Uk debt

J

jock04

Guest
Folks, sorry if I'm going over old ground for some of you here, but I'd be really grateful for any opinions/advice.
I was living & working in Uk, had a bank loan & credit card through the same bank.Bank loan balance now approx £2000 ( payments were £300 per month), credit card approx £5000.No late/missed payments on either.

In Dec 03/jan 04 when I decided to come home I asked my bank for a settlement figure for my loan, but they would not supply this over the phone, despite my being registered for phone banking. I continued making monthly payments to this & my credit card. However I am now finding this difficult on my new much lower salary ( was €50K+ per year, now €15K but should rise steadily).
Neither bank nor credit card co. has my address here. My ex-landlord in the UK has told the bank I have gone away.
Short term, I seriously doubt I could make payments of a size that would satisfy either lender.
So...the questions!
Can any of you tell me - will I be pursued here if I default, and will Irish lenders be made aware of my UK debt.- will this affect my mortgage application here?
Is transferring my credit card debt to an Irish card an option? Should I "forget" these debts as I won't be back in the UK?
Really appreciate any insights you can offer. I must admit I'm having a few sleepless nights wondering how best to deal with this.Thanks
 
My humble opinion - No, you should not 'forget' these debts. You've had the fun of building up the credit card bills - do you really expect somebody in the bank to pay for this for you?
 
Appreciate your sentiment, and agree with you on that moral point. However, for the 1st time in my life I've hit a rough patch & am unsure how best to proceed.
Bear in mind too that I DID offer to pay off the bank loan in its entirety & they wouldn't give me a settlement figure (see below). I'm also very willing to transfer the credit card balance rather than "forget" it.
The lump sum I had has since been dissipated & I'm struggling a little right now. I'm not asking for absolution to behave badly, just looking for advice on my options.
 
It's unusual that they wouldn't give you the settlement figure over the phone. Perhaps a quirk of UK banks. AFAIK Irish banks will give you the Balance and/or settlement figure as long as you have the Agreement No, and some personal details.

To answer your question, the amounts in question are not huge, you should be able to get a personal loan with a reasonably small repayment spread over say 3 years.

This will only work if you are currently living within the 15000 income that you have. The fact that you've eaten up your lump sum suggests that you are still in a 50,000 frame of mind on a 15,000 income.

If you are living beyond the 15,000 income then the debt in the UK is the least of your worries, you are very soon going to start running up debts here too.

-Rd
 
Thanks for your reply.Turns out it was a Uk thing "for security purposes"
Just for the record, I've now made contact with the bank & have agreed a reduced payment/longer term plan with them, and yes within my new lower income I can afford it.
I'll skip over the condescending attitudes in the replies as they are surely a result of my only posting sketchy details of how my situation arose.
thanks again
 
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