
| I knew a woman back in the States who was in tens of thousands of student loan debt for studying art at a community college. Of course the tuition was never anywhere near that high, most of that is penalties for various pitfalls into which she fell. Penalties are one of the most abusive elements of the finance industry, keeping as they do the people who can least afford it trapped in debt. It's transparently predatory. |
What kind of penalties are we talking about? My loans are prime plus 2.5%. Interest rates were lower. I was down to 4% for a while. Now, I'm 5.5%. No penalties except for this interest accumulating on the principal if I don't pay on it.
Sounds really confusing that system you have in the US if I'm understanding correctly. |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 2:39 am Post subject: |
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| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Fox wrote: |
| I knew a woman back in the States who was in tens of thousands of student loan debt for studying art at a community college. Of course the tuition was never anywhere near that high, most of that is penalties for various pitfalls into which she fell. Penalties are one of the most abusive elements of the finance industry, keeping as they do the people who can least afford it trapped in debt. It's transparently predatory. |
What kind of penalties are we talking about? |
She fell behind on her loan payments due to being unemployed for a while, which resulted in her loan going into collection, which resulted in some rather large penalty being tacked on. She started making payments again and "rehabilitated" her loan, but not too long later ended up getting put back into collection and having another penalty slapped on, and so forth. I don't know all the specifics, but I do know a debt of thousands of dollars has ballooned into a debt of tens of thousands. |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 4:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Fox wrote: |
| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Fox wrote: |
| I knew a woman back in the States who was in tens of thousands of student loan debt for studying art at a community college. Of course the tuition was never anywhere near that high, most of that is penalties for various pitfalls into which she fell. Penalties are one of the most abusive elements of the finance industry, keeping as they do the people who can least afford it trapped in debt. It's transparently predatory. |
What kind of penalties are we talking about? |
She fell behind on her loan payments due to being unemployed for a while, which resulted in her loan going into collection, which resulted in some rather large penalty being tacked on. She started making payments again and "rehabilitated" her loan, but not too long later ended up getting put back into collection and having another penalty slapped on, and so forth. I don't know all the specifics, but I do know a debt of thousands of dollars has ballooned into a debt of tens of thousands. |
Really? That is a pretty lousy system you got there. I'm a free enterprise mdoerately right leaning kind of guy, but that just sounds like abuse, fraud, and exploitation. How can people be expected to contributed to society with that kind of bondage?
I do know for credit cards, US ones charge past due fees if the payment posts late. If it puts you over your limit, you get charged another over limit fee. That stuff is illegal in Canada. I worked for a US card company dealing with some of their American business from Canada. This said, it's much harder to get credit cards in Canada due to some of these consumer protections, but I do agree with them.
Sounds like the same for student loans down there too. Mine are with the government. Are these government loans or are there more private companies involved? |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 5:10 pm Post subject: |
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| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| How can people be expected to contributed to society with that kind of bondage? |
They cannot be expected to do so, but it's not about encouraging contribution. It's about wealth extraction.
| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Sounds like the same for student loans down there too. Mine are with the government. Are these government loans or are there more private companies involved? |
There's more than one type of student loan. I've never delt with the system, so I don't know that much about it honestly. I'm sure someone here must know more. |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 5:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Fox wrote: |
| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| How can people be expected to contributed to society with that kind of bondage? |
They cannot be expected to do so, but it's not about encouraging contribution. It's about wealth extraction.
| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Sounds like the same for student loans down there too. Mine are with the government. Are these government loans or are there more private companies involved? |
There's more than one type of student loan. I've never delt with the system, so I don't know that much about it honestly. I'm sure someone here must know more. |
Do many Americans not take out student loans then? I have met quite a few that either haven't taken out loans or have very low debt levels. So, I wonder if the recession flooded more privledged kids into Korea. I got here in pre recession Korea and I think most of the folks in those days did have student loans. Many defaulted, some paid like me, while others were just on a different planet. |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 6:57 pm Post subject: |
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| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Do many Americans not take out student loans then? |
I think many university-bound American students take out at least some student loans. |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 7:51 pm Post subject: |
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| Fox wrote: |
| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Do many Americans not take out student loans then? |
I think many university-bound American students take out at least some student loans. |
It just seems that the last few years (post recession) a lot of Americans have either no debt or pretty low. Had a friend complain about being 18 K in the hole. (I had to restrain myself. Ha ha.) Anyhow, taking his time (and I'm assuming with low interest) he paid it off in just over two years. Another couple that got here 2009 paid their off in a year. They were maybe 10 grand.
So, it seems with the USA there's two extremes, a lot of debt and a life of bondage or little to no debt and a quick path to recovery (even with declining salaries and a diminshed exchange rate for a while). I'm guessing the other nationalities teaching here are more somewhere in between? Anyhow, the tempation to default was huge but being a recovering bad credit addict, I decided not to re-lapse. lol.
Didn't know the won would tank like it did and for so long. Otherwise, in the beginning, I may have been more inclined to. But, in hindsight, I'm glad I didn't default even if I'm still facing another 2 or 3 years in the hole. (That's loans and credit cards.) |
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Stan Rogers
Joined: 20 Aug 2010
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 8:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Fox wrote: |
| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Do many Americans not take out student loans then? |
I think many university-bound American students take out at least some student loans. |
It just seems that the last few years (post recession) a lot of Americans have either no debt or pretty low. Had a friend complain about being 18 K in the hole. (I had to restrain myself. Ha ha.) Anyhow, taking his time (and I'm assuming with low interest) he paid it off in just over two years. Another couple that got here 2009 paid their off in a year. They were maybe 10 grand.
So, it seems with the USA there's two extremes, a lot of debt and a life of bondage or little to no debt and a quick path to recovery (even with declining salaries and a diminshed exchange rate for a while). I'm guessing the other nationalities teaching here are more somewhere in between? Anyhow, the tempation to default was huge but being a recovering bad credit addict, I decided not to re-lapse. lol.
Didn't know the won would tank like it did and for so long. Otherwise, in the beginning, I may have been more inclined to. But, in hindsight, I'm glad I didn't default even if I'm still facing another 2 or 3 years in the hole. (That's loans and credit cards.) |
I know a guy who defaulted and has built himself a nice line of credit in another country. |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 8:40 pm Post subject: |
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The problem with that is that it doesn't follow you home should you ever decide to return.
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Stan Rogers
Joined: 20 Aug 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 6:17 am Post subject: |
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| ttompatz wrote: |
The problem with that is that it doesn't follow you home should you ever decide to return.
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The guy I know is never going back. He's not a teacher. He has a felony on his record and can't get a good job in America because of something that happened 20 years ago when he was a college student.
The government doesn't care about his problems so why should he care about their's? |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 5:50 pm Post subject: |
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| Stan Rogers wrote: |
| ttompatz wrote: |
The problem with that is that it doesn't follow you home should you ever decide to return.
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The guy I know is never going back. He's not a teacher. He has a felony on his record and can't get a good job in America because of something that happened 20 years ago when he was a college student.
The government doesn't care about his problems so why should he care about their's? |
As long as he can legally stay and has permanent residence in this new country, I guess it'll work out. He prob could get rid of his criminal record and apply for a pardon. Know a Canadadian dude who is in a similiar situation. HE's an F5 now, married with kids here. But for several eyars, it was touch and go with his wife having a temper and always threatening to divorce him. Needless to say, he had nothing to go back to and was very stressed for a long time. He had a criminal record back home and defaulted on everything. He's built him self some credit here. One of the rare ones, it has worked out for. But, if he went home, he'd have to apply for a pardon with the RCMP and have a lot of money saved to finance a restart back home. He has no credit history in Canada now. |
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KimchiNinja
Joined: 01 May 2012
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 6:08 pm Post subject: |
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| Fox wrote: |
| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| How can people be expected to contributed to society with that kind of bondage? |
They cannot be expected to do so, but it's not about encouraging contribution. It's about wealth extraction. |
I've noticed a pattern; Fox's posts are spot on. 
The 99% "contribute to society" by being the food of the 1%. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 8:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Let me add, student loans are the worst to default on. |
If you've defaulted on your student loans, consult the William D. Ford program first and Chapter 13 bankruptcy second. |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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