£80k debt but not living in UK anymore

tintin13

Hi, I would appreciate your advice.
I left UK actually about 8 years ago and I have been trying to honestly service my debt from abroad without missing any payments. Cost is about £3500 every month, but my debt is not reducing at all.
Now, my situation has changed dramatically and I need to move back home (Africa) and I defintely would not be able to service these debts anymore. I know I will have no recourse to move back to UK soonest.
I don't just want to walk away, so I am thinking of approaching each of the credit card company. My plan is to offer them small amount each. This idea came to me as I was reading that they sell debt on to other company for cents on each pound owed. Take for example, I am owing MBNA £30k. There interest amount has been around £600 every single month. I want to approach them and tell them to let me pay £2000, as that is what I can afford. Where I am moving to, they are not able to reach me. So, would they agree? Has anyone ever used this method. Like I said, I have not lived in UK for the past 8 years, so I can't approach any adviser.
Any help/advice would be much appreciated.

pogofish

You should maybe post this in the Debt Free Wannabe Forum or get the thread moved there as this does seem beyond the realms of any credit card..?

tintin13

It's all actually credit card debt

pogofish

Then more credit cards or revising your way of using them won't really help you. DFW really is the way to go.

chevalier

I take it you are not still using these cards any more? I would write to each of the companies above and explain like you have hear. And then ask for reduced payments pro rata for each card. And well done for trying to sort it out
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VanessaHilton

While it might not be the most ethical approach, if you can avoid them for 6 years without acknowledging it, it will become statute barred!

fusionx212

VanessaHilton wrote: »

While it might not be the most ethical approach, if you can avoid them for 6 years without acknowledging it, it will become statute barred!

it's not okay to tell people to do this.

he wants to come to an amicable situation with them, however i'd question as to how you get a £30000 credit limit on a card. that to me is shocking..
as vanessa says though if you are out of country there is little they can do to get to you

sourcrates

Hi,


If your still making contracted payments to these cards then there's absolutely no chance of them accepting your offer, as you have not even defaulted on the original agreement yet.

I`m assuming you have not told them previously you were out of the country, so as far as they are concerned everything is ticking along nicely.

Its unlikely they would accept out of the blue like that.

It would depend which part of Africa you are going to, as, to my knowledge, the UK has reciprocal agreements with some member states, but certainly not others, due to the size, and remoteness of most of Africa, not to mention corruption been rife amongst officials, the chance of any of your creditors ever knowing where you are, let alone ever finding you, is pretty remote to be honest !!

tintin13

I am moving back to Nigeria.
And truly, I have never defaulted although it's becoming really hard not to.
And yes, I guess they've assumed all along that I am in the UK because I use my sister's address. I don't want them to start getting nasty calls or letters.
How long do I have to default to make them take my settlement offer? Just stressed out thinking about deliberately defaulting. I am not aiming to save my credit rating as it's absolutely unimportant. I am not even a British Citizen.

sourcrates

It's a funny system we have in this country, if you stopped paying today, first the companies own collections debt will try to contact you, if no luck there it would go to a debt collector, then it could be passed around many debt collectors before finally been sold on to a specialist debt buyer.

It's at that point your offer would be concidered, but that could take many months, even years in some cases, to get to that point.

In your position, taking into account the amount of debt you have, you would be far better served declaring Bankrupcy in my honest opinion.

You have to pay a fee, From April 6 2016, the bankruptcy fees in England and Wales are £655 (£525 Official Receiver's fee and £130 application fee).
You can do it all online, without having to attend a court, and you do not have to be resident in this country.

You should really take advice on this from National debtline, or another free debt advisor, but I suspect they would agree it's your best option.

JCS1

I'm not sure of Bankruptcy is an option, as OP not been in the UK for 8 years it wouldn't be classed as centre of main interest