Writing off debts and more questions

ThrifTE

Hi not wishing to go too deep into stuff as you will see as this progresses, but...
do credit card companies and banks write off debts under certain limits?
Eg: MBNA £1700
Barclays £2000

these were at least 3years ago, and for 2 of those years i was classed as not here in UK. now i am reading about reclaiming charges, and in mbna case, the balance owed was made up of entirly charges that they had lumped on over the course of a 10 year ish period. i calculated i had repaid the entire amount to them including the interest. this remaining was the sum of charges for late payments etc. @£50 per pop etc.
barclays was an overdraft. and the figure was basicly 2 months mortgage payments.
i got a messy divorce and my ex had all the money from the house sale and endowments and policies. all except about 12k which i used to get away from it all for 2 years. in hind sight i should have paid these off but i didnt. the advice from my solicitor who is a family friend was at the time to take a veiw on it, she said at these values they are unlikely to do much, and after time they could get wiped off. however now i am curious as to what to do. i dont have a uk bank account and work soley on cash as i have done for the last 3 years. i have reclaimed my income tax and NI contributions paid incorrectly and have an accountant.All my work is self employed and i run my buisness legitimatly. I dont have any savings but survive ok. i was trying to work out whether i could start again with my credit history but i dont want to wake any skeletons. or attract any interest from debt collection companies that may have bought the debts.the simplke solution for me was to get out of the UK and if push comes to shove i will do it again. but my kids live here which is why i came back.
although it is possible to live on cash in the uk it is more difficult as time goes on. I just wondered if any one else has returned from going away and has any tips or advice?
:beer:

RAS

Hi

You can reclaim charges on both bank accounts and credit cards, for the previous 6 years, so you ideally need to start that process and get them reclaimed ASAP, assuming that these were not joint accounts against which your ex has already claimed?

With respect to the MBNA account, if you are chased, you can request a Consumer Credit Agreement and if that is not available, the debt is unenforceable. MBNA is poorly documented but they do have some records, so it is a gamble.

The other side of it is what your solicitor is referring to, in that after 6 years of no acknowledgement and no payment the debt becomes statute barred, which means the creditors cannot take you to court to reclaim the money. The debt may be written off by the original creditor but the debt still exists. Just that the DCA who have bought it cannot take you to court, so it is up to you whether to pay or not.