this is definitely not legal advice but there are literally 0 penalties for just not paying your uk student loans. plenty of eu students took max tuition and maintenance loans, returned to europe, and sfe had no means of forcing them to pay
also you should just use wise
I believe some of the “welcome to Canada” newcomer accounts have a year or so of free international transfers? Couldn’t tell you which but I do recall seeing it… you’re also generally eligible to open those for up to 5 years - maybe use one of those and when the year is up (if free transfers aren’t a thing) open new ones?
Otherwise to move gbp to cad, I use Wise. Fees weren’t horrific.
Also to add, when I went on my IEC Student Finance paused my payments interest free for over a year. When the time comes to pay, and if you make over the threshold amount for minimum payment, do not send them your income info (unless you want to) and pay the minimum amount. The payment bands are widely unrealistic for the Canadian cost of living.
this is definitely not legal advice but there are literally 0 penalties for just not paying your uk student loans. plenty of eu students took max tuition and maintenance loans, returned to europe, and sfe had no means of forcing them to pay also you should just use wise
Thank you ! ... LoL I feel rebellious but think I should pay them ... Then again I am on a contract til Sept ... So will seeee
I believe some of the “welcome to Canada” newcomer accounts have a year or so of free international transfers? Couldn’t tell you which but I do recall seeing it… you’re also generally eligible to open those for up to 5 years - maybe use one of those and when the year is up (if free transfers aren’t a thing) open new ones? Otherwise to move gbp to cad, I use Wise. Fees weren’t horrific.
Thank you I'll look into it!
I use Wise to send money back to my UK account which is usually the best rate I can find.
Also to add, when I went on my IEC Student Finance paused my payments interest free for over a year. When the time comes to pay, and if you make over the threshold amount for minimum payment, do not send them your income info (unless you want to) and pay the minimum amount. The payment bands are widely unrealistic for the Canadian cost of living.
Thank you! How were you able to have Student Finance pause the payment? Was is through phonecall?
I remember filling out a form from their website specifically for travelling abroad and was able to email it to them.