UK debts and Son living abroad.

baza52

Hi all, I am after some advice on how to proceed.

Bit of background,
Son was working untill 3 months ago when he lost his job and decided he wanted to live in Ibiza for the summer.
He moved there and has a couple of casual jobs that cover his bed/board and not much else.

He currently has an Overdraft with Santander of roughly £1500, an O2 bill for £500 and a court fine of £1500 to be repaid within 11 months.

He wants to make some effort at repaying what he can and the first place i looked at was the CCCS.
As he is not resident in the UK they are not able to help.

The other problem i can see is the fact he is paid in cash in Ibiza (sells tickets so the ammount is dependant on what he sells) so its going to be difficult estimating (and proving) his income for a SOA.

Anyone have any advice on how to come to some sort of an agreement with his creditors?

Tixy

Hi

Whilst CCCS won't be able to help he should still be able to set up repayments himself on a similar basis. So he needs to work out how much he can afford to repay a month in total.
What was the court fine for? has he asked if he can pay in installments? have they agreed a monthly repayment amount?

Suggest he writes to his other creditors setting out the amount he can afford each month towards his debts - how is he intending on getting the repayments to them? will he pay cash into his UK bank account from ibiza and then set up standing orders towards these debts? (obviously it will need not to be his overdraft account as they will probably recall his overdraft once he writes to them.

Hopefully if he is paying something (even if not much more than token payments) to the overdraft and phone debt then they might not take him to court. And then hopefully he can up his monthly repayments when his income improves (whether that is in the UK or there). Is someone (you?) opening his post in the meantime so that he can react if they do start court proceedings/send out court papers?

baza52

Thanks for taking the time to reply.
We are currently opening his mail so are aware of whats happening so far.
He will transfer money into our bank account so we can pay from here on his behalf.

The court fine was for a charge of fraud. (caught stamping a nando's loyalty card) and the fraud charge also lost him his job in a bank.
He literally flew out the day after court so no contact has been made about repayments as of yet.
That is also something im more egaer to sort out as if the fine is not paid it will open another can of worms...

Tixy

Definitely the fine is a priority, the others I would just go for small token repayments.

With the fine have they told him the date he should pay by? was it just to be paid in a lump sum? have they had any information relating to his financial circumtances as to how much he could afford? If he disclosed his finances before the court hearing and this was based on his still being employed then you should be able to get the court to agree to paying in installments due to his change in circumstances.

I know you know this, and that he won't want to hear it but he would be better off in the UK either seeking employment or receiving benefits rather than living out there and hiding. Also if he is going to declare to the court that he is working out there then make sure whatever he is doing regarding paying tax on his income is correct.