It's difficult to overstate how crushing America's student loan debt situation is . The amount of money adults in the US owe due to educations is over $1.3 trillion and jumps up by more than $2,000 every second. The average borrower owes $28,000, though some owe much more than that. Many former students, trapped between low wages and the high cost of education, can barely afford to keep up with interest payments, let alone start paying off the principal.

Joshua R. I. Cohen, who calls himself The Student Loan Lawyer , tells me that this plan could work for some people, albeit only if the debt dodgers plan to never live in the US again. Students who move to a foreign country and stop paying off their loan debt "will only feel consequences if they're working for a US company on foreign soil," Cohen says.

Many of the students I talked to fear the possible consequences of this strategy, but so far none of them have faced any repercussions. And according to some experts, they may never.

"It's a phenomenon that I'm quite familiar with actually," says student loan lawyer and author Adam S. Minsky . "In my experience, people leave because there's a sense of hopelessness and they see greater opportunities overseas, usually through a combination of higher pay and lower living expenses. They think they'll be better positioned to either pay their loans in real time, from abroad, or to save up and be in a better place to address the loans a couple of years from now."

It sounds slightly unbelievable, not to mention probably a bad idea from a long-term personal finance point of view, but these debt dodgers are real. I've met these Americans in Berlin, my adopted city. I haven't been able to find any statistics on how many of them there are, but I'm not the only one who's noticed the people fleeing US because of their student loans.

Some people are put in so desperate a spot they have attempted to bail on their loans by fleeing the country and hiding out from the banks and collection agencies that will inevitably start looking for them.

Of course, if your family co-signed your loan with you and remain in America, they'll still be on the hook. And this strategy relies on you not wanting to go home again. If these former students ever decide to come back to the US, "the debt will still be there—it never goes away," says Cohen. "All they're doing is putting off what could happen if they come back to the US."

"The federal government doesn't have really strong tools for collecting debt from people who move overseas," says Mark Kantrowitz , another expert on student loans who serves on the board of the Journal of Student Financial Aid. "In theory, you could live the rest of your life in another country."

If you're living abroad, earning a living from a foreign company, not paying US taxes, and not collecting social security, then loan companies can't touch you, nor will the government chase you after you move abroad.

When I decided to move abroad, I think in the back of my head I thought that it would save me from having to pay them off. I saw the interest rise and my deferral period lapse and the anxiety just kept rising. I'm sure that Germany and America have some sort of reciprocity when it comes to this kind of stuff, just like they do with taxes, but I try not to think about it.

I took out loans when I went to school in California. I received enough scholarship money at the time to cover half of the tuition and the loans covered the remainder. I did not have a plan for paying them off, nor did I consider how I would make it work once I graduated. I needed to go to school and it was the only solution at the time.

I think I know two friends that have completely paid off their loans and have received an awesome amount of confidence because of it. I am very proud of them, but I don't think I'm one of those people. I would rather spend my money on things that I need like food and shelter than to give it back for a service that should have been provided for me.

I think at this point I owe about $40,000. I really, truly, honestly don't want to pay it back. Sure, I realize the responsibility I took on when I signed the papers and agreed to take out the loans, but I should have never had to do it in the first place. I feel some sort of civic duty not to pay them back, as if my small protest will make any kind of difference.

The loans are about to default, and I'm worried about the consequences. I've blocked the loan company's emails from my inbox. I'm sure they will go after my parents soon, but that won't do much because they don't have any money either.

Within 48 hours I had $30,000 in my bank account. It was shocking because I had never had that much money in my bank account before. I remember that after paying my student stuff it was just gone, as if I never even had it. And I didn't live on it. I had a part-time job my entire education.

I got my associate's degree and then transferred to a private university in New York. They didn't accept all of my credits, so I had to do about three years of study. I think it was $53,000 a year at the time. My mom and I applied for a loan through a private bank called Sallie Mae, among others. Every American knows that bank, the name Sallie Mae sounds so friendly; she's just your cute aunt making soup.

I moved to Berlin the day of my graduation. I got my loans deferred for one year and then my parents deferred it for a bit because you have a short grace period, usually six months to a year. When we tried to consolidate them we met a lot of resistance because they were from so many different banks. But I've never paid back the federal loans. My parents didn't co-sign on them. The only reason that I've ever worried about the debt from the private lenders is because it affects my parents. I don't give a shit about the loans in my name.

A year ago, I was working at a fancy restaurant in Berlin and made a lot of money in tips. For about ten months, I was paying some of the loans, but I don't have that job anymore so I had to stop.

Debt collectors haven't badgered me in Berlin. They haven't found me in Germany. But when I go home, my phone rings non-stop. I always think it's an old friend trying to hang out with me, but it's really Sallie Mae. It rings like every hour.