Hi!!
My husband and Iw recently won our court case to remove my son from the UK to emigrate to Oz - totally over the moon. However,we now have a huge legal bill to pay off!! Just wondering how Oz views debt left in the UK. Is it best to have everything paid off and be debt free? Some advice reckons we need to start all over again with credit checks etc - so just not sure at the moment whether our time to emmigrate will be held back by paying off bills or whether we can go ahead and apply for visas knowing that we will still have this money to pay off possibly before we go - any advice greatly appreciated!!!
Jo

When you say 'how Oz views it' do you mean will it affect your visa application...having debt?

Any money owing will have no bearing on your visa application. Any money owed will have no bearing on your credit worthiness in Oz. You will have none when you get there and will need to build it up.

This is gonna get good!

Don't worry about the debt. Leave it in the UK. They won't chase you to Oz and even if they do they can't legally do anything anyway.

Not trying to stir up a heated debate by any chance are you now??

They didn't say they were going to leave it unpaid - they just asked how Aus views debts.

I paid a UK credit card bill from Aus using tranzfers.com and my UK bank account - people do it all the time!

Moi? Never!

You start again credit wise. But don't believe that nobody can chase you. It's true it's a complicated processed and is different for each type of debt but legal bills would be far easier to enforce against you than say credit card bills or other consumer debt.

As to whether you should pay or not, that's a matter for your own sense of morality but it's unrealistic not to expect a number of people to be disapproving of deliberately ditching debt, especially since a lot of posters have worked so hard to repay debts remaining in the UK.

If you have assets or income - pay the debt, either straight away or over time.

If you have no assets and no income, at least relative to the size of the debt, then you need to do a deal with creditors to accept a lesser amount in full and final settlement, or you need to consider declaring bankruptcy. Which forces the same outcome.

Abandoning debt is a bad idea - if you get into a better situation in future it can come back to haunt you, often after creditors have freely added on interest and "penalties".

Isnt engaging Lawyers, giving them every personal detail of your life, telling them where your going and why then not paying them rather like robbing the servo, while leaving your business card and smiling at the CCTV camera.


Just a thought

You engaged lawyers so that they could work on your behalf to bring your son to Australia. If you don't pay them, they might refuse to help another family in similar circumstances in the future. Surely you can work out a payment plan with them, and you will have to live frugally before and after you move to Australia.

I'm absolutely certain (having re-read the post a few times) that the OP is NOT talking about leaving her debt in the UK - only about whether she needs to pay it off to apply for visas or can she apply, get the visa and come to Aus while still paying it off. No where does it say she is leaving without paying.

Agreed.

Agreed, and morals don't really enter into the equation as it is lawyers you owe the money to.