Abandoning uk debt when living overseas

Voyager2002

cantdoitanymore wrote: »

Hello

Moral judgement aside....

I have approx £5000 in uk credit card debt. I’ve been living overseas (outside the EU) for 6 years and have been slowly trying to chip away at this debt for all that time. I’m sure I’ve long since paid the original debt but it’s not going anywhere because of interest. I cannot physically pay enough each month to reduce the debt.

I’m here for good now and I will NEVER go back to live in the UK. I will go back to visit every couple of years or so.

Realistically, what can I expect if I just stop paying? I have no assets in the uk. Will they go after my parents? They will have their address on my records as that’s where I had my mail sent during the first couple of years away.

Can I just expect a whole heap of letters that I can simply ignore? How likely are they to send a debt collector here? What will happen when I go back to the uk to visit - ambush at the airport?

Thanks

Debt is a civil matter so there is no question of an "ambush at the airport".


You do need to consider both the possibility that you might, in the future, wish to live in the UK again and any agreements that might be made between your new home country and the UK.


You should also consider whether you now or in the future will have any assets in the UK that the bank or its debt collector could pursue. Are you likely to inherit a house from your parents? Will you ever receive a UK state pension? If so, the sum of £5,000, vastly increased by court fees and administration charges, could take a substantial bite out of this, and once your creditor obtains a CCJ against you then the debt will never go away.


Rather: if you have any savings at all then you might consider dealing with it now. I suggest that you contact the lender; ensure that they know that you are settled out of the UK and ask them for a "settlement figure" (an amount of money that they would accept in order to wipe out the debt completely). If that is more than you can afford then consider defaulting. Your debt would then probably be sold on to a debt collector, who might well agree to a lower settlement figure.

kwame41

I think its all been said.


No sign of the OP for a while.


I like the Mark Twain quote by the way. :-)

T-G-C

Even if the debt is "slated clean" so to speak, I would hope, when able to use credit products again, that such is used more responsibly.

In other words, I hope that a lesson is learned from this...