Hey guys,
New user here! Would love some input as I am not sure how to go about this situation. Long story short:
The wife and were in Dallas as students. I am Dutch, she is Brazilian. We both attended university. We were international students. I did my masters(MBA), she her bachelors (Psychology). As Internationals we were very limited as to what work we could legally do, so our families were helping us pay for the tuition. Now in our last semester, my wife’s family suffered a very serious medical emergency and could no longer afford to pay. My family the same. Terrible timing! We talked to the university and they were very gracious. The told us that since we were both almost done, they’d let us complete our studies and pay them off gradually. (Obviously we’d get the diplomas once the balances were cleared).
Now. Right after completing our studies I was able to find a full time job at a church. It didn’t pay well at all. But they wanted to bring my wife and I on staff full time and long term (I was able to do this legally as it was an OPT job). During our OPT year we got pregnant (total surprise) and we were paying around 150-200 dollars a month. Fast forward to the end of the opt year when the church was supposed to apply for a visa change for us, they never did. And having our current visas on the verge of expiration we decided to leave the country as we refused to do any illegal under the table work. Not that the church was advising us to do that, but the fact that they drug out the visa application process that long meant that when our current visas expire we'd have to wait 10-11 months for the new one during which time we would NOT be able to legally work. At that point we had a 4 month old baby and yea, I was not going to do any illegal work, nor did I have cash to live off of during that time because we depleted our saving to BE there those 4 years.
So we moved to Curaçao where I am from. (Dutch territory in the Caribbean). Took me almost a year to find a job. We were not able to pay towards our school balance during that meaning it was sent to collections . My balance of 10.000 was sent to Williams and fudge. Hers was sent to CCA(4000). We want to clear the balance in the next 10 months. This is our only debt. Salaries here on the island really are not very great (and I have a pretty good job). We want to clear this debt once and for all so we will be living with family rent free for 10 months during which time we plan to attack this balance with a vengeance. The problem is that I think the max we can probably come up with is around 650-800 a month (totalling 6500-8000). Bear in mind that my take home income converted to US Dollars is right around $2000 a month.
Is this a reasonable amount that we could offer these collectors?
So to summrize:
1. We are NOT U.S Citizens. We do NOT live in the U.S.
2. Total Balance Owed = approx 14000 (10000 with W&F and 4 with CCA)
3. We've had no contact from the collection agency whatsoever
4. Its been sent to collections over a year ago
5. We have a 10 month window in which we want to clear the debt
6. Probably can only come up with 6500-8000
7. This balance is NOT a Student LOAN. It's just an open standing balance (International student do not get student loans)
8. How do i approach the collection agencies / What strategies
If you've read all of this I THANK YOU!
Hoping to hear from you all!
Josh