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Paying back student loans from abroad

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Which is the best way to pay back a student loan from China to minimise bank charges etc?
ie: can you use PayPal?

Comments

  • foxy-stoat
    foxy-stoat Posts: 6,879 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Ask your lender - but I would assume it will need to be paid by direct debit from a UK bank.
  • Txerja
    Txerja Posts: 22 Forumite
    It all would depend on how the education institution is taking the payments.
    For example, I am currently paying for my education in the US with a credit card (issued in the UK but it could be issued anywhere). If it needs to be done by a direct debit to an UK account and you are earning your salary in China, you would need to wire the money (from China account to UK account) on a regular basis. Banks fees are very expensive so I would suggest a service like TransferWise (let me know if you need help with this one -I am a customer-) or Monese, for example

    Kind regards
  • xebruary
    xebruary Posts: 45 Forumite
    Assuming you are paying the Student Loans Company for a UK student loan, you don't need to pay by direct debit, you can make a manual payment by debit card on the SLC website. As Txerja said, a company like TransferWise would give you the best rates. I am currently using Revolut and I live in Sweden. Though you can't use PayPal to make the payments, you might also be able to hold both sterling and renminbi accounts with them and use them to transfer the funds onwards to a UK bank account.
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