Usa

camz2017

Hi All,

I have £32,000 debt outstanding, I have been paying it down from 35k in the past few months and using YNAB to monitor everything.

My employer has asked me to relocate abroad to America, which will happen Q1 2018.

I intend on continuing to make payments, but a few questions:
1. How best to keep making payments? Keep a UK bank account open? I don't have any family left in the UK so I would have to just leave it registered at an old address.

2. If for whatever reason the pound becomes so strong and I actually cannot afford repayments, what could my lenders do whilst I am abroad? Can they issue a CCJ whilst abroad or make me bankrupt from abroad? Can they ring my UK employer and reveal everything?

3. Assuming they do all things in number 2, would this affect me getting residency in the US later down the line? Or prevent me renewing a visa?

4. Do I need to give everyone my US address?

I'm worried the debt basically almost doubles in dollars!!

In terms of staying in the UK, it's not really a choice at this stage.

National_Debtline

Hi camz2017 and welcome to MSE,


In terms of maintaining the payments, you could make some enquiries with the bank. You may be able to pay from abroad, but the bank may charge you for converting the payments from dollars to pounds. Some bank accounts can be used more easily than others when you are abroad so you may want to look into this with the different banks before you go.


If you maintain the payments, then you are unlikely to hear much about them. You are very unlikely to be able to use the credit abroad so your debts will hopefully go down quicker. However, if you can no longer able to maintain the payments it does become more complicated. You could try and negotiate with the debts from America. You would need a SOA (budget) and you could try and negotiate a more affordable payment via email (rather than post). They could use UK debt collectors or county court, but if you are abroad with no property or assets in the UK this is unlikely to really affect you and they are also unlikely to make you bankrupt. They will have no right to contact your employer about your debts.


However, they may try and pursue you in America. This would be complicated as there is no reciprocal agreement between the UK and USA, so we don't necessarily recognise each other's debts, but if you were pursued in America you would need local advice. And whether this would affect your visa applications is also something you may also need local advice on. Best of luck,


Laura
@natdebtline