Left UK with 8000 pounds of debt, what's the best way to start clearing it from here?

BrokeBrokeBroke

In Oct 2004 I moved back to Canada with my husband, who has recently become a Permanent Resident here. We left without clearing our debts, which may have been a very very stupid thing to do, but we're now in a position to start paying them off- does anyone know of a good way of doing this from abroad? We owe to the following:

4000 CCJ Barclays
700 Black Horse
150 BT
500 Scottish Power Manweb
150 Council Tax
1000 Barclaycard
1500 Student Loans

What can happen while we're out of the country. I know we need to get this sorted if we ever want to return, (which won't be for years hopefully!) Any ideas anyone?

Debt_Free_Chick

Do a budget and decide how much you can afford to pay. There's a self help pack here

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_factsheets/debt_advice_england_wales.php3#3

Remember, that Banks are global and there is a risk that they will track you down. Far better to take the initiative and agree a repayment plan.

HTH

Nicky_3

I know if you have a UK bank account Payplan can do a Debt Management plan for you which wont cost you anything. As long as there is a way for your monthly payment to get into Payplans account, it should be fine. Payplan distribute your payment to your creds, this is why you would need to do a standing order to them.

You can read more about them from https://www.payplan.com - they will do all the negotiating with your creds on your behalf and you can correspond with Payplan via email rather than expensive phone calls.

I know CCCS are a free service too, but I dont know if they deal with people abroad.

BrokeBrokeBroke

Thanks for these, I am thinking it's going to be easier/cheaper to deal with one company as we're going to need to transfer money over and if we pay to transfer it to lots of different places it will work out more over a monthly period.

At the moment only I am working and I'm living with my parents so that cuts down on costs. Wages aren't great here though.

IN
roughly 400 pounds every 2 weeks

OUT (monthly)
70 Car Ins
250 Board
20 Nappies/Wipes
80 petrol
20 mobile
150 Nursery


Do you think if we offered to send over 250 pounds a month and split it between these all that would be ok?

Also, does anyone know if we could be declared bankrupt or something like that while we're out of the country?

Nicky_3

Your income and expenditure will back up your offer of repayment. If you decide to go with one of the free debt management companies, they will assess your income and expenditure and find out how much you can realistically afford to offer, then make those proposals to your creditors.

The best thing to do is get a financial assessment and take it from there. It makes sense to let a third party handle this for you so that you dont have to do it all individually.

£250 per month is quite a reasonable surplus, so you should be fine. Some creds will accept, some wont, those that wont will sell the debt onto someone who more than likely will. But, if you were with Payplan for example, they would handle all that for you.

tonys_3

It surely wasn't the wisest course of action to leave without sorting your affairs.But now you are where you are,I would have thought that given the circumstances,most
of them would probably settle for something around 50% now,rather than wait around 3 years to maybe receive their money in dribs and drabs.A bird in the hand....

A loan in Canada spread over 4-5 years for £5000 say,would not work out as much as £250 per month.Then you could come back to Britain without a problem and presumably no "adverse" against your name.

May not be a good idea not to pay the Canadian loan and try to renegotiate it from here.lol

No idea how bankruptcy works.If they know you are abroad,I doubt they would go to the expense of doing it when they know there is little hope of recovering the costs.
Solicitors and Courts are not cheap.

BrokeBrokeBroke

I hadn't thought of trying to negotiate a final settlement figure with them, but will now! Thanks for that. I reckon I could try and get a loan for 10,000 CAD and if they'll accept that between them, I could pay CAD 240 per month. That would be great! We've been gone for 6 months so we will probably have some adverse registered, but hopefully we can end it all soon, Thanks again.

UltraCheap_2

Good idea to speak to the people at https://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk. A friend of mine recently contacted them and was told that credit card companies are not as likely to strike a deal these days (by accepting 50% of the amount owed) nor freeze the growing interest etc. Also, if you do strike a deal with a credit company, get it in writing or you may find that only 50% has been paid, and that your record has not been cleared...

good luck!

daveboy

Personal opinion here - you did the right thing in leaving the UK.

If you ever fancy being over taxed then feel free to return.

In regards to the debt, personally it is down to both of you whether you repay it. Others will know information on how easy/difficult it is for them to track down where you are.

BrokeBrokeBroke

OK, So I still haven't got in touch with any of them but know that I do need to! I want to either try and make final settlement offers or come to arrangements to pay over time, but need to write to them first and ask for the total amounts on the accounts. What kind of powers will they have over for example our wages here - would attachment of earnings or something be applicable if we work for canadian companies? Also, we have just bought a house, will any of them be able to lodge a 'charging order or anything like that on a house in Canada?
I don't want to try and get away with not paying, but I don't want our 'new lives' screwed up either. Does anyone know what kind of powers they would have if were living over here?
(For reference, the debts are a CCJ to Barclays, Barclaycard, Student Loans, Black Horse, Manweb and BT)

laudo

Many people will slate me for this, but however here goes;

1) Have anyone been in touch?

2) If not, and you don't intend to return in the next 6 years, HOLD TIGHT!!


Good luck.