Direct debit for US student loan payments from a UK account

So in consideration of my impending move in August, I've been mulling over all my banking options. One of my chief concerns about maintaining a US bank account is student loan repayment, which will start for me in 2016.

Does anyone know if I can set up direct debit payments from a UK account? I looked on the dept of education website and I couldn't find any mention of using foreign accounts. 

I'm just trying to figure out how critical it will be for me to maintain a US account that I can easily transfer money into from the UK.

There may be changes between now and 2016, but just maintain your US account. It will not be easy to do direct payments from a UK account.

I have been re-paying my student loan using a US account that I have kept open.  I know that you can set up a direct debit with US accounts but I am not sure about with UK accounts.  Might be worth calling your loan provider and asking them.  I transfer money between my accounts using PayPal.  The fees are usually only about £1 or so to transfer money so the system works pretty well. 

Ok that's not too bad for transfer fees.  Just trying to decide how my banking decisions now will affect me down the line. I'm thinking of switching from Wells Fargo to Capital One 360, mostly because Wells is terrible for international ATM fees an other international fees. And capital one has no international fees whatsoever, but doesn't accept international wire transfers. :/ but if I can do it with paypal I should be fine. Plus my mother will be willing to pay out of her account if I wire things to her.

It may depend on the loan servicing company.  Mine's through Sallie Mae, and there's no way to set up any kind of online payment-- one-off or recurring-- from anything other than a U.S. checking account.  I can't even just pay online with my Visa debit card.

While I do still have my old credit union checking account, I find the idea of having to remember to transfer a certain amount of money, by a certain time each month (and paying the transfer fees), a recipe for loan default.  So I just pay with my Visa over the phone each month.  It's a very small amount anyway, so the foreign transaction fee (1%, I think?) is just pennies.  I've got free U.S. calling, so the only thing it costs is time and sanity.

I'm still not sure why, if they're able to take Visa payments over the phone, they can't take them online as well.  But oh well.

As a side-note, anyone who hasn't looked into the Income-Based Repayment plan should check it out.  My monthly payment went from $420, to $20.

That's good to know then for phone payment. Mine are mostly through FedLoan Servicing. I suppose I'll just cross that bridge when I come to it.