“Dear Jon,
Hello
I need your advice. I am an Indian citizen and had been living in UK for last 4 years. during these time I had to get some bank loans, credit cards and overdrafts .
Now I owe £ 1500 to Lloyds TSB , £1000 to amazon credit card, £500 to Aqua, £ 2500 to Barclays and I have a payday loan of £ 350. all of a sudden I need to go back to my country India forever due to family problems and I am under no position to pay off all these debt.
I am in such financial crisis that I even need to borrow money from others for my plane fare. Thus I wont be able to pay off any debt at all and wont be coming back again . Now I am scared whether the bank and credit card will try to trace me or will they just write off my debt? LLoyds , aqua and Natwest got my passport photocopy. What is the common practice by creditor? will they asssume that I leaft the country and will they try to recover money from back home? Even if they can trace me will I be obliged to pay at that time. If they obtain a County Court Judgment in UK ..can they enforce that judgment in India?
Please advice.
Thanks.
enayet”
Enayet,
I know it must seem like a stressful period and I’ll try to alleviate some of that stress in explaining your options and what you can do.
How much longer are you planning on being in the UK prior to moving?
As your debts are less than £15,000, you may wish to consider a Debt Relief Order, which is a form of insolvency, like a mini-bankruptcy or bankruptcy-light, to be relieved of these debts prior to your leaving.
A DRO can be done rather quickly and the fees are just under £100.
If you feel you have no way of repaying these debts, even from your homeland, then the DRO will resolve the situation.
If you cannot get a Debt Relief Order completed as you are leaving the UK immediately, which I would think you would have time for a DRO, then you have to do what you have to do.
Leaving the debts behind naturally doesn’t mean they are no longer owed, and as to if your creditors would pursue you in India I cannot say. I would venture they may try to collect the debts by sending notices, etc, this if they have your new/current details, and they may look at obtaining a CCJ against you. But this is not enforceable in other countries, so no worries there.
Unless the creditors here sell the debts onto a collection agency in India, which again I think is unlikely, there is little they can do.
But again, the DRO resolves all this and relieves you of the debts, and the worry.
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.
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