[deleted]
You can. It’s incredibly generous of you to do that!
You’ll need to know his account number and where the payment gets sent. It might be difficult to get this information quietly though.
Usually you’d want to call the company that is servicing the loan and ask them to calculate a payoff amount as of a specific date. That way when you make your payment, all outstanding interest is paid off as well as the balance.
That company may not give you this information depending upon laws and policies. Since you’re not the person they’re contracted with for the loan.
I used to be a loan officer / underwriter, but I never dealt with student loans which have different laws governing them, so this is the best info I have to share (it’s also been 15 years since I did that work). I used to give payoff amounts all the time to other people and organizations though. People refinance their loans all the time, so it’s very common to give out that payoff calculation when the requester has the account number and name of the loan account holder.
dhork@lemmy.world 3 days ago
That’s very generous of you, but I would advise against doing this secretly, for a few reasons.
First of all, the information needed to do this (like their loan account number) is considered personal financial information whose disclosure is protected. There is nothing preventing them from giving you the info willingly, but if you try and find it out without their knowledge you may be breaking the law.
Also, technically any gifts between people who aren’t directly related are treated as income by the US government, and there is technically tax owed on it. And yes, paying off a loan would still count as a gift. The threshold to trigger tax on a gift is high ($19k for 2025), but the tax is the liability of the giver, not the receiver. Depending on how big the gift is, you could be inadvertently opening yourself up for scrutiny by the US IRS. But if you are open about the gift and plan it with the recipient ahead of time, you can also do all the required tax planning to make sure you don’t run afoul of the IRS.
I don’t think I need to remind you that the legal climate regarding foreigners in the US on student visas is precarious right now. It would suck if your attempt at a secret gift ended up backfiring on your plans in the US.
alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
Not in the US, but it would make more sense to spread it out over multiple years to avoid the tax.