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Carl, a Florida native now living overseas, is afraid to move back to the United States. That's because he can't afford to pay his student loans.
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"It was made clear that if I ever came home, I'm screwed," says Carl.
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"If it means I have to live in exile from friends and family...well, that's the breaks. So be it. But I won't put my family in a situation where they are afraid," he says.
While most Americans are burdened with debt of some kind, student loan repayment can be a particularly scary prospect for young people struggling to start a career. Payments are often higher than expected, and the loans can't easily be discharged. Added pressure from debt collectors causes some grads to flee their loans by fleeing the country.
To date, there is about $60 billion in defaulted student loan debt according to Chris Lang of the New York-based debt collection agency, ConServe. But while skipping town to avoid paying student loans isn't very common - Lang estimates that only about 2% to 4% of delinquent student loan debt is owed from students abroad - for some, it seems like the only way out.
Originally posted by marg6043
reply to post by Karlhungis
Interesting, you may be right, it will be many that if they can afford to flee the nation to avoid their bills they will.
My daughter was caught in the student loan also, but we helped her with the expenses so her debt is now under 10,000 dollars, but that doesn't count the credit card debt tha she also have from her student years.
In order to avoid the incredible high interest she took another loan to pay for the her highest interest credit card, even when she asked over and over the bank of America to lower her interest rates, they didn't even care.
As long as she can keep her job she will pay for some of her bills (we still pay for the rest) and be able to pretend that she has a life of Independence, ( she's planing to move back home in two months) so she can pay her student loan faster.
What a future of our children this days.
Originally posted by marg6043
Bank of America and Wachovia are the two worst banks in this nation when it comes to costumer care.
Yes is some irresponsibility when it comes to avoiding bills, but as the economy keeps deteriorating and we keep bailing out corrupted financial institutions but not he consumer and the tax payer, more and more people are finding themselves with not jobs.
This means that debt will accumulate, we responsible parents may take some of the debt of our children (this my husband and me in my daughters case) but some others are not as lucky.
I can not even think what would happen if my husband loses his job in this volatile economy.
Then we may find ourselves also in a debt crunch.
But we try no to even think about it.
And I definitely don't want my daughter to flee oversea to avoid her debt if she loses her job