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SALT LAKE CITY — In the midst of the American debate about rising student loan rates and outstanding debt, a Canadian man was able to take matters into his own hands.
Alex Kenjeev, of Toronto, recently found himself able to pay off more than $114,000 — US $111,350 — in student loans. Rather than doing it quietly, though, he decided to pay the debt off all at once, and with cash.
Kenjeev, president of O'Leary Ventures, posted on Facebook a photo of a receipt of the transaction, which quickly went viral.
"I thought it would be funny, mind you, not for the world, just for me," he told ABCNews.com. "I didn't expect it to go viral at all."
The local Royal Bank of Canada initially did not want to allow Kenjeev to withdraw the funds, according to Kenjeev, but eventually the bank relented. When the money arrived, he was taken to a window-less back room, where a bank employee counted out the money to him.
"I put it into a grocery bag and walked a couple blocks to the other bank," he said. "I tried to play it cool."
Kenjeev said the Scotiabank branch to which he took the money did not want to accept the money, but finally agreed after about an hour, at which point Kenjeev happily took a picture of the receipt and posted it on Facebook.
Some of the comments were congratulatory, but others were critical, saying Kenjeev was bragging.
"I really wasn't thinking about that, to be fair," he said. "It was a milestone moment in your life, when you become debt-free, and not everyone had a receipt, but I did because of the way I did it."
"It feels good," he continued. "It feels like a weight has been lifted."
