I'm sure similar threads exist on this topic, however i'm looking for some quick clarification to easy my mind. I'm currently residing in Colombia, South America, and have been here for the past 9 months. I will be residing here for at least the next few years. I currently work here, Teaching English, with a local employer. I don't receive any income from the UK. I currently owe money to 2 payday lenders, Capital One bank, and RBS bank. In total, not a huge sum, approximately £2000, however at the moment I am not in a position to repay anything, except a token offer of £2 a month until i'm stabilised again financially. All of the companies that I currently owe money to, have my previous address, which is the address of my parents. Obviously, they currently still live there. They are receiving letters threatening Doorstep collection, etc. Surely as I no longer reside there, they have no legal right to go to my parents home and demand anything? I don't anticipate this happening, as I'm sure I can arrange something with the companies when I speak to them, but I wanted to know where I stand on this. Obviously my parents are worried, they are elderly and concerned that doorstep collectors will be trying to take cash / items from them for my debts. Also, in general what is the situation if I owe money in the UK but live in a Non-EU country? I already have defaults, therefore I am in no rush to repay this money as my credit rating is already damaged, and have no plans to return to the uk for the forseeable future. Thanks for any assistance, much appreciated

Hi Guys, hopefully can get some advice on an issue I have with Santander at the moment. I have a Current Account with Santander at the moment, which had a £20 fee applied last month for being over my limit ( I dont have an overdraft, it went straight over into unarranged overdraft). I called Santander and they looked at my account, and agreed that indeed the £20 had been incorrectly penalised on my account, and refunded it. This was because im currently abroad, and the bank had incorrectly charged me 2 times for a cash withdrawl from an ATM, which resulted in me going into unauthorised overdraft. However, due to this £20 fee, I was in my unarranged overdraft for another 15 days, which totals up to another £75 in charges. This was then deducted from my account a few days ago. Im currently working in a remote village with disadvantaged children abroad, and checking my bank statements online can be a difficult task so I didnt realise there was an issue until now. I called Santander to ask them why they had deducted the £75. If they had not applied the £20 charge, I would not have been in my unarranged overdraft, and therefore would not have been charged. They admitted to a system error with the £20, and therefore it was their fault I have been in another unarraged overdraft. The woman told me that I should have checked my account and contacted them earlier and that the sum of money was now large and they would not be refunding it... Now I will be in a never-ending spiral of charges, as I currently live abroad and the money that goes into my Santander account is gone the same day it is paid due to bills and rent. Therefor I will be stuck for 15-25 days in unarranged overdraft. Do I have the right to get these charges refunded by Santander, due to the fact the £20 charge they admitted was incorrect was the cause for my other unarranged overdraft days? Also, my salary is only £400 a month at the moment, and their charges are causing me serious financial hardship. Can this be used in my favour also? Thanks

No, it was a subscription to a credit report website (Not a DD, just set up on my debit card) The strange thing is, my account is at £-19.10, which must mean they tried to take the amount out, didnt accept it, then charged me the £20 fee. So if thats going to cause me daily charges, I really don't think thats fair at all? Thanks

And just to point out, the bank obviously haven't hit me with these charges..yet. I'm just anticipating it, and hoping that I can contact them and sort it out before it happens.

I'm not on benefits, however I am living and working abroad on a low wage (£400 per month) I've also been in discussion with payplan about a debt plan, and owe about £5000 to various other creditors. So I guess this puts me under the umbrella of 'financial hardship' ... ? Thanks

Hi everyone I have a Santander Everyday Current Account, and i've got a slight issue after being hit with an overdraft charge. My balance on October 1st was about £1 after payments. It stayed at this figure, until October 8th, when a £7.99 payment was taken for a subscription (would have thought this would bounce anyway, why they took it out is beyond me if i dont have an overdraft). Because of this, I was then charged a £20 unarranged overdraft fee. It is now the 19th, and the figure is still the same (I don't get paid until the 26th). I'm concerned as a couple of months ago, Santander did a similar thing to me and charged me £5 per overdrawn day and I ended up owing £100 (which they waived as part of their 'good faith first time offence' policy) But now im worried they will charge me again for these days overdrawn. My question is, how can this be enforceable if it was their £20 charge that is the cause of the charges, and no fault of my own? If they took a payment of over £12 from my account, as they state in their T&C's, fair enough, but it wasn't.... : "You will also not pay any Unarranged Overdraft Usage Fees or Paid Transaction Fees if your Unarranged Overdraft is £12 or less" Since the amount that took me into the unarranged overdraft was £7.99, does this apply? Surely, if they charge me £20, it is directly Santander that will be causing me to be charged daily for being over their £12 limit? I haven't yet spoken to Santander as i've only just noticed this, but am I correct here or do they still have the right to charge me £5 a day? Thanks for any assistance

Do you think that bankruptcy is really the best option for me sequenci? Or is it more sensible for me to try and see if my creditors will accept token payments of a couple of quid, for a couple of months, until i'm back in the UK and earning a decent amount again? I'd say within 4-5 months i'll be back on a wage of 1k or more a month. I spoke to payplan and they're going to arrange a call to go over my finances etc, and try arrange a plan with my creditors. Like I said before, I can probably set aside £50 a month at most to repay them all. Regarding the payday loans, have to give decent kudos to Wonga as they immediately froze my interest for 30 days to allow me time to give them an income expenditure sheet etc. Quickquid and Paydayexpress, not so kind. I'm also trying to open a couple of basic bank accounts, before my credit report really gets messy. Since my credit is already at its lowest point and with the default, pretty much barred from getting any credit until that is discharged...what should I do? What are the repercussions of my different options: Declaring bankruptcy and wiping all debt Trying to arrange a partial debt write-off with my creditors Arranging payment plans to repay all of my debt currently owed If repaying all of my debt currently owed is still going to knacker my credit, then i'd rather come to an agreement with my creditors to write off most of the debt, pay a small amount for a couple of months, and then repay the remaining balance in full...is that possible? Thanks again for your help.

Thanks for the response sequenci. I should point out that i'm of Scottish nationality and therefore that wouldn't apply to me? Thanks

Thanks for the reply 64doogz. The problem with that being: I'm working in South America as a teacher at the moment on a 1 year contract. I won't be able to get any face to face help over here! Just over the phone at best to sort everything out.

I'm currently working abroad teaching English for a year after University. While here, I was also working as a marketing consultant for a UK company back home, and they were paying me around £800 a month. However, last month they cut my salary significantly to just over £300 a month. So i'm in a bit of a pickle now. I have various creditors, including 3 payday loans which were due to be paid at the end of July, and now are overdue with interest accruing daily. I currently have 8 creditors to pay: Payday loans: Quickquid (£450) Wonga (£450) Paydayuk (£450) Credit Card: Capital One (£250) Phone Contract: O2 (£150) Bank Overdraft: Clydesdale Bank (£350 - currently in Default and missed previous payment plan) Utility: British Gas (£350, currently paying £35 monthly in payment plan) Total owed is around £2500. Normally, this wouldn't really be a huge issue as with my original wage, I could afford to pay them off after a couple of months. However, with my income now at around £400, after deducting rent and expenses I only have about £50 to cover my debts... Due to my missed payment history and the default with Clydesdale, plus the recent non-payment of the payday loans, my credit rating is seriously damaged and I'm unable to secure any sort of loan to help consolidate this debt. Also, my family have their own financial issues at the moment so I cannot borrow from them. What is my best option in these circumstances? Since I already have a Default registered on my credit rating, I'm most likely going to be screwed for getting any decent loan / credit for 6 years anyway. Is it worth trying to have my debt partially written off through some agreement, if my credit rating is already in a dire state? Any help would be great Thanks

Sorry to bring an old thread up, have been in hospital and just got back on top of things. Clydesdale never provided me with my default letters, any notice of impending closure of account, etc. Nor my Credit Agreement. Are they supposed to provide this in a SAR? If so, can I hold this against them for not doing so and demand they do send it?

Sorry, forgot to add: Do the bank also need to provide a copy of my Credit Agreement within a SAR? That was not given to me either. How do I go about requesting this? And if they cannot provide a signed copy of this, is there scope this way for me to get the default removed? Cheers

What about the fact that I left the property I was living in before the default notice was sent, explained my health situation etc in my local branch, asked them to change my address, and they did not? I literally received no default notice as I wasn't even in that address. The bank failed to update my details. Any scope for using this against them? Think it's a complete farce that they'll happily ruin someone's credit for 6 years over £1 when they've got thousands of people in debt to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds, think they are a bit more of an issue than my case. For all RBS's faults, they at least removed my default for a similar situation..sigh

Hi Guys An update on the situation: I had a letter back from Clydesdale. They did not uphold my complaint. They said that the default letter was issued after 2 missed payments on my account...and that when I made my payment to take the account back into the limit, they had already sent a letter at the start of the month informing me what interest would be applied and therefore it was still my fault that I was £1 overlimit. Basically, they've totally fobbed me off. Also, in my letter I included a SAR with a cheque, and also clearly stated that I required them to provide me With a copy of any default letters / notices they sent me. They only provided my account statements - no letters of default. I may be wrong, but I thought if they cannot provide evidence of a default letter then they have not complied legally? What would be my next step? Kind regards

I should also mention, we live in Scotland - incase there is a different approach to the legal proceedings

Thanks for the response dx Indeed, my brother was rejected for a credit card recently due to this information on his file. If anyone can point me in the direction of proper contact details / mailing addresses for the 'Upper Powers' at Orange, much appreciated! Is there any specific format of letter we should write, if claiming compensation for the problems this has caused etc?

Hi guys, bit of help would be much appreciated! My brother had an 18-month mobile contract with Orange, which ended in December 2011. He informed Orange to cancel it and not renew then, and that was all processed and done in-store. A couple of weeks ago, we received a letter from a debt collection agency saying they had tracked down our address using credit reference information (we had changed address from the old one where the phone was registered in 2011). They were saying we owe £540 pounds on that contract... Orange did not send any bills to us after the termination - we even asked them to produce bills since December 2011 and they said they could not. So they have been adding up these monthly charges without even telling us, and for no valid reason. Also, as the phone was stopped in December 2011, we have made no calls or texts from it - we told Orange this would obviously be on their system and they could check the non-usage since then obviously meant they were at fault. No help whatsoever on the phone to Orange. The usual rubbish - said it was with debt collection, they couldn't do anything about it, it wasn't their fault, blah blah. He went into the Orange store, and they confirmed the phone had been disconnected in December 2011 on our instructions to terminate - but she also said 'Oh, but you are being charged for line rental'. Amazingly in-store they seemed to think they had no fault in this and that we would still have to pay it? Ridiculous. We have no idea what kind of stunt they are trying to pull here. Why would they continue to charge line rental on a cancelled contract....they have made a big error on their side somewhere down the line. Obviously we intend to fully dispute this. It has even had a negative effect on my brothers credit rating. What steps should we take? Kind Regards

Hi Brigadier Thanks for the response. Should I raise the Dispute immediately? Or wait to hear back from Clydesdale regarding my complaint letter before taking that step? Cheers

Hey guys, bit of advice would be very helpful. To cut a long story short circumstance-wise, last year while I was a student, I was in and out of hospital in Aberdeen from June - September, as a result of this I lost my job due to the fact they needed someone in full-time (I wasn't on a full time contract so I did not get any sick benefits). My grandmother also suffered a stoke, and my parents were in the process of repossesion proceedings....great few months. Anyway... This resulted in my finances getting a bit behind, I missed about 1 or 2 months payments with my other cards etc, which was ok and got them back on track. With Clydesdale however, I missed 3 payments on my current account with a £500 overdraft limit. It went up to about £30 over limit. In October I made a payment of £70 to bring my account back above the £500 limit. However, as I have now been told, after various charges and fees by Clydesdale that month my account ended up being £1 over the limit even after my payment.... After paying that I thought everything was in order, as I had set up a direct debit. When I checked my credit rating at the end of January....it was showing as defaulted. My payments in December and January had been bounced back to my account (obviously as they had closed the account). After making my October payment I had to leave my apartment and return to my parents to recover from my hospital time. I informed the Aberdeen branch to change my address...which they did not. I'm very angry as you can imagine. Although they might have already been in the process of closing the account after 3 missed payments, without having any knowledge of this in my new address, I assumed all was in order. They also never attempted to call me about the account either. The fact I informed them in-branch to change my address, and they did not do, is ridiculous. So I had no notice at all of any termination / default letters. If I had known this, I have the funds to blooming arrange a plan with them and could have been avoided. I also note they continued to charge me £20 in December and £20 in January, even though they have told me they 'closed the account'. All the woman in branch offered was 'Oh, that is probably an admin charge'. So in total my account ended at £541 before this 'default' was applied. To have my credit ruined for 6 years for being £1 overlimit is an utter disgrace, especially after their charges put me overlimit by that amount anyway. The maximum that account was overlimit was £30.....Just cannot believe the sheer arrogance of the bank in-branch and on the phone, totally unwilling to help me and rather rude about my whole situation. I have to say, when I had a similar issue with RBS they were very understanding and removed a default notice on my credit card completely after I paid it off in full. I've written a letter of complaint to Clydesdale, explaining the circumstances and asking them as a gesture of goodwill to remove the default....what advice, if any, do you guys have? Do you think I have a case at all legally? Or do they have no culpability in this legally. Kind Regards Greg

Hi Gemspan Thanks for that information, very interesting read. The house has been on the market for just over 2 months, was a very slow period over December / January (as can be expected in the property market) but this month the interest in it is soaring, we are very confident we could get a sale through within the next 3 months. What the bank basically did, is told us they would let us continue to try and sell the house on our own for 3 more months but only if we paid them £500 a month each of those 3 months too. Obviously we can't do this but offered a lower amount, was refused and they have raised the court action immediately. We're quite baffled that the bank won't even entertain the offer we have had from the Highland Council to rent the house out and possibly purchase it after 1 year. This would cover the cost of the mortgage, and allow us to pay back all of the arrears over the next year. From the links you sent me, the bank would have to basically continue exactly what we are doing for them - advertising the property and doing all they can to sell it before resorting to an auction. Seems like they are being totally unreasonable in not giving us the opportunity to finalise a sale ourselves. My father is going to get his solicitor to have a look at our case and see where we go from there. Cheers

Hi Guys, hoping you can help me with a big issue my family have at the moment We bought my grandmothers home a couple of years ago. My father remortgaged the property 2 years ago to finance a business venture, which went bankrupt. So we were left with the remortgage at a horrible rate on a £120,000 property, paying out £800 a month. This has been ongoing for the past 12 months. Chopping and changing repayment amounts when RBS decide to 're-evaluate' our position. Basically, we have mortgage arrears of about £4000 on the house, and the mortgage was initially for £100.000. We have the house on the market now for offers over £114,000, however we will probably only get close to £105,000 at best. According to RBS, they are now raising court action because even though we have offered to make lesser repayments and the house is for sale, we are still accruing slight arrears every month. They just aren't willing to give us any more time. They also say even if the house sells we will still owe them a slight amount of money. Currently the house has a lot of interest, with 20 people due to have viewings over the next month. Also, the local council have contacted us and said they would rent the property off us for social housing and pay us £575 a month with the potential to purchase the house off us after a year. We informed the solictor this, but RBS just flatly refused the idea to switch the mortgage to buy-to-let. We asked the solicitor to switch the mortgage to a lower rate, as RBS currently offer between 2.5 - 3.5 % on mortgages. This would have lowered our payments and allowed us to meet them. Again, flatly rejected. At the start of January, RBS had told their solicitors to inform us they required £500 payments over the next 3 months. We cannot afford that, so we offered £250 a month. This was flatly rejected, and shortly afterwards we were informed RBS had raised court action to repossess. The fact that my parents have tried every possible option, with absolutely no leway or help from RBS, surely is in our favour. We've offered to make payments, at a lower amount but still offered, and are able to meet these payments (we haven't missed one since the repayment agreement started). The house is garnering good interest from potential buyers who are all due in to see it soon. We already have a concrete offer from the council to rent it off us, which the bank wont even entertain even though they will get their money that way. Any advice on our situation would be most helpful. The court action was raised yesterday. Just wonder how the courts proceed with this, and if the fact we have done every possible thing to keep paying RBS but they have shot all of our options down would result in us being allowed to keep the house and not be ruled against? Sorry for being a bit muddle in the information, i've just put down everything relevant. Thanks Greg

Hi Andy Thanks for your reply. Just so I'm clear, if the Solicitors just mounted a claim without giving me time to propose a settlement plan to them then they would be penalised on any costs they lump onto my debt? Also, if they do apply for a court judgement without even taking heed of my proposals, is it still possible to negotiate a settlement and have the court action called off? Regards

Hi guys, looking for a bit of advice on a debt issue. When I left my apartment (end of a 12 month lease) there was outstanding rent of £500. Added to this, were the property agents fees for inventory, cleaning, etc amounting to £240. Total debt of £740. The rental agreement had my parents as guarantors, so they've been chasing us both. When I was abroad they called my home, and my father agreed on my behalf that we could pay them around £250 a month for 3 months to clear the debt (I never actually agreed to this it was just my father). We made the first payment, however could not afford to make the next two. These were due in Novermber and December. We never heard a word from them until this week. I was emailed by the property agents, saying I had 7 days to settle the £500 outstanding or they would 'pass the matter onto their solicitors' When they pass the debt onto the solictors, are they implying that they are intending to take the matter straight to court? I was under the impression, that when they pass the debt onto the solictors, I will be dealing with them directly on the matter and will be able to arrange a new payment plan with them? Also, if this is the case, are they entitled to charge me fees? In reply to their email, I stated that we could not pay £500 immediately, nor continue to pay £250 for another 2 months. I gave them a sort of 'ultimatum', offering to repay £300 over 2 months and the debt to be totally settled (with the remaining £200 written off) or that I would agree a lower repayment amount with their solicitors should they take that route. I also stated that I didn't agree with some of their fees (they charged £130 for cleaning, when we left the apartment absolutely spotless as-new) I'm wondering if they have the power to just launch a court bid to recover that money or if the solicitors have to enter a dialogue with me to negotiate a payment plan too, as I have never said I am refusing to pay the debt. Just looking for a bit of clarification. Thanks for your help. Greg

Thanks for the reply Bandit They had been paying up until about 6 months ago, when my father lost his business and was unable to make payments. So they are 6 months in arrears on that. They are back on their feet finance-wise now, and are able to make repayments, albeit not up to the amount that was agreed. So they could try and negotiate a lower amount of monthly repayment until they get into a better financial position (currently they are recovering from 6 months mortgage arrears too). I would imagine for the bank to go through that court proceedure would be a long and dragged out process and they would rather agree a repayment reduction than have to resort to applying for a repossession on our home? The confusion was really on the fact the bank are threatening to repossess our old home on the letter. It's a bit of a relief that they don't have an immediate claim over this current property.

I should add, the loan was for £24,000 (incase the amount is a factor in any legal issues etc) and the amount the bank are after is £18,000