Dianag

I have debts here in the uk which amount to about £8000. I have an agreement with the CAB that these are paid each month by postal order(they handled the companies for me) when i move to the us they wont be able to handle the companies for me. I will be writing to the companies in turn explaining change of address etc and i have someone on this side who is willing to get them paid for me each month if i wire the money over.

What can these companies do? Can they do anything about this and ruin my chances with my fiance?


Advice needed please

Thanks

Rete

Your credit history, good, bad or indifferent will have no bearing whatsoever on your approval for a Fiancee visa.

Rita

Dianag

I already have the fiancee visa i am just worried about the debt companies may do once i get to the united states. Can they order the ins to send me back or anything? In the past they have chased my ex husband for them, but as i will have a new US husband are they likely to target him for payment instead?

Thanks

Rete

INS has other things to do and the "companies" as you call them can holler and bellow to the cows come home and INS wouldn't give a damn.

As for them chasing your exhusband, if the debt was owed by him of course they would go after him.

Your new husband is not liable for any debt incurred prior to your marriage to him. So he is safe from that worry.

Make your arrangements to repay your debt if you want and just continue with your life.

Rita

Forcefulljack10

Dianag <[email protected]>
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You should not concern yourself with this issue, You are covered by the data
protection act for one,It is ILLEGAL for any credit agency within the U.K to diclose
any details of a UKC to a foreign credit agency or body,Regardless of what your
credit rating is or was within the U.K,You will start off here with no credit rating
within the U.S,IE,You could have the best credit rating on the planet within the
U.K,thing is,It means Jack here. Are likely to chase your future husband???? Nope -
Whats the debt to do with him??? How they gonna know where he(you)live? You gonna
tell em that? Do they need to know??? All your lenders need to know is that your
gonna pay the monthly fee and thats that.

FJ10

Ameriscot

You don't have to worry about your credit history moving overseas.

You should make arrangements with each of your creditors on your own terms as to how you will pay them off. Don't let the creditors dictate to you, as it may not be the most cost effective to you given that moving money overseas isn't free. I would imagine that the easiest way to settle your affairs is to set up standing orders from a UK bank account. You then can send a regular amount from your US bank to the UK bank to cover these.

Smith

Ameriscot <[email protected]>
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I have resently moved to the US from the UK, and have told everyone that I owe money
to my new address, if I move again to another address in the USA and do not inform
them of my new address, would I get away with not paying any of my UK debts I still
have, they are for Electric, Debt Collection agency acting on behalf of BT, Lloyds
TSB, any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated as most of these debts
were created by my X-wife, and I am so pi$$ed-off having to pay them and the charges
in transfering money over seas.

Ameriscot

I don't know if you'll get away with it, nor would I recommend this course of action, but one thing to make absolutely certain of is that you don't actually owe any money to any branch of the UK government.

jdlally

Ameriscot is absolutely right! The best way to pay off your debts is to stay clean both in the UK and the US because you never know when you may be in either country and better to have a top credit rating in both countries - REMEMBER that while you still pay your debts in the UK, your credit rating is going up and up because they are making money from you. So the easiest thing to do is to sign up with Paypal.com (sure it takes several days) but they won't charge you much to transfer from US to UK bank account and then you can transfer once a month and evn more so that your standing orders take care of themselves for a few months.

On a side note for those of you interested in establishing a great credit history quick without the hassle of going through secured credit cards etc is to transfer a UK American Express to a US account. All they ask is that you have a zero balance and they will transfer to a US account and automatically you will establish a US credit file.

Hope this helps, James

Duncs

The factual legal position is that once a UK creditor has obtained a UK court order for money. Then that court order can be presented to a U.S court requesting that an order be issued in its jurisdiction for payment of monies. A UK court order is not enforceable in the USA without separate new legal proceedings. each state has its own rules for allowing an order from another state to be enforced.

Thats the fact of it but in reality UK companies dont like to sue for small amounts under £5000, if they can avoid it as it costs more than they recover. Secondly proceedings in the USA are even more expensive. The economic reality will impact on the companies decisions. They want to recover but not at any cost they are after all in business. So you have some power in dealing with them so dont let lots of slabbering and threatening get to you. Their primary methods are threats and intimidation the law is the last resort. The rates of recovery are low on bad debts around 3-5%.

My advice is decide how important you think your credit rating is in the Uk and judge your actions accordingly. If you care about it then make an effort and repay the money, if not then see if you can get a reduced payment plan or even offer a lump sum payment in final settlement(it kills your credit rating though) i suggest around 50-60% and whilst lots of bitching and moaning once they know you are in the USA and likely to be out of reach for the foreseeable future the economic reality kicks in.

Thats my 5 cents. To those ready to write the 'you have a moral obligation to repay, your word is your bond, etc etc'. why not just keep it to yourself for once. Dianag didnt ask for a moral lesson just advice on what her position is so please avoid annoying me by telling me that i should feel bad about not repaying MBNA so they can give $300,000 to George.W.Bushes re-election campaign.

regards,

Duncan

rincewind

I have loan debts under 10,000 in UK but I decided to keep quiet about my move.

Now before you think I'm not paying, I am. I changed my address to my parent’s house and ensure that my monthly repayment fee is transferred to my UK bank accounts ready for each direct debit.

I didn't want to cause any complications with informing them about my move and I figured that it would be okay as long as they get their monthly payment. Sometimes, it's better not to be so forthcoming with info.

I am not advocating not paying back your debt, I believe that you should. I just found it easier not to share everything.

dunroving

- now Duncan, you know we're not going to shut up just because you tell us to - this is a free forum!

- besides, I don't think anyone has told you you're a naughty boy, in fact I have made the point on more than one occasion to similar posts that IF you are totally screwed (like it sounds like you were), there are options open to partially pay of the debt, etc., etc. - I even referred someone to a post of yours to help them out in that regard.

- and as there are clearly some people on this thread who aren't familiar with the earlier threads, here they are:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...highlight=debt

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...highlight=debt

- and to reiterate my opinion (just because I'm allowed to), IF you are perfectly capable of paying your debt, I think you should pay it, and who you owe money to shouldn't be an issue. I think there's a world of difference between someone who is financially destitute/in major debt trying to "make arrangements" and someone who owes a credit card company a couple of thou and says "try and catch me, I'm off to the USA!"

jdlally

Me thinks that Duncan is a tiny bit annoyed about the idea of a Republican getting back in for a second term - don't take this to heart, great info, but had to get my word in there!

Duncs

Terrorfied is more like it.

No i agree if you have the funds then repay if i could have i would have. But where people have significant difficulties i dont subscribe to thew view that you should live in penury for years in order to inflate the profits of MBNA or others. The lending game is one of risk they know that so they get no sympathy from me.

GJB

I have run into credit history problems that have not benefitted me. When I was in the UK I was earning an average wage (about 35000 pounds a year) but lived about 1 mile from work. Hence, I didn't have a car, and didn't spend much money either (about 150 a week in the pub!). Consequently I had lots and lots of 'disposable income'. I never needed loans, or credit cards, so my credit rating was fantastic. My bank told me that I was one of their best 100 customers.

I moved over here and I had letters from the bank telling me how good I was and glowing references from 2 UK credit agencies, not to mention $70,000 in savings and $15000 worth of shares in various companies.

All of it meant squat and I must now start again over here.

Not great for me, but taken in reverse where if you had lots of debt and bad credit in the UK, it would be pretty good.

Best
GJB