I graduated from a University in Canada and incurred about $50,000 in student loans from Royal Bank.  I have recently moved to the United States and married a US citizen.  In a year I will go for my US citizenship.

I do plan on paying off my loans and I have even started a small bank account that I am adding money to that will go towards my student loans.

My question- I don't plan on living in Canada.  I do have family still in Canada so I will still go back to visit.  If I stay in the US can they do anything to me here?  Such as garnish wages or taxes?  Can they take me to court?  Put a warrant out on me so when I come home I could get arrested?  Can they really do anything to me?  I'm getting a little nervous because I just had a debt collector call me.  He's even called my work.  Can he get me in trouble with work?

Thank you in advance for your replies.  My wife is really nervous and I would like to assure her that it's ok.  Beleive me I do plan on paying off my loans.  Morally I can't let that kind of money just slide.  I'm just not at a point in my life to start paying on it.  Thank you again.

B

If there is an avenue of ltigation against you, they can try to excercise it. If you are gainfully employed and it can be determined that you can pay, and are not, then they have a good chance to enforce.

 So, they can excercise their legal rights, and they can bring you to court providing that it is all done in accordance to all laws. However, they cannot arrest you or charge you with any criminal activity because you owe a student loan. If this were the case then 22% of the Canadian population would be either in jail or incarcerated in some fashion simply because they have student loans and are unable to meet the financial demands.

If you would like help, give us a buzz.

Johnny

http://www.cfwgroup.ca - www.cfwgroup.ca

http://www.cfwgroup.ca/forum - www.cfwgroup.ca/forum

As days pass, more and more people in these countries learn to speak English. Maybe a collector can't speak their language, but there's a good chance they'll find someone in that country who speaks English. Also, remember that Canadian collectors are often in Toronto, so who knows what they speak. English is what they use to deal with you, but many know another language or 2.

Buff

Anyone can declare bankruptcy. No one can guarantee youthat the student loans will be discharged - in Canada and USA.

Hi,

I am in a very similar situation to the individual in the original post.

I have also just moved to the US while owing approx. $40K to the Royal Bank of Canada in the form of a student line of credit. I took out this line of credit in the fall of 2003 and have been paying roughly $250 of interest monthly for the past 4 years (not touching the principal). Therefore, I have so far paid roughly $12 000 and still owe the original $40 000!!!

As I tend to get my Canadian mail a month late these days, I belatedly received a letter stating that as I am clearly no longer a student (this is correct, I graduated  in the spring of 2005 and have been out of school for the last 2 and half years), I would now owe nearly $565 a month for the next 10 years. By my calculations, this means that I would end up paying $80 000 for a $40K loan (not adjusted for inflation). This seems like usury to me, but maybe that is just how it works for student lines of credit.

Anyway, I digress. As I am a dual citizen, I could technically never return to Canada and never concern myself with this issue again or I could declare bankruptcy (not sure which option would be best). But as I am a fundamentally ethical person who has been unable to find meaningful employment in the past 2 years (which is why I moved to the US), I am looking for a way to negotiate a serious debt reduction and repayment plan.

I know the bank will not volunteer any useful way for me to reduce the amount outstanding and am wondering what is my best approach to resolving this matter in a way that will satisfy the bank while allowing me to move forward with my life? Can I ask for some debt reduction, can a get what I have paid so far put against my original loan, is there a government program that can help, or is there some other option I am not aware of?

This situation is extremely disconcerting and I can’t seem to find a workable solution that doesn’t involve defaulting or bankruptcy. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi there,

Hi,

Your story is similar to mine, I moved to US in 2001 and now married with children. I contacted RBC when I moved and continued paying my loan. It seems that, this student loan will never be paid off. I still owe them $5,500. Joj situation and financial difficulties have forced me of making payments for the past few months. I wonder what would happen as I called them and explained my financial difficulties. The RBC agent said, I can not apply for loan forgiveness becasue I am not living in canada anymore. I wonder if you could resolve you loan problem. any advise is greatly appreciated.\\Best regrds,

Andy.

Hi,

If you haven't made a payment since 1997, then you're safe as well.  You're loan is time barred, which means that you still owe the money, but the time limitation prevents the Gov, or anyone else from legally forcing you to pay it.  I suggest telling anyone that may call you to buzz-off..  If you admit in any form that you owe the money, your time limitation will be reset..

Be careful,

Hic

Like what? Being sued? I was sued by the CIBC for student loans and they couldn't bring it cross border because they didn't follow florida's law, to what I understood I needed to be advised that I was being sued in a timely fashion to be able to represent myself in Canada, they didn't do that. So this brings a good question up, is the CIBC's law suite against me in Canada still valide or can I have it recinded since I was not aware that I was being sued?

Expiry in this case means that the running of the period (time expired) has run it's course, and is applicable in your given case. AI guess the better description would be "coming into force" or  in effect.

I moved to California as part of a company transfer in July of 2006 and stopped paying my Royal Bank  student loans. Although it isn't a very valid excuse I wasn't sure how to go about paying as when I lived in Canada I made my payments by going directly into a Royal Bank. I fully intend to pay back loans.

 About 6 months ago I got calls from one of the collection agencies (for the life of me I can’t remember which one any more.) They called me at work and I informed the representative that this was a work number and if she wanted to discuss the options of repayment with me she could call me at home to which I would give her my home number. She told me that she had called my house and had left a message. I asked her if she was sure that she had phoned the right number and she told me that she had received my answering machine my name on it and that she had left a message indicating that it was important that I contact her. I told her that this was impossible since my answering machine does not state my name. This is entirely true, I never say my name on my personal answering machine only my phone number. I also told her that I receive many solicitation calls on my machine and do not respond unless I know the nature of the call. I told her that if I had known that this was in regards to a debt owed I would have returned the phone call. I informed her that I would like to set up a payment plan yet she demanded the entire loan in full. (typical borrow from family, get a loan from a USA bank, ect.) I told her that I was able to make a large sum payment, I didn't indicate how much, and that I could continue to make payments monthly. She refused again telling me that she was going to hang up on me and have my wages garnished. I told her to go ahead and try, (in retrospect I probably shouldn’t have said that.) She contacted the Human Resources Manager in our Richmond British Columbia office and he called me to tell me that he received a call and made the mistake of telling her I was in California. I am not sure if it was before or after I had talked to her, however, I believe that my comment of go ahead and try to garnish my wages could be taken as permission to contact my employer.

I didn’t here anything more from that agency after that conversation, and a few more months passed when I started receiving calls on my answering machine from a Mrs. Campbell telling me that it was important that I contact her. The calls always occur when I am at work as I am sure that these agencies can not figure out that there is a three hour time difference between California and Ontario. Were I to be home when they phone I would answer the phone. I am very patient and can handle daily conversations.  Yet they are not going anywhere if I am to be told every time that I have to pay in full. I just got a letter in mail the other day from Nor Don that said I had 48 hours to repay my loan or they would be contacting a lawyer in Los Angeles. It has the same wording as letters I have seen posted in other forums to those living in Canada about seizing my assets, bank accounts, home, car, ect, but with the threat of the LA lawyers.

They have managed to have Equifax Canada check my credit with Equifax in the USA. The other two credit bureaus however have been unaffected. I have a good credit score in the USA despite this but do not have any other credit here other than a $1000 dollar limit on a credit card. In other words I have nothing to seize, besides my bank accounts of which I do not believe they can touch without a law suit. (correct me if I am wrong, but they couldn’t seize any of my assets with out having drawn it out in court.) I am sure that they are sorely disappointed to find that I do not have anything according to the records that they have that they can chase after.   

So that’s the story so far. This is what I plan to do but I need some advice here. As I stated at the start I fully intend to pay my loans. Over the past two years I have been saving a lot of money. (I am single, paid decently, have low expenses, and since I don’t own a car none of financial burdens that come along with an automobile.) I have enough saved to make a MAJOR dent in what I still owe in loans. I could almost pay them all off but that would completely drain me of the safety net that I have established here.

This is where I need advice. First off I do not know how to make a payment from the USA. Every piece of paper that I receive tells me that I can make a payment at the Royal Bank, CIBC, TD, all Canadian institutions. These banks simply do not exist in Southern California. What are my options? Where do I pay? I don’t think I can write a check that can be cashed in Canada.

My second question is who should I pay? I would rather not give collection agency a dime of that money. Their appalling ethics and strong arm tactics do not leave me with any desire to see them as successful. If I make a payment directly to the Royal Bank would Nor Don still receive their commission? If they do, I know that there is nothing I can do about that and would be willing to accept it. Is paying the Royal Bank still an option?

Bottom line is per confusion got me in this mess and I was not diligent enough to figure this out before I left Canada. I have no reasonable excuse for not making payments but do want to and need to know the best route to take.