Paying US Student Loans in the UK...

I've browsed a few pages looking to see if this had been brought up before, and if it has and I missed it, my apologies :'(

I'm looking to get a spousal visa to the UK later this year, and I am in the midst of paying off a student loan to Sallie Mae. I'm wondering if any UK banks will send electronic payments to US companies (Sallie Mae being based in PA) in order to pay that loan off while I'm in the UK. I could technically keep my US account open, but no money will be going into it, so I won't be able to pay my bill like I normally do since any money I will have will be tied into my husband's Nationwide bank account.

So, for those of you in the UK who had/have student loans to pay, did you find a way of paying them from a UK bank account? Or did you have to sort out some way of getting money into a US bank account?

There are threads on this but I can't dig them up either. I think people have tried a variety of ways to do this and IIRC, many end up using PayPal to pay UK pounds into their US bank. I believe it's ultimately the cheapest way to do it. The banks charge you a fair amount to do it thru them.

I pay my student loans through my internet bank account.  It's how I make all payments to U.S.-based accounts.  ING Direct or HSBC are good ones.

I pay my student loans through my internet bank account.  It's how I make all payments to U.S.-based accounts.  ING Direct or HSBC are good ones.

Do you mean you pay the supplier directly through your UK internet bank account, or do you transfer money to your US bank account and then pay the supplier?

I'm interested if its the former, as I'm sick of doing the latter!!

Do you mean you pay the supplier directly through your UK internet bank account, or do you transfer money to your US bank account and then pay the supplier?

I'm interested if its the former, as I'm sick of doing the latter!!

It's the latter, unfortunately.  ING Direct seems to have a bit of a presence in the UK, but I don't know if they would allow a transfer from UK-US.  I haven't looked into that yet.

I do mine through PayPal. It's annoying since it takes almost two weeks to complete the process (7-9 days to transfer from UK bank to PayPal, then 3-5 days from PayPal to US bank) so I have to do it immediately after getting paid each month. However, it's a pretty straightforward method and definitely the cheapest.

Me three.  I possibly do it a more complicated way.  I have a .com email account and a .com paypal account.  I also have a .co.uk email account and a .co.uk paypal account!!!  So I use the .co.uk accounts to pay my .com account and then withdraw the funds into my US account.  I generally start the transfer a good two weeks before the payment is due, and then the student loan people automatically withdraw the funds for the loan payment from my US account.  It is, indeed, a pain, but it works...

Me three.  I possibly do it a more complicated way.  I have a .com email account and a .com paypal account.  I also have a .co.uk email account and a .co.uk paypal account!!!  So I use the .co.uk accounts to pay my .com account and then withdraw the funds into my US account.  I generally start the transfer a good two weeks before the payment is due, and then the student loan people automatically withdraw the funds for the loan payment from my US account.  It is, indeed, a pain, but it works...

I do this as well- it's certainly not the cheapest option, but it's pretty easy (and I'm lazy about stuff like this!)  It takes about 3-4 days at most for the money to be transferred from my UK bank account to my US bank account via Paypal.

Anne- I'm surprised it takes you two weeks!  Withdrawing the money from my UK bank to Paypal is done immediately for me (well, the money isn't actually gone from my account immediately, but it's credited to my Paypal balance for me to send to my US account immediately.)

Thanks for all the replies More likely than not I'll end up using some sort of UK bank-paypal-US bank system, it seems like it's kinda popular here. It's a pain in the ars* kinda, but hopefully once I get more money coming in I can get ahead on my loan and pay it off

Anne- I'm surprised it takes you two weeks!  Withdrawing the money from my UK bank to Paypal is done immediately for me (well, the money isn't actually gone from my account immediately, but it's credited to my Paypal balance for me to send to my US account immediately.)

Hm. I don't know, maybe I'm doing something wrong? It always says '7-9 days' when I do it. Or maybe it's Lloyds TSB who make things take longer.

Sallie Mae take credit card payments. I just ring them each month and give them my English debit card number as though it's a credit card. Haven't had a problem yet. AES is another kettle of fish though and requires faffing around with money transfers. It's one of my biggest bugbears that a company that makes loans for overseas study won't take a payment from overseas!

It's one of my biggest bugbears that a company that makes loans for overseas study won't take a payment from overseas!

I know, seriously!

I didn't know that about Sallie Mae accepting a UK debit card. Hm. I wonder if my other loan company would do the same?

Hm. I don't know, maybe I'm doing something wrong? It always says '7-9 days' when I do it. Or maybe it's Lloyds TSB who make things take longer.

On second thought, I think it's because I'm sending a payment to my US paypal account, as if I was paying for something on eBay (when I buy something using paypal the seller gets their money credited to Paypal immediately, as far as I know!)  I don't use the option to directly withdraw money from my UK paypal account to my US bank account- I think that's where I've seen the 7-9 days you're talking about.

You have to tell them it's a credit card. For some reason if you say it's a debit card from the UK they won't take it. Weird!

Sallie Mae take credit card payments. I just ring them each month and give them my English debit card number as though it's a credit card. Haven't had a problem yet. AES is another kettle of fish though and requires faffing around with money transfers. It's one of my biggest bugbears that a company that makes loans for overseas study won't take a payment from overseas!

Oooo, there's a thought. I might have to try that once I get set up in the UK, I had no idea they'd do something like that I've always just made direct debits so it's not something I really thought about.