Please help - I have to move abroad (visa reasons), but have debt here

Jellz

Hello experts,

Thanks in advance for your help, your advice would mean the world to me! The situation is as follows:
I have approx. £1,200 in debt with Lending Stream, across six loans. I've been paying this off regularly, all ok so far.
I also have a £4,950 overdraft with my bank.
I (used to) earn well, had a stable income, and had been clearing these.

But now my visa extension got rejected, and I may be in a situation where I am forced to move out of the country. This will render me unemployed for at least a few months until I come up with a long term solution. At the same time, whilst I will have a forwarding address in my home country and obviously am keeping all my digital communication channels open, I will be applying for work all over the globe. I expect the situation will be better in a few months, but I currently just don't know what it will be in the most immediate future.

I don't have any assets I could sell to cover these debts.
I also don't want to abandon them and get in trouble with the courts in the UK since I expect I will be back.

So what can I do? I tried asking Stepchange for advice but they said they can't help me since one of my ways to earn money during the transition period may be to work for my former employer as an internally-based freelancer and they can't advise self-employed people. I feel stuck.

I was thinking that I could:

- Self manage a DMP with Lending Stream. Cancel the CPA, write to them, explain the situation and ask them to freeze the interest rate and to accept token payments until I can pay them more. They may or may not accept it, they definitely will not like it, but what else can I offer them?

- Leave the bank account discussion for another month or two (whilst the deposit back from my flat, as well as some other money I am expecting clears), but then also let them know what the situation is and slowly pay them back.

I don't want to hide from any of these institutions, I just don't know what to offer them and how?

Any help or advice really appreciated!

Jellz

Any advice, please?
Even if you don't know for a fact or have experience with something similar, I'd really appreciate your opinion or a thought on what you would do?

Thanks so much!

fatbelly

You'll obviously need a new bank account to keep control of the income you do have.

Both debts are non-priority so pay them a token payment or nothing.

Your proposals are OK and you don't need stepchange's help. But they are wrong to say that they can't help self-employed people.