I Left the UK and My Debt Behind and Moved to New Zealand. Now I Want to Return. – Maria

“Dear Jon,

I left the UK to emigrate to New Zealand nearly 6 years ago. I am a uk citizen by birth. I left with debt in the uk and although initially continued paying this, due to financial reasons it became too difficult to manage this debt and set up the new life in NZ.

We are considering returning to the UK and I have been trying to find out who is now dealing with my debt. In the early days I know my debt was passed onto other companies and as I gave them my address at the time in New Zealand I did make contact with the companies handling the debt but was never able to negotiate a payment plan with them. More recently I have moved several times and I now have no idea who is dealing with the debt. I contacted the last company who said the debt had since been passed on again but would not advise me to who. I have tried to obtain an experian credit check report but this is also deeming to be impossible as the application process turns me down as it doesn’t recognise my overseas address. A phone number was provided and when I attempted this it came up as an invalid number. I am lost to know how to find out where my debt is and don’t want to return to the UK without talking to someone first.

Do you have any info or advice on how debt is dealt with after such a long period of time and where I could start?

Thank you for any info
Regards

Maria”

Maria,

It sounds to me you are doing, or have done all the right things. It is unfortunate that debts can be sold or transferred around and then finding out who has them can be difficult. Sometimes all you can do is wait until they find or contact you again.

You can try going back to the very beginning; contacting who you originally owed off your credit report, and trying to build or follow the trail from there. In some instances debts can wind up back with the original creditor. You may need to wait until you are back in the UK to get your credit report as you did mention the address issue, or use a family member’s address here in the UK.

If you cannot find out who now has the debt(s), then all you can do is wait really.

Do you have the means to begin paying these debts back? If not, contacting the collectors or creditors in question is only going to stir things up; they will want payments and if you don’t have the money it gets stressful.

As for returning to the UK, that isn’t a problem or issue. Just having debts alone in the UK will not interfere with your return.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Jon

Jon Emge is an experienced UK debt advisor who has helped thousands and thousands of people in the UK to deal with problem debt. Jon specialises in finding good solutions for problem debt using a variety of UK specific techniques.

If you have a question you’d like to ask about how to get out of UK debt, just use the online form. I’m happy to help you for free.