mizkittcat

Hi All,

My husband is trying to wrap things up in the UK before his visa is approved (hopefully around the holidays)

He has a bit of debt and is working hard to pay it off before he comes but it seems the interest rates are very steep, so that makes it harder.

We want him to be able to come before the holidays (or within 6 months of the visa being approved)

Can anyone with any experience chime in and let me know what we are dealing with in terms of debt consolidation, IVA or bankruptcy?

thanks!

made of kent

DON'T TELL THEM HE IS MOVING TO THE USA! we got ourselves in a pickle or want of a better expression when selling a house in the UK, we had exchange but run out of money, I went to my bank and explained truthfully about the situation and despite the letter from my solicitor that completion on the house was 4 days and my top notch credit rating, they refused to extend my credit, so when to hubby bank where I had a joint account with him and told the truth apart from the moving to America stuff, they where still not sure as hubby is a spend it person, and had a crap credit rating, and mine was kind of dragging up our joint account, and refused again! then 3 hours later I was phoned by our personally manager and she had a plan, which worked, I doubt she would have gone to the effort if she thought we where leaving the UK? anyway tidied us over and all paid off in 4 days when the house sold.
The moral to my story is, we had an asset which was about to pay out in 4 days, the first time proof and everything, but the very reason we where moving to the USA made it a no go, and the second bank even without the move in the current climate also said no go, but it was only a member of staff thinking "this isn't right" got us out of the crap!
Thank you RBS but haven't they gone down the tubes? not by me I hassen to add, we paid up!

sleepysnooze

See http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/pdfs/gu...bankruptcy.pdf

For IVAs see http://www.iva.co.uk/guide_pros_and_cons.asp

They should be last minute resorts. They would both screw up his credit rating and make it difficult to get finance. They would both leave him with no or very little assets - e.g. if he has a house, that would go to the creditors.

Debt consolidation could be a good idea. Essentially, if you can get a better rate of interest from one lender, then you should borrow money from that lender to pay off your existing debts, and of course would pay less interest. Whether this is worth doing or not depends on the rates he is currently paying.

petalsf

I went bankrupt in the UK while living here, this did not affect my immigration process nor my credit rating here. One *very* important thing though, if you do choose this route, make sure *all* his creditors in the UK know he's gone bankrupt before they sell the debt to American debt collection companies. While the debt still resides in the UK, debt collection companies are bound by UK bankruptcy laws. Once the debts are transferred here, though you can state a good case to say UK bankruptcy abolishes the debt, US debt agencies are not bound by UK law. You'd probably be OK, though it may cause unnecessary complications getting the debt sorted out.

I'm pleased and relieved I was able to declare bankruptcy in the UK while here.

cheers petals

bishbosh66

Hi Petals,

Can you explain how this process worked for you. I am in the US and I am finding it difficult to meet the financial needs of my creditors. I can only see one way out, but I am not sure if going bankrupt in the UK will affect my US credit status.
I applied for credit for a car here a few months ago, got approved and was told they don't refer to the UK system at all. Which makes me think that this whole process wouldn't register here.

Anyone have any comments?

Bob

have a search through other past threads and read the wiki on credit...you'll get a better idea...and no a UK bankruptcy doesn't affect you in the US.

Welcome to BE too

lj2

You can keep paying it off when you live here.