Paying US Student Loans in Canada

[Weary79]

Hello!

I have been searching the internet for days, and I cannot seem to find anything substantial. I hope someone here can help me out!!

My husband and I are anticipating a 'Decision Made' sometime next year, and he will be moving here as a permanent resident. He has student loan debt. What I am trying to figure out, is the most economical way to pay his student loan debt from Canada. The loan disbursement companies will not let him pay via credit card, and I seem to be having a hard time finding banks that will let him pay bills from a US account.

I did find another thread here that mentioned TD Bank, and Royal Bank, that will let him pay bills from the USD account, but I cannot find anything concrete that says 'Pay USD bills Online', or something to that effect. I am also wondering if it would just be better to get a loan, and have it all in Canada, paying Canadian funds. I imagine it will take 5-7 years to get these paid off, and I feel it may be easier than paying foreign exchange and transaction fees all the time.

Does anyone have any information?

Thanks for all your help!

 

[mrbeachman]

How is he paying a loan now? If he had student loan in US, he then must have had a US bank account. Just keep the bank account.

I bank with TD from overseas. You would still need a US bank account to pay US bills. Since TD has branches in USA they will help you open a US bank account from Canada without going to US. You would then use this account to pay your student loan. The bank account is free with minimum $100 balance.

I also have Bank of Montreal Harris USA account which I opened the same way.

 

[nope]

As for getting a loan, if you do it now, you will lock in a terrible exchange rate. It's too bad that you didn't do this several years ago, or even last year.

 

[Weary79]

As for getting a loan, if you do it now, you will lock in a terrible exchange rate. It's too bad that you didn't do this several years ago, or even last year.

Obviously.

Of course it's kind of hard to secure a loan not yet married to a Canadian Citizen, nor having the application filed to become a PR.

 

[Weary79]

How is he paying a loan now? If he had student loan in US, he then must have had a US bank account. Just keep the bank account.

I bank with TD from overseas. You would still need a US bank account to pay US bills. Since TD has branches in USA they will help you open a US bank account from Canada without going to US. You would then use this account to pay your student loan. The bank account is free with minimum $100 balance.

I also have Bank of Montreal Harris USA account which I opened the same way.

Is it just TD and BMO that have US accounts that you can pay bills from? I checked with my bank, which is a credit union, but they won't let bills be paid from the US account. Is it as simple as securing a US account (at one of these banks), transferring money to it, and paying the bills?

 

[kateg]

I did find another thread here that mentioned TD Bank, and Royal Bank, that will let him pay bills from the USD account, but I cannot find anything concrete that says 'Pay USD bills Online', or something to that effect. I am also wondering if it would just be better to get a loan, and have it all in Canada, paying Canadian funds. I imagine it will take 5-7 years to get these paid off, and I feel it may be easier than paying foreign exchange and transaction fees all the time.

You're going to end up paying the foreign exchange fees no matter what.

TD offers a higher level checking account - free with minimum $5,000 balance, or $29/mo. It gives a better exchange rate than their normal one.

When we have bills to pay, we just go down and get a US bank draft. We then mail it by Canada Post, or deposit it electronically in Chase Bank.

 

[links18]

U.S. student loan holder will probably require payments to be made from a "U.S. bank." Keep a U.S. bank account open and send funds to it as needed. He will be getting hammered on the exchange rate for awhile until oil goes back up.

 

[kateg]

U.S. student loan holder will probably require payments to be made from a "U.S. bank." Keep a U.S. bank account open and send funds to it as needed. He will be getting hammered on the exchange rate for awhile until oil goes back up.

They will require that. US bank drafts from TD are backed by wells fargo.

A US bank draft will require a routing/transit and account number. Doing that requires a US chartered bank, so they partner.