Debt/mental health/Ive fled the country.HELP!

Unclestupid

Hello.. I am unclestupid By name and nature.
My situation is a bit out of the box.

About me
I have characteristics of bi-polar/ADD. My manic phases can be hardly noticable or they severe to leave no doubt to any observer that i am quite ill. Thoughout my life I have lived quite succesfully on the fringes of society. I'm very adept at living under the radar...Becuase I cant cope with the real world.

What I owe
natwest visa 1.4k
natwest visa 700
natwest bank 2400 overdraft
Santander car finance about 4.5k (1 year of a 4 year car loan paid off)

What ive gone and done
Nearly a year ago i fled the UK (I am now a resident of Finland), I have been trying and failing to honour my debts.
The car is with me here in Finland and i have defaulted on the last 2 monthy payments.

What is happening now
Natwest visa are causing me a lot of distress. I am on very strong medication and depending on what day they call me they are met with very different personalities. If i am dosed up on my meds i am very compliant and its like taking candy from a baby. As soon as my meds wear off i suddenly realise that smooth talking lady has managed to extract £50 from me and ive agreed to something i cant rememeber.

If my meds arnt working particularly well they are met with a man who understands very little of what they are saying to him. It is very frightening to me to recieve a phone call "please identfy yourself and let me take you through security" when i am having a manic episode. And they are met with extreme agression.

Im quite lucid today and im really angry. Natwest visa are using some underhand tactics to put undue pressure on me. I have explained to 3 of them about my illness. The are well aware of this.

I have instructed them I only wish to cominicate by email. As i need time to comprehend and understand what they are saying to me. They refuse and each month the phone calls start. They will transfer me to another operator and If i ask them to call me back later they tell me "we cant make outgoing calls, you must make your decision now" And one lady gave me a very sarcastic "OOhh yeah.. really! Mr xxxxx." when i tried to explain my medical problems to her.

What im about to do
Im going to say "screw you" to the lot of them. They don't know where I am. All they have is a telephone number that I can change and a C/o address at my dads. I wont ever be returning to the UK exept for funerals. So I don't care about my credit rating. I have a new life here. All my debt is their fees/their interest/their defualt letters...

The car

Its been out of the UK for nearly a year now. Santander know and they initialy wernt very happy with me. Now they have stopped all communications with me. Id quite like to give it back to them. Despite what characteristics i may be showing here.. im not a down right out and out thief.

The conclusion
This is why I am here. To find out what the end conclusion will be for me.
What is going to happen if i say "screw you, come and get me".

MusicalLawyer

If your correspondence is going to your Dads address, he may well end up with Bailiffs knocking on his door.

Your debt amounts aren't large - you could quite easily get them paid off, depending on your earnings of course. You should make them token payments at least - so that you're paying SOMETHING.

If you do ever return to the UK (You can't say you'll NEVER return, you don't know what the future holds) you could find yourself with a few County Court Judgments, and find it extremely difficult to get any credit. May also be turned down for renting with Estate Agents, if you have a few CCJ's.

Tixy

If you were going to carry on trying to pay your debts then rearding your illness - the best course of action would be to write to them by post to explain about your MH issues and to refer them to the OFT debt collection guidelines in respect of mental health issues.
There are also template letters that you can require them to stop contacing you by phone - providing they have an address they can contact you at.

With regards to your proposed action - regarding returning the car, how would you intend to return the vehicle - would you bring it back to the UK yourself?

For the natwest debts, they will chase you at your father's address. They may decide to issue court proccedings which would result in CCJs. And then when those are not paid then Dad could find bailiffs at his house. That said providing he can demonstrate it is his house and state to them that you don't live there and have moved abroad then there will be little they can do.
Does Dad know about your debts and does he know of your intention to stop paying/contacting your creditors? He needs to be aware of the impact it could have on him in terms of getting hassle.

If they don't go for CCJs then eventually they will sell the debts on to debt collectors who will write/phone/ possibly visit Dads house. Again he'd need to be aware so he can deal with them.

If you get CCJs and if you return to the UK to live within 6years of those CCJ then you could find bailiffs chasing you, or if you started earning in the UK then you could have an attachement of earnings from your salary.

Its possible (but unlikely) that one of your creditors could petition to have you made bankrupt in the UK.

Its possible that if they tracked you aboard you might receive letters asking you to repay the debts - but they wouldn't be able to do more than ask.

In truth aside from the issue of the car and some hassle for Dad its unlikely that a lot will happen to you that will effect you whilst abroad.
The issues will come if you do return to the UK to live.

Another potential option might be to write to your creditors, explain that you are living abroad and to offer them a reduced full & final settlement for your debts. Obviously that depends on your financial position now as to whether you could do that, but it would mean Dad was spared the hassle and if you did need to return to the UK you wouldn't then be chased for these debts.

BigCraigJohn

Credit card companies are not that intelligent, to be honest they are not interested in your circumstances only getting money.
Firstly you need to write to all the companies and tell them that you do not want them ringing any more and that all writing is to be in writing only. It will take a few weeks but should do the trick.
Is the Santander secured on the car or did they give you a loan to buy the car?, this is a pretty big matter and I imagine it might be the latter despite what you think.
Personally I would take a breather, you will deal with it better with a less stressed frame of mind and you are in a vicious circle where the debt is making your mental state worse but you cant deal with it because you are struggling with your mental state.
Send the letters telling them not to ring, they wont ignore.
Find out if the Santander is secured on the car, if so then as you say you can give the car back and that would be done. If it is just a loan then you can sell it and have money towards the debt.
With the others, you could just make an offer, even a pound a month just to acknowledge, eventually they will likely be passed on to debt collectors, at this point you will likely be able to get a better deal.

Your credit record will be ruined but dont even think about court, its a long way and you need to keep positive. Most companies will accept a repayment plan over ccjs, especially on these modest amounts and the fact you are not a homeowner(i'm guessing).

Just remember NO PHONECALLS, IN WRITING ONLY.

If they ring, just hang up.

Unclestupid

Thx to all 3.

Yes the car is secured against the loan. It is currently untaxed/no mot/no insurance and is no longer being driven. I wont lie.. It is my intention to Wait until im in a stable mind and drive this car back and pray to whatever angel is looking over me that day that i don't get caught. And to leave it somewhere secure and mail the keys to santander.

C/O address with my dad.. Can I not simply change the C/O address to my last known UK address and leave my dad out of the equation altogether? Or could I simply instruct my father to write "not known at this address" and return all mail?

Thank you to all for not judging me.

Tixy

You could change the address, though this would of course mean personal information being sent to an unknown person, and you wouldn't be aware of if any creditors obtained CCJs against you, whereas presumably you would if the post went to Dad.

But if you change the address and the creditors/debt collectors find you are not responding at that address then they'll likely just check back in your records to see what other addresses you have provided / responded to and so could still chase at Dad's address.

In terms of the car - I wouldn't advise driving the car with no insurance through (presumably) several countries. Are you aware of the potential penalties in each country you would be driving through if you are caught?
Though I can see it will be difficult to return it another way in its current state. I suppose the 'sensible' option would be to hire a vehicle that could carry it?

Unclestupid

I can technicly insure it so ive got a slip of paper should i be stopped by the police. BUt it wouldnt be valid if i needed to claim on it. (Small print/ car must have departed from the uk during temp EU insurance).
*or maybe i can insure it here???? hmmmmm
I know this is morally questionable thing to do. I know something might go wrong and ill burn in hell, quite deservedly so..

Tixy

If you were caught does any of the countries impound cars without insurance? as that would obviously leave you without the car and possibly stuck somewhere, or have fines so massive that it would leave you in a worse position? Could you be arrested somewhere as a result of this?
I suppose just make sure you know the potential risks if you do it.

Not so much what could happen in an afterlife - but what might happen to you in this one!

FireWyrm

OK, Tixy is right, but I think you need to address the bigger problem which is that you cannot reliably deal with them on a day to day basis. Can you appoint someone to be your financial guardian in this matter? If you can, then I would ask them to deal on your behalf by first writing the 'I'm ill' letters and then by offering F&F letters. You actually need to deal with this head on despite what you might think or it's just never going to stop.

Unclestupid

Turns out i was driving abroad for 11 months with only a 28 day Abroad allowance in my UK insurance anyway. Reagrdless it will take me a while to taper my meds to the point where i feel SAFE and fit to undertake this journey. Im currently not....

Thanks for the chat/advice. Its funny, my manic phases can be a hell of a lot of fun at the time. But picking up the pieces after...EeeSSHHH.

Unclestupid

Just caught your reply as I posted Firewyrm. Your right of course.
*edit
It just hit home. Im discussing this with my wife and she said "what if your never well enough to drive it back". and she is of course quite right also.