Moving Overseas - Defaulting on Loan?

ja1988

I have an unsecured personal loan which I am paying off monthly. Next month I'll be leaving the UK to go traveling for 12 months and may end up settling back in New Zealand.

I'm leaving enough funds in my account to make repayments for 12 months but as I'm not sure what my plans are (I could still be traveling or may take on a job in NZ that doesn't pay enough for me to keep up payments) I want to know if they can find me if I end up defaulting on the loan? Once in NZ I'll need to renew my passport and plan on taking my fathers name which there's no record of in the UK.

I'm not deliberately planning to default on my loan, but I want to know what will happen if I am overseas and don't have enough income to keep making payments.

Thanks!

reclusive46

These debt collector firms are pretty good at finding people abroad (especially in countries like Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand). I wouldn't recommend defaulting as it will catch up with your eventually.

PeacefulWaters

How horribly irresponsible. Get the loan repaid and then travel.

giblet10

They could find you and they usually don't stop until they do - debt collectors I would think work on the same basis as in the UK i.e. they only get paid when they collect so they'll hound you down.

That said, I don't know what the laws are in relation to seeking a UK debt if you are out of the country. I suppose they could apply to have you extradited unless you flee to somewhere like North Korea.

chattychappy

UK judgments can indeed be enforced in New Zealand (subject to some process) and a number of other countries.

Whether or not they will bother, and whether they succeed given the OP intends to change names is another matter.

I expect the amount involved will have some bearing.

terryw

Here is a link to a site which gives more detail about enforcing abroad:
http://www.out-law.com/topics/dispute-resolution-and-litigation/enforcement/enforcing-england-and-wales-judgments-abroad/

The amount of the debt (as well as the tenacity of the creditor!) would have bearing on using these enforcement measures.



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Buzby

chattychappy wrote: »

UK judgments can indeed be enforced in New Zealand (subject to some process) and a number of other countries.

Whether or not they will bother, and whether they succeed given the OP intends to change names is another matter.

I expect the amount involved will have some bearing.

There is no such thing as a 'UK Judgement' - I suspect you use this as shorthand for England & Wales? NI and Scotland-issued judgements have limited legal standing in foreign jurisdictions, however it would appear to be industry practice to employ skip tracers and charge you in full for the costs of so doing.

Name changing is not a silver bullet - all if takes is some inadvertent association and the iD's will be linked, trashing your new identity. Any lender will want to check your previous history and if there is none, look upon it with suspicion. The CRA's do allow Antipodean clients to view UK-sourced data.

chattychappy

Buzby wrote: »

There is no such thing as a 'UK Judgement' - I suspect you use this as shorthand for England & Wales?

Actually I wrote "UK judgment" and meant what I wrote (ie lower case and no "e" after "g") - ie any judgment from the UK. I know this to be the case with England and Wales from my own legal training. In the case of Scotland I was basing it on a conversation I had with a Scottish solicitor a few years ago who was enforcing in NZ.

In my experience, with cross-jurisdictional stuff, foreign jurisdictions do not distinguish between different parts of the UK, probably because the provisions follow a treaty or customary reciprocity.

Having done some digging, I note that NZ law at: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1934/0011/latest/DLM216465.html, refers to the "United Kingdom".

But I'm not expert in these matters - and perhaps the NZ authorities apply different procedural requirements to Scottish judgments to those from E&W. This is really a matter for a NZ legal expert rather than anyone here.

wrkactjob

ja1988 wrote: »

I have an unsecured personal loan which I am paying off monthly. Next month I'll be leaving the UK to go traveling for 12 months and may end up settling back in New Zealand.

I'm leaving enough funds in my account to make repayments for 12 months but as I'm not sure what my plans are (I could still be traveling or may take on a job in NZ that doesn't pay enough for me to keep up payments) I want to know if they can find me if I end up defaulting on the loan? Once in NZ I'll need to renew my passport and plan on taking my fathers name which there's no record of in the UK.

I'm not deliberately planning to default on my loan, but I want to know what will happen if I am overseas and don't have enough income to keep making payments.

Thanks!

Very very unlikely to track you down if you don't make mention to them the new address you are staying at in the new country.

Remember though that if you do come back to the UK and return to the address where your loan was taken out there may still be computer generated letters being sent there.

Also if you 'link' that old address to any new address the old debt could follow you.

If applying for credit overseas again if you mention your old 'bad' address you may not be doing yourself any favours.

Good luck don't worry and enjoy yourself!

chattychappy

wrkactjob wrote: »

Good luck don't worry and enjoy yourself!

Good luck paying the debt back, I say!

bigadaj

This is going to be an interesting thread to pull up when people complain that they don't have access to credit when they move to the uk. Emphasises the additional risks of lending to people who aren't uk based or domiciled, and supports any banks approach to being averse to providing credit to foreigners in the uk.