chzza

does anyone know what the score is bout paying off UK debts before emigrating??? my partner has a loan and credit card that he won't be able to pay off before we go.
Has anyone else been in this situation??? if so what did you do??
what would happen if he went without paying it??

esperanza

You can try not paying it but then run the risk of the debt increasing whilst you ignore it, then court summons, zero credit rating etc as they try to track you down. If you want to take your chances by going down that road then it's his choice. Even if you think you don't want to return to the UK now, what if you want to come back in the future and are too scared to do so because of this giant unknown debt?

OR he could do the right thing and pay it off. Contact them, explain it's hard right now, agree a revised schedule for repayments. Or if there is a sympathetic family member, ask if they could help and then your partner could repay his parents/sibling/mate instead of a bank. Take out a low-cost loan or zero% credit card in order to clear the existing debt and then repay the new debt.

In case I'm not being clear, or I seem unhelpful, I have no sympathy for people who try to bury their heads in the sand and get out of their debts. He borrowed it, he spent it, he has to pay it back - one way or another.

chzza

i'm not saying he doesn't want to pay it. i'm saying he can't afford to pay it all back before we go

esperanza

Just keep paying it after leaving then!
Keep a UK account open, transfer some money across each month, then pay them from the UK account. Get an account which can be managed online, and open it whilst you are still in the UK. Shouldn't be a problem.
It might be harder to pay a £ debt with a A$ income, and there may well be charges for converting currencies, but in terms of technically managing it he should be able to transfer the money with out too much difficulty.

(Is that more helpful?! )

stuckinswansea

Try HIFX for payments 4.55 at moment to buy gbp with asd....but no handling charge, commission, transmission or receipt charges

Kapri

Oh my God - here we go.
Everybody run

rugbymatt

Thats just what i was thinking!

DrWho

Yeehaa...

It's been ages since we had one of these...

To the OP... There's been a few 'discussions' about this in the past, you might like to do a search... alternatively just pull up a chair and watch the fun...!

Lord Pom Percy

l think around 30% of Brits who immigrate to OZ don't like the place or get homesick and want to go back to the UK, alot of these people probably said they never wanted to go back to the UK when first immigrated ,just say your desperate to move back to the UK and the debt has increased massively due to interest.

russmcp

He could look at speaking to the people he owes money to and arrange to spread the debt over a longer period of time and keep his bank account open in the UK and transfer money over.

If thats a problem then log onto moneysavingexpert dot com as there are forums on that site that can help. He could set up an IVA (or called something like that), but look on that site for some hints and tips for sorting out money issues, oh and wear a tin hat if you ask that question in here, always one to get us lot going

Pollyana

Transfer money each month or so with someone like www.tranzfers.com into a UK bank account, then continue to pay your bills from there.

ShozInOz

He'd obviously have to pay them off from Aus, but beware that currency changes could make paying the debt off even harder. It also puts a bit of a downer on things, and keeps part of you in the UK. When we were in that situation, we just sold up and paid up before we left the UK.

Australia_bound?

Seems a strange thing to say when can yet afford flights/visa fees etc etc etc, yet can't pay off debts!

chzza

sorry. didn't mean to annoy everyone with my question. i just wanted to know the score. he's not trying to dodge his debts at all. he knows he has to pay them. i didn't realise i'd be shouted at for asking. [COLOR="navy"]

sour kraut

Try to arrange a low-interest option via 0% credit card transfers, debt advice agencies, loan... It is definitely harder to pay off from here, and takes a lot longer than doing it in the same country on a british wage.

I'm just paying mine via monthly internet transfers into my normal account in UK, where I arranged outgoing standing orders before I left.
No probs. Costs me $28 per transfer from here, plus my bank charges over there.

HIFX couldn't offer me anything better, as debt not high enough.

As soon as you qualify you can get a loan here to pay off the whole amount, so the monthly transfer costs stop. But interest is a bit higher here.
I tried to get a credit card to transfer the balances, but alas - you can only transfer australian balances.