Repaying An International Loan With Pesos From Argentina

[DaraMcC]

Hi Everyone,

A bit of relevant background: I studied in the UK and took out a student loan at the time. In the UK, if you have a student loan and later get a job, repayments are taken straight out of your pay like taxes are. However, if you move abroad and earn over a certain amount of money you are still required to make repayments. I now live here in BA and have a job (en blanco) which pays me in pesos, and the Student Loan company are asking me to make some repayments. Given Argentina's currency restrictions this is not straightforward. So, my questions are:

- Is anyone else in this situation? Is there a legal way to repay a UK student loan without having to change money on the black market?

- More generally, what do people do who earn pesos but have debts abroad?

Cheers

 

[ghost]

Usually they default.

 

[French jurist]

Legally (regarding the UK), you could be in a case of force majeure. This will protect you for sure if you defend yourself. Check the criterias for it and compare with being unable to send money abroad in a normal way, even if lawfully gained with all taxes paid.

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

If you have an Argentine credit card you can pay it with that. It's the official rate plus 20%, still cheaper than buying blue dollars. Think of it as buying Dollars with your Pesos.

 

[el_expatriado]

I

Legally (regarding the UK), you could be in a case of force majeure. This will protect you for sure if you defend yourself. Check the criterias for it and compare with being unable to send money abroad in a normal way, even if lawfully gained with all taxes paid.

This seems right to me. Ask them to provide you an account in Argentina to make the payments to. You could also go to AFIP and present a multinota asking for permission to buy dollars to payback this debt and then save a copy of the rejection notice as proof of your inability to obtain hard currency. It seems to me your creditor just needs to wait on you.

 

[Napoleon]

If you get to pay off your school loans at the official rate, then you are a rock star! That's practically stealing.

But technically it's legal.

 

[argsteve]

A good question to ask the student loan company.......they must have other cases of students working outside the UK....

ask them..... how can I pay you from argentina??? ....... maybe in malbec wine???? haha

 

[DaraMcC]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your help. To answer a few questions, I don't have a credit card, otherwise, you're right, this would have been a good way to go.

I have asked the student loans company, and they didn't really know what to say. They certainly didn't seem to have a system in place.

Sounds like I just have to tell them that I can't. If they're unhappy about this I'll see if the force majeure works. I'll let you know how I get on.

Cheers

 

[Smcali23]

I had to look into this myself recently and I managed to dodge it due to the fact that the rules are a bit more lenient if you took your loan out pre 1998. If you took out your loan after '98 you're actually in a far worse position than if you lived in the UK, as the repayments start at a much lower income.

 

[palermo_ms]

Hi Everyone,

A bit of relevant background: I studied in the UK and took out a student loan at the time. In the UK, if you have a student loan and later get a job, repayments are taken straight out of your pay like taxes are. However, if you move abroad and earn over a certain amount of money you are still required to make repayments. I now live here in BA and have a job (en blanco) which pays me in pesos, and the Student Loan company are asking me to make some repayments. Given Argentina's currency restrictions this is not straightforward. So, my questions are:

- Is anyone else in this situation? Is there a legal way to repay a UK student loan without having to change money on the black market?

- More generally, what do people do who earn pesos but have debts abroad?

Cheers

Hi Dara

Are you still in BA? I think you and I might be in the same situation and having dealt with this annual headache for the past 2 years it's a pain in the proverbial.

After getting my usual ridiculous payment plan again this week and I decided to have a look at what exchange rate they use. They claim to use an average exchange for the past years. Turns out it's closer to the average for 2012!!! They don't take into account the 35% AFIP on an Argentine card either, so you'll end up paying way more than the 9% that we are 'supposed to pay' over the really rather dreaming threshold (inflation also doesn't exist for SLC).

Argentina Argentine Peso 0.139241

I have an Argentine credit card, but even with that card I have yet to be able to make the repayments. Because it's not a purchase but a payment, it was rejected everytime I tried to use my ARG card - the same way a payment via credit card at an international travelex is also rejected.

Did you try the force majeure in the end? I have had multiple, headache forming phone calls with them and while they were sympathetic they were just like, if you're earning you have to pay.

Thanks