[ontheouter]

I'd like some advice from other kiwis in the same boat as me.
I've been away from NZ for over 5 years, when I left the repayment rules for student loans were requiring a payment of 15% of my loan annually while out of the country (this is regardless of the amount owed), which was more than I could afford on my initially skimpy London wage.
So I didn't pay.
Basically what I want to know is if there is anyone out there who has not paid while away in this manner, and then returned to NZ to live? If so, what happened with your loan? Did you revert to the normal payment scheme, of repaying anything over the income threshold?
Was there any other penalty? (Other than the whopping penalty you will have been charged for non-payment while away from NZ)
I have seen that there is a new amnesty on loans for overseas debtors.
http://www.ird.govt.nz/studentloans/overseas/while-away/amnesty-penalties/
You can start paying the loan at a reduced rate and receive interest and penalty write-offs. Shame this was not the case 5 years ago....
Do the goal posts ever stop moving with student loans??

[N/A]

oh forget about all that nonsense........ what kind of boobs do you prefer?

[Snowy_Kiwi]

[Dibby]

5 years & you decide to ask this question now, unreal.

[Shared Username]

[AGAG]

If you are still around I wouldn't worry about it, I haven't made a repayment yet, left uni 8 years ago and been out of the country for 3 years. I rung them a few weeks ago about the amnesty and they sent me the details in the post, have to make a $1000 repayment every 6 months and then regular payments, I would ring them and apply for the amnesty if I were you.

[ontheouter]

Thanks for that AGAG, nice to get a proper reply. I did think this would be a good place to get advice rather than attempted slap-downs! as the previous replies were, o well.
I've decided to go ahead with the amnesty, at the least can go for the 3 year repayment holiday after I do my 2 year amnesty obligation.
Still feel bitter about it all, talk about being part of the guinea pig generation, caught between one generation with free education and another who now have interest free loans.... Cheers and good luck with those repayments

[Angel 12]

[legalalien]

hey there, in the same boat, have signed up for the amnesty/irdnasty, tbh I was completely oblivious to it till today well they say death and taxes are the only true certainties... and someone said earlier, just happened to be in the new 'paying' generation of students and have been cringing ever since

btw am surprised at the timewaster responses weird,

good luck with it all - it IS frustrating!

[Joeli]

Hey dude,
Totally go with the amnesty thing at least it will have been begun to be sorted. When you get home your loan should stop accruing interest cos thems the rules. . . . but unfortunatly you will have to pay back the interest you have accrued in the meantime.
Don't despair, I have only been out of the country a year, didn't sort anything before I left, and while I have been able to take advantage of the no interest thing it stops as soon as you leave the country, so I am now adding interest. not making payments mind you, and haven't been out of the country long enough to do the amnesty thing.

Some people are slappers can't believe the weirdo responses you been getting!

[scruffy82]

You think your fucked.My wife moved to Ireland over 12 years got married and now she tells me she got this student loan in NZ. How bad can it be thinks I(think again here comes thunder bolt)price of a few books and maybe a bicycle. NO HOW BOUT 30 FREKIN GRAND. And shes up the duff meaning she wont be working.I know 30 Gs may not be massive as Im sure many of your loans are much greater than that but at least you knew they were there.

[aapcox69]

Hi there,

I left NZ in 97, moving to Australia, then to UK in 04 (and am still here) and pretty much ignored the student loan since I left.

When the amnesty came out I was certainly interested to see what was the story.

I had c. $20k o/s when I left NZ, but including all the interest and penalty charges accrued since then, my all in balance was just over $50k as of the end of last year (the crooks I hear you say).

Just to get rid of this I have taken advantage of the Amnesty and the IRD has agreed to wave all the penaly charges on the basis I pay NZ$1500 (at least) twice a year.

Taking away the penalty charges, my loan balance is just over $33k (still criminal, when compared to the Aussi system which charges CPI from memory) and which using the NZ CPI numbers would have given a balance of c. NZ26k. So while $33k is not great, its still better than $50k+ and whilst I never intend to live in NZ again (its Sydney for me I'm afraid), its one of those things that I thought I'd better get sorted at some point.

I have a very friendly lady at the IRD who I deal with now (via email) who confirms when my payments (two so far) have been received and is very useful in answering any queries I have.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Tone

[hugheskevi]

[quote]Taking away the penalty charges, my loan balance is just over $33k (still criminal, when compared to the Aussi system which charges CPI from memory) [/quote]

I wouldn't call an 11 year, penalty-free unsecured loan at 4.7% APR criminal - sounds a pretty good deal

[hogffej]

16 June 2008

To the: Overseas Student Loans Department,
New Zealand Herald
Helen Clark – NZ Prime Minister
Chris Carter – NZ Minister for Education
Parekura Horomia – NZ Associate Minister for Education
John Key – National Head
Anne Tolley – National Education
Teringa Teawhe – Greens Education
Scoop.co.nz
oops! – UK Antipodean Magazine
Auckland University Student Union

Requesting justification for Student Loans Double Standard.


This is an open letter and I encourage replies from all readers.

I am a Kiwi, I have a degree from Auckland University, and yes, I do currently live overseas in the UK. I have a Student loan of approximately NZ$30,000. My wife’s is just tipping the scales at NZ$44.000.
My wife found work in her field of study, but for me, a geology degree was to open few doors. I subsequently went into the trades. We worked full time jobs and paid what was required into our student loans.
We came overseas in 2005, looking for better jobs, better money and of course the opportunity to travel. We accepted our commitments of two Student Loans.

We try to refrain from whinging about our student loans, as we did knowingly enter a contract with the lender (NZ Govt) for the cash to fund an education that we wanted to buy. No-one made us seek a higher education, but perhaps as a hangover from not-so-long-ago times when University Education was free to students, we quite naturally slid on into the lecture theatres but with a bag of debt on our shoulders.

But that’s all water under the bridge now.

What hasn’t flowed under the bridge for me just yet is this seemingly double standard on who gets charged interest on their loan.

Why are you charging overseas loan holders interest on their Student Loans when those at home pay none?

Is it to provide an incentive to return home early? Or to never leave the country?
An OE is just that, an Overseas Experience. New Zealand is a very open-minded country, and Kiwis overseas pride themselves on that. To discourage the OE tradition is sad and would not only change a NZ’ers open-mindedness but also the greater worlds view of us. Not to mention the wealth of skills and work experience that we bring home.

Is it for revenue?
We’ll, here’s how it goes, my wife’s and my interest only repayments equate to $5000 per annum. That’s enough for most of our travel plans to be binned.
So basically, some smarty-pants, has devised a plan to not only rein in money from relatively voiceless overseas student loan holders, but to get them home early so that NZ can benefit from their now limited experience.

We spent over five years covering interest repayments on our student loans when we lived in NZ and for almost another 3 years since we’ve been overseas. That’s $40,000 in interest alone, without even touching the principle amounts! If we were starting out as graduates now and paid a similar amount, we would have knocked the loan on its head. It feels highly unfair for many caught in the middle.
Do the fair thing and retro-credit our student loans - convert the interest payments into principle payments. And don’t stop there, zero interest for all.

We’re not asking for our education to be free, we’re past that grievance. All we’re asking for is a bit more recognition of the effort that most of us have put in and to be treated fairly.


Yours sincerely,

[Urbanexit]

[outofhere]

it was nice to find this forum, yeah I am in the same boat. Stuck two fingers up and now the orginal loan $35 000 is now $59 000!!!! this was one of the first loans taken out in 1992. Same thing, when i first went overseas you had to pay 15% of the loan + interest - I just wasn't earning enough. Now they have changed the rules again - but with $59 000 why bother (it will take me 35 years to pay it off - I will be a pensioner by then!).

Does anyone know of anyone that has declared bankruptcy (I know it is dischargeable under the insolvency act).

Not sure what my next move is - I have to get my passport renewed next year and I am worried that big brothers tentacles can extend that far?

[Urbanexit]

No I don't know of anyone who has declared bankruptcy but I just dont worry about it It can go up to upteen billion dollars for all I care.

At the end of the day if they ever catch up with us the worst case scenario is bankruptcy (ie three years of being poor) which is going to be a hell of a lot easier than paying it off.

If students were truely smart none of them would pay anything and the loan system would spiral towards collapse much faster, an extra billion a year will do it in the long term but if no one paid anything the system would collapse within years.

[DrSlutto]

Same here - fight the system - bring it all down yeah!

[king_tut]

Sorry if I sound stupid here, but do unpaid debts not get written off after a few years in NZ?? Here, in UK I think after 7 years the debt is written off, but that is 7 years after they(creditor) last recieves communication from you. If there is such a ruling in NZ(not that I am advocating it)then it maybe an idea not to get in touch, especialy if you have already gone 5 years

[Urbanexit]

I'd be talking to an NZ laywer to confirm any such law before talking to the IRD and re-alerting them thats for sure.
The government has pissed me off too much to go back anyhow. NZ's a beautiful place with a fucked up government who can't see the long term consequences of its actions.

I believe this student loan scheme was just a debt transferral from previous debt the government had racked up in the 60's/70's.
They needed a solution to get out of debt and students were the suckers who took it on.... the equivalent of passing out cocaine to children. Kids of 17 and 18 aren't ready to handle that amount of money responsibly. I know I certainly wasn't

[Princesscupcake]

In Mexico they protested about having to pay about NZ$5 to be able to study at Uni. I agree that the whole student loan scheme is a cruel and corrupt practice. Education should be FREE!!!

Is it true that if you return to NZ now (my student loan is now in it's seventh year and I haven't paid a cent back) you will be held there before paying a percentage of your loan?

As far as I know the bankrupt thing only applies to Canadians.

[mrstacy]

Hi
As with people above - I am due to renew my nz passport but have a loan that I have ignored since leaving nz for UK and Sydney 10 years ago.
I have been back to NZ for hilodays etc a few times with no issues at customs re outstanding loan...

I am now a dual NZ/Aust citizen, so could apply for either passport i choose.
I will always be a kiwi at heart. The All Blacks kicked arse just last night in fact! --- but if they are going to charge me $30,000 or so (a rough guess at where the loan could be now) for the NZ passport, then obvoiusly they can get fucked - and I will carry on living in Sydney with their mony invested in property

Does anybody know where I can check if my application for nz passport will bring the loans ugly head to surface?
I passionately want to get the nz passport over the Aust.

Thank you for any useful information...

[CushCoo]

Thank goodness there's more like me out there. I can't bear to even think about the fecking loan as it makes me so depressed. And like the rest of you, as much as I love NZ and would love to return I ain't doing that anytime soon. I'll stay and help the health of another nation rather than help a govt that buggered us all!
Interest free credit cards in the UK are one way my wonderful husband has taken to dealing with my loan. But now we have no life - can't afford to do anything!! How do we move forward with these hanging over us. No wonder London and the rest of UK is so full of Kiwi's.

I feel slightly better having read your replies but the whole thing still sux.

Cheers to those who are brave enough to give the finger, I'm right behind you in theory, but have a husband who won't let me!!

Depressed, Oxford.

[ramyos]

Im not paying mine back, I have no idea how much it has amounted to since finishing in 2005 after 5.5 years of study, but I couldnt find a job in NZ and stuff it if Im going to be paying back all this interest when the govt makes money out of our loans by charging us interest above the inflation rate.
Ill stay overseas forever if I have to, and if this prevents me from renewing my NZ passport then so be it. A holiday back to NZ is not worth the 90k+ that I allegedly owe.

[kiwiinholland]

You'll always be able to renew your kiwi passport even with an overdue student loan. Even though all the government departments are linked, even when going through customs on a visit to NZ they don't stop you and thrown you in jail. Its just a way of them knowing where in the world you are I suppose. I'm also a kiwi who skipped after finishing my degree. I haven't paid a cent back to date and its been 14 years since I left.

I did ring the IRD when I heard about the amnesty but was 2 weeks too late would you believe and no they wouldn't make an exception. My initial loan was 9K and is now 23K and I'm supposed to be paying $2000 a year but haven't paid anything. I still keep getting the statements from the IRD but until I'm in a financial position to pay it they're not getting a red cent.

i also agree with one of the posts; why do we overseas kiwis with loans have to even pay interest when those at home don't? is it because they can't find us but deduct it from the ex students pay straight away? The whole student loan system is a complete farce and has cost the country millions instead of having education available at a reasonable cost to all. I was also one of the guinea pigs when the loans first came out - how many of us had no other choice but to take it. As for the means tested student allowance, don't get me started on that one!!