Advice Please...???

tiggeroo_2

Hi all you lovely people
I could really do with some advice here - i have phoned the national debt helpline 4 times already today and after 10 minutes of being on hold they terminate the call due to 'high call volume' - good job im not suicidal eh?

this is about my beloved ex partner who i am trying to help - he stupidly has credit card debts of over 30k, personal debts of 10k and now has red bills coming in for everything from credit cards to all the household bills etc, he has a job and earns 2k a month but this is not covering what he is paying out now - im sure you can imagine what the credit card bills are amounting to and the mortgage is £1200 (not worth changing now as in process of selling)- he is at breaking point and is currently just waiting to sell his house - (due to complete in the next couple of weeks) he then just wants to move home to australia pretty much immediately - my question is, when he has paid his personal debts to friends and family which he wants to pay, is it not just better for him to bankrupt himself orleave the country?, as he's leaving his job and moving back to oz anyhow and wont be able to pay the remaining credit card debts as there wont be enough money from the house sale left to do so? can he get into trouble in australia for debts over here if he just leaves them here? please urgently advise!! much appreciated

harpiegirl

I know somebody who was traced to NZ several years after leaving the UK, so I would suggest he sorts something out and not just leave.

Hopefully somebody with more knowledge can give some useful advice shortly.

RAS

If he goes BK, he will not be able to make preferential payments to friends and family. The OR would be legally entitled to reverse the payments and share the money between his creditors, pro rata.

tiggeroo_2

but what if he pays the family/friends he owes money to before he starts the bankruptcy? do you think the credit card companies would negotiate a settlement lower than what he actually owes?

MrsTinks

The official reciever will look at his accounts in great details and he will have to explain where that money went before they will declare him bankrupt... I'm not sure how far back they will look but maybe 6 months would be a safe time gap - I'd think it was a decent amount of time at least...
The OR will not look kindly on him paying some creditors preferentially to others especially as he could be hiding money from them and be on an understanding with the "friends" to repay this after he's BR if you see what I mean?
Some companies will accept Full & Final for defaulted debts yes...

RAS

Hi

The OR can certainly look back and reverse debt payments over 6 years, so unless your ex can explain exactly how he intended to pay back the other creditors, he would be most unwise to make payments to some rather than others. If he has a surplus, he needs to priority debts (CT, utilties) and then pay other people off pro-rata.

If after going BK, and assuming he does not get an IPA, he wants to re-pay friends and family for the debts to covered by BK, that is a matter of conscience not of law.

stapeley

hi there , I suggest you ex comes on line himself it will be much easier . But in the mean time he must keep on top of the essential bills. These are rates gas , electric etc . Credit cards , unsecured loans are last on the list. I do hope nothing happens with the house sale . Are any of the debts with a DCA ? He could for now write to all the credit card companies and request reduced payments .
I doubt if unsecured debt can be chased to other countries , I would personally clear all utilities first then pay back friends . Let the others whistle for payment , you can't pay what you haven't got .

Footnote , I would be a little un easy if I had lent money to him , knowing his intension was to do a runner !

tyllwyd

I found an article here but not much detail
http://britishexpats.com/articles/finance/debt-and-moving-abroad/

tiggeroo_2

thanks to everyone who has offered advice and information - much appreciated indeed
the truth is he never intended to end up like this - he has lived and worked in this country for 20+ years and has always earned a lot and paid huge amounts of tax - never ever been unemployed or claimed any benefits - but due to losing a job in a !!!! industry he had no choice but to live on cards for a while until he found something else - and as the mortgage payments were £1200 a month, we simply had no chance of keeping it in hand - and before any of you say didnt we have insurance for unemployment etc -well no - but it would not have helped him to have it as he was 'let go' in his job - they gave him the offer of 'resigning' or being fired - he took 'resigning' as the better option as at least he would be able to get another job easier - so he wouldnt have been able to claim unemployment insurance or any benefits anyhow - i so just want to help him out of this mess
and personally i think it is more important to pay people you know and care about money you owe them before some faceless credit company who have just continued to add more and more chargesand interest to the ever-increasing amount that he owes, when you try and talk to them on the phone they simply are not interested in helping you or reducing/freezing the payments/interest in any way