peterpamnryan

tricky one this and one thats got me a bit miffed,we got chatting to a couple last night and discovered we were both applying to emmigrate to oz,after a few beers we both opened up about our circumstances,turns out they got together after a couple of messy divorces but one of them had their house repossessed anyway because they have this on their credit history any loan ,finance etc they have had since they have had to pay crazy intrest rates,to cut to the chase so i dont bore you all ,they said they are leaving a few debts ie credit cards ,car finance etc etc behind and taking all teir cash with them.they rekon when you get to oz you have to build your credit rating up and that they dont even track your history in the uk.1st question =true or false,2nd if true why does anybody pay anything off before they go,3rd=how long do you have to build credit history so to get mortgages,car loans etc etc.my personal feeling is they are wrong ive never known a bank let me get away with a fiver overdrawn never mind a few grand,any info folks......

lucyb

Uh Oh! Not this old chestnut! This has been posted loads before if you search for it! I think if you're happy enough to borrow the money you should pay it back. I couldnt sleep at night if I left debt in the UK...every time the doorbell goes I think I would cack myself! :scared:

gobbyjock

Ouch! theres been a few posts about this sort of thing in the past and people get very emotive about the subject (not suprising when you work bloody hard to try and get a clean slate for your new life and others just seem to waltz away without a care in the world)What I would say is your friends should be very careful before doing this sort of thing because you don`t know whether you`ll stay in Oz (you never know what`s around the corner).

peterpamnryan

thats my thoughts,were gonna go debt free ,first time in our lifes

peterpamnryan

youre spot on although i wont deny after a few cool ones and listening to them i did get all greedy ,if didnt pay this that and the other i could have this that and the other in oz but i couldnt relax

gobbyjock

Have to say we are working bloody hard at the moment to get a totally clean slate for our new life and I don`t think my conscience would let me walk away knowing I owed money (is this old fashioned of me??) Like someone on a previous post on this subject said you borrowed the money -you spent the money so why shouldn`t you pay it back. In my my book it`s the same as stealing.

gobbyjock

Yep that`s the thing being able to relax for once in our lives I am looking forward to it. We ripped up all our credit cards and store cards (felt pretty scarey at the time too!!) but it was the best thing we`ve ever done as I think twice now before I buy anything.

blossom

They do catch up with you - it happened to some people we know and they were only in Oz 5 minutes before they were knocking on the door, so my advice, don't do it - pay up and live happily !

peterpamnryan

not old fashioned,id say its the right way to go.were the same feel like were working every hour going in work then get home start again on the house,but its worth it in the end ,we want to sit in the sun and chill not look over the shoulder

teach

Not sure about answers to your questions, excuse me for being so bold... what losers! I personally would never leave debt behind even though I know if I walked away from student loan I would be about 6k better off. These things have a nasty habit of catching up with you. A new life, debt free, what a feeling that must be.
Sarah

gobbyjock

I think that a valid point - how much better we will feel knowing we`ve done it all properly

Jonahs_mummy

Apparantly, it all depends on who the debt is with/sold to in the UK. For instance, if the debt is with/sold to a company that is either worldwide or has 3rd party agencies in Australia and if they are 'tipped off' you are in Australia they will try to track you down if the amount of the debt reflects it.

I have heard stories about a company being tipped off about a couple that had left the UK & gone to Aus & this company put ads in the local paper saying that they were "old friends" trying to get in touch with "Mr/Mrs X"..... turned out some 'good' neighbour called the number in the ad & told them where the couple lived...... they ended up in deeeeeeep shit with paying money back...........

I think the general rule is..... pay it off before you go.... or keep watching over your shoulder.

We are striving to get everything paid off.... the only thing outstanding will be my Student Loan but I know they will continue to allow me to defer & pay from Australia.

Claire
x

ELLJAY

Agree totally, we are working hard to settle all debts before we go. Then we can sleep at night.

L-j

Bradley7

I’ve looked into this as it’s come up quite a few times. There is an agreement between Aus and UK gov that bad debts can be recovered. So really there is no escaping bad debts. Going to take me 3 years to pay everything off and get some money saved up, so at least when I get there I won’t have anyone after taking me to court in Aus to recover any money.

rossifumi

Sorry to be so abrupt, HELLO! Pay it off, here endeth the lesson.