Moving abroad with debt
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| Tue, 10-05-2004 - 6:22pm |
DH recently got a job in the UK (he's from there originally) and we're due to move in early December. The house has been taken care of, our only car is up for sale and garnering interest. The problem is our CC debt. I have tried talking to the CC company, explaining the situation, but the best advice they can give is "pay it off before you leave". That'd be great, but we can't afford to do that. And, what's more, we will no longer have US dollars, but instead pounds. It's like a broken record... "we will only accept payment in dollars". Transferring money between US and UK banks would end up costing us much, much more than the debt itself, so that's not really any help. I'm trying to do the right thing here, but I'm at my wit's end. Any ideas?
-Jeannine

Hi Jeannine,
I was in your shoes a few years a go when I picked up and moved to Italy from NY.
4 years down the road, I am still paying off my American CC debt.
I have a citibank checking account out of NY. My salary (which is paid in Euros) is wire transferred into that account. The originating bank converts the euro amount to dollars and transfers dollars directly. I actually pay $10 for every incoming wire transfer which stinks but there's nothing I can do about that. Since I have a combined household balance (ie. all citibank accounts and lines of credit put together) of over $6k, I do not pay ANY fees on this account (well other than the incoming wire transfer fee). This includes using non-citibank ATMs both in the US and abroad.
I also have an Italian bank account. Every month, I get paid (we get paid once a month here in Italy) into my citibank account in NY and I literally withdraw half my salary (I make MANY trips to the ATM) and deposit the cash into my Italian account. I might lose out a bit on the doube exchange rate, but I make up for it in lack of fees. From this account I pay for rent and daily living expenses like food and utilities.
With the remaining funds in my US account, I pay off my US debts (ie. CCs and student loans). Fortunately the internet has made things easier than they were 5 years ago and I just have the CC company auto-debit my US checking account, therefore I don't write and send checks.
HTH!
Tiffany
cl-tiffany10605
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Thanks again!
-Jeannine