Debt in UK, living in the USA

Si

Here's the situation:
I was living in the UK until 9/02.
Just before I left I took a consolidation loan to pay off credit cards - loan was for (pounds) 20K. That left a balance on one card of c. (pounds) 5k.
I have no assets in the UK, and am exceptionally unlikely to ever return - married, kid in USA.....
Exchange rate is killing me, and the repayments are tough to manage.

What are my options?

goolieman

Sorry, I have no options for you, but I am likely to be in a spookily similar situation very soon.
I am likely to have £25k worth of debts here when I move over to the US.
I just wanted to know how you managed the whole situation. Did you tell the companies you were moving? How do you pay the payments, do you still have a UK bank accout etc..
All this advice would be grately received (this is my only concern about the whole 'move')

Very sorry to hijack your thread!

C


P.S Dodgy advice but I'm sure if you are not ever planning on returning, you 'could' just abandon it...

(...goolieman runs and hides from missile attacks...)

Si

Yep - maintain a UK bank account, and transfer cash over monthly.

Nope, didn't tell them I was moving.

Not sure about the legal implications about just walking away from it all.......

frepol

Just remember the global nature of the modern banking industry. You probably owe the money to the UK subsidiary of an international banking corporation and it probably wouldn't take a great deal of effort for them to either find you again or to transfer the debt to their American arm who could then take further proceedings to recover the debt in the USA. (Is it possible to arrange to do this yourself thereby saving yourself the exchange rate loss etc? Pure thought but if you don't ask......). Just remember that HSBC for example calls itself the world's local bank. The last thing that you would want to do is to end up with a shot credit rating in your new country.

Hope this gives you something to consider.

deemy2004

I think it would be tough for a bank here to claim a debt against someone in a different country. Seperate laws governing the debt and legal system and juridiction of the contract you signed up to.

Though they could make a case of fraud through deception of not informing them of your intentions to leave the country and then abandoning the debt. As I am sure if they were at any point aware of your intentions of leaving the terms of conditions of your loan would be different.

Thus it could happen that you could be considered as a fugitive on the run, which in the current paranoid US climate is not a good thing !

In actual fact they have probably insured the debt, so you would have the insurance company on your back !

RIP1_2

I'm about to move to New Zealand with alot of debt. I was hoping someone had some answer for me.

My thought- please just an idea- is that if I settled all debts with my bank where all the money comes out to pay the other companies, then my bank may not care less. They have their money and would not be bothered. The other companoes then would have no record.

What we really need is someone that works for a bank etc who deals with these issues to advise us!!!