Amanda Lynn Tully student loans stopped being paid after she moved to Prague and left $65,000 in federal debt unpaid for seven years. Tully, 37, said she had been on an income-based repayment plan with monthly payments of $60, which she described as psychologically burdensome.
She said the repayment was not reducing principal and that it was frustrating because, in her words, "The payments weren’t even paying off the interest, so it was frustrating." Tully said the remaining balance could have been forgiven after 20 years of qualifying payments.
Tully in Prague
Tully said she moved to the Czech Republic less than a year after graduating from the University of Oregon in 2017, after failing to find a job with her master’s degree in historic preservation. She said she later worked in Prague as an "E-learning content developer" for various companies starting in 2019.
Tully has a BA in art history from the Metropolitan State University of Denver. On her LinkedIn profile, she describes herself as "open to work." In a separate statement to the Times, she said, "I was never financially stable because I was never taught to be financially stable."
Federal Loan Default
Tully said she had not made any student-loan repayments in seven years after leaving the US. The reported default places her among a much larger group: recently released Education Department figures show almost 8 million of 40 million borrowers with federal student debt have defaulted on their loans.
Experian has said borrowers who move abroad and stop making payments will likely see their credit scores plummet. The article did not say whether Tully had tried to restart payments, enter a new repayment plan, or seek forgiveness after leaving the United States.
What Remains Unknown
What remains unresolved is whether Tully’s debt will stay in default, whether she will resume payments, or whether she will pursue the 20-year forgiveness path she said was available under her income-based plan. The confirmed next step in the public record is not a court date or agency hearing, but the continued status of her unpaid federal loans and the credit consequences tied to nonpayment abroad.
