New to debt, please help

sourcrates

kevoxshockwave said:

thewad said:

Try Stepchange........I was in serious debt but not to my own bank so I never told them.....it meant I could keep the £1500 overdraft facility I had in place....meant I had an emergency fund available...9 years later in April 2020 and I was debt free and in Feb 2021 was mortgage free..........

Cheers thewad, I intend to contact Stepchange once all my debts have defaulted. I don't really care about my credit rating as i don't live in the UK any more and don't intend to return.

Stepchange won`t deal with non UK residents, non of the debt charities will, if your stay outside the UK was only temporary, 12 months or less, then they would, but help can`t be given to those who live abroad permanently.

This is not advice, just purely from an information perspective, if you don`t intend to return to the UK, then why pay the debts at all ?

You could make individual arrangements with creditors, but in all honesty, once you move abroad on a permanent basis, the debt won`t follow you, they won`t know where you are for starters, so will write to the last known address, any court papers will go to the same place, CCJ`s are rarely escalated, so will just sit there for 6 years till they wither.

Non of that will be of any consequence to you abroad, and won`t affect you in the slightest.

enthusiasticsaver

I agree with sourcrates in that if you do not intend to return to the UK just ignore the debts. None of the debt charities will touch you if you live abroad so a DMP is no use to you unless self managed. 

kevoxshockwave

sourcrates said:

kevoxshockwave said:

thewad said:

Try Stepchange........I was in serious debt but not to my own bank so I never told them.....it meant I could keep the £1500 overdraft facility I had in place....meant I had an emergency fund available...9 years later in April 2020 and I was debt free and in Feb 2021 was mortgage free..........

Cheers thewad, I intend to contact Stepchange once all my debts have defaulted. I don't really care about my credit rating as i don't live in the UK any more and don't intend to return.

Stepchange won`t deal with non UK residents, non of the debt charities will, if your stay outside the UK was only temporary, 12 months or less, then they would, but help can`t be given to those who live abroad permanently.

This is not advice, just purely from an information perspective, if you don`t intend to return to the UK, then why pay the debts at all ?

You could make individual arrangements with creditors, but in all honesty, once you move abroad on a permanent basis, the debt won`t follow you, they won`t know where you are for starters, so will write to the last known address, any court papers will go to the same place, CCJ`s are rarely escalated, so will just sit there for 6 years till they wither.

Non of that will be of any consequence to you abroad, and won`t affect you in the slightest.

won't they take me to court though? 
Also my last address is my parents... so they are gonna get all the letters from the banks etc. 
I was going to manage the DMP via them. 

Do you think its ok to just ignore?

thewad

Contact them now and they will do all the work for you and keep creditors off your back.
Fill in the form they send you to your advantage so you have some money left for yourself.
If you have a spare bit of cash don't mention it.
There are no checks on any of the figures you give them.
I even managed to not let anyone apart from my wife know about it.
Don't pay by monthly direct debit from your bank that way they won't know and won't limit your resources.
For 9 years I paid cash every month to the post office.....that post office was 4 miles away so not my nearest.....just to keep my debt from anybody I might know.

sourcrates

kevoxshockwave said:

sourcrates said:

kevoxshockwave said:

thewad said:

Try Stepchange........I was in serious debt but not to my own bank so I never told them.....it meant I could keep the £1500 overdraft facility I had in place....meant I had an emergency fund available...9 years later in April 2020 and I was debt free and in Feb 2021 was mortgage free..........

Cheers thewad, I intend to contact Stepchange once all my debts have defaulted. I don't really care about my credit rating as i don't live in the UK any more and don't intend to return.

Stepchange won`t deal with non UK residents, non of the debt charities will, if your stay outside the UK was only temporary, 12 months or less, then they would, but help can`t be given to those who live abroad permanently.

This is not advice, just purely from an information perspective, if you don`t intend to return to the UK, then why pay the debts at all ?

You could make individual arrangements with creditors, but in all honesty, once you move abroad on a permanent basis, the debt won`t follow you, they won`t know where you are for starters, so will write to the last known address, any court papers will go to the same place, CCJ`s are rarely escalated, so will just sit there for 6 years till they wither.

Non of that will be of any consequence to you abroad, and won`t affect you in the slightest.

won't they take me to court though? 
Also my last address is my parents... so they are gonna get all the letters from the banks etc. 
I was going to manage the DMP via them. 

Do you think its ok to just ignore?

Its not my place to morally judge you, I was simply explaining how things would pan out.

Yes court is likely if you continue to ignore, as I said, but that`s just a first step, to enforce a judgement they have to know where you are, or where you work, if your abroad, non of that matters does it, you won`t be chased abroad by UK debt collectors.

Your problem will be all the hassle you will create for your parents, so to avoid that, you would have to make your own payment arrangements with your creditors.

However this is likely to be difficult, its common for debts to be sold, sometimes many times over, debt collection companies don`t like dealing with debtors abroad, as they are bound by UK law, it won`t apply in a foreign country.

You would have to have a UK postal address, and then have them pass on your letters, it could get complicated, and is not as simple as it sounds.

kevoxshockwave

thewad said:

Contact them now and they will do all the work for you and keep creditors off your back.
Fill in the form they send you to your advantage so you have some money left for yourself.
If you have a spare bit of cash don't mention it.
There are no checks on any of the figures you give them.
I even managed to not let anyone apart from my wife know about it.
Don't pay by monthly direct debit from your bank that way they won't know and won't limit your resources.
For 9 years I paid cash every month to the post office.....that post office was 4 miles away so not my nearest.....just to keep my debt from anybody I might know.

Contact who now, thewad? Stepchange? 

I was advised earlier up the thread to wait until all my debts defaulted before contacting a debt management company...

Thank you both for your advice by the way, I'm not questioning anyone's advice, just trying to work out the best course of action...

I mean personally the best course of action would seem to be to just ignore it and never pay it back! But yeah, my parents are gonna be hassled to high heaven if i do that... 

A lot to ponder. Thanks again thewad and @sourcrates

EssexHebridean

You've got stuff to juggle here for sure. For some people in your position, just ignoring and letting it all happen but in a way that really doesn't affect them is fine. Others will find it doesn't work for them - and that they feel they permanently have it hanging over them. You obviously have the complication of the potential distress it will cause your parents too so that needs to come into the mix regardless. Also - and possibly something to consider - you may not be considering moving back to the UK right now but what if something were to happen to one of your parents - might that make a difference? 

Just to reiterate what was said earlier too as there seems to be some confusion from thewad's post - none of the UK debt charities deal with people living overseas. And yes - if entering a DMP it's better to wait until debts have defaulted.  If you go the DMP route, you'll most likely need to do it self managed - not necessarily a problem, and there would be plenty of good advice and support on here if you took that route. 

kevoxshockwave

EssexHebridean said:

You've got stuff to juggle here for sure. For some people in your position, just ignoring and letting it all happen but in a way that really doesn't affect them is fine. Others will find it doesn't work for them - and that they feel they permanently have it hanging over them. You obviously have the complication of the potential distress it will cause your parents too so that needs to come into the mix regardless. Also - and possibly something to consider - you may not be considering moving back to the UK right now but what if something were to happen to one of your parents - might that make a difference? 

Just to reiterate what was said earlier too as there seems to be some confusion from thewad's post - none of the UK debt charities deal with people living overseas. And yes - if entering a DMP it's better to wait until debts have defaulted.  If you go the DMP route, you'll most likely need to do it self managed - not necessarily a problem, and there would be plenty of good advice and support on here if you took that route. 

Thank you very much. I am very grateful for all the advice I have been receiving here. It is very much appreciated. I have had this demon of debt hanging over me for years and it is good to finally have some sense of a way out. 

I have considered asking a friend of mine to monitor my mail instead of my parents, it is less sressfull that way. And thus I am considering just letting it all ride out to default. Will consider.

kevoxshockwave

You mentioned that DMP can be self-managed... is there a starting place for me to look into this? 

kevoxshockwave

sourcrates said:

kevoxshockwave said:

thewad said:

Try Stepchange........I was in serious debt but not to my own bank so I never told them.....it meant I could keep the £1500 overdraft facility I had in place....meant I had an emergency fund available...9 years later in April 2020 and I was debt free and in Feb 2021 was mortgage free..........

Cheers thewad, I intend to contact Stepchange once all my debts have defaulted. I don't really care about my credit rating as i don't live in the UK any more and don't intend to return.

Stepchange won`t deal with non UK residents, non of the debt charities will, if your stay outside the UK was only temporary, 12 months or less, then they would, but help can`t be given to those who live abroad permanently.

This is not advice, just purely from an information perspective, if you don`t intend to return to the UK, then why pay the debts at all ?

You could make individual arrangements with creditors, but in all honesty, once you move abroad on a permanent basis, the debt won`t follow you, they won`t know where you are for starters, so will write to the last known address, any court papers will go to the same place, CCJ`s are rarely escalated, so will just sit there for 6 years till they wither.

Non of that will be of any consequence to you abroad, and won`t affect you in the slightest.

Hi @sourcrates, when you say CCJs will just sit there until they wither... does it mean my debt effectively becomes null and void after the 6 years?