That they took so long is quite incredible. Personally I'd be logging a formal complaint against them. Particularly if the delay caused you inconvenience etc in terms of being able to purchase a new vehicle. Glad it's finally sorted for you though

I'm astounded that this is still unresolved for you. I can't help but wonder... do they actually have the funds to pay you? Where are you on the replacement vehicle front? Are you having to wait for them to payout before you source a new vehicle?

I'm not sure of the lack of legal rights? Are you suggesting I ignore this letter too?

So the latest is that if I don't come to a payment arrangement with L0well they're going to instruct Fredrickson International Ltd. Do I ignore this letter too or do something about it now?

Good for you. Hopefully the "noise" you're making will shame them in to getting their act together.

Interesting.. they've got testimonials on their website referring to their quick and professional claims handling One point though, Direct Group are their Claim Administrator, whilst the underwriter of their policy is Red Sands Insurance Company (Europe) Limited who are based in Gibraltar. I did suspect that it was these guys who you you'd bought from... looking at a number of comparisons where their policies have been compared against others by the likes of Defaqto and gapinsurance.co.uk and Which? the only one on which they appear in a remotely good light is the Which? report, but that's only because the Which? report only really compares on price and pays little attention to the quality of the policy, which, frankly, in relation to the Click4Gap policy, isn't very good.

Any further news?

So in terms of the letter, I just still continue to sit tight? The debt in this case is not £7k to one company, but split between two. But yes, they're not statute barred. I do have other debts to other companies too, but the other companies all appear to have given up chasing me - I receive a monthly statement from one of them, sent to my address abroad, but hear nothing from the rest of them. I don't know if there are grounds to dispute the debt as you suggest (charges, PPI etc) and I'm not sure how I would go about checking with them, without confirming where I live right now and therefore inviting further action from them... although it has occurred to me that I do still have an address in the country I've just moved back from, so in theory I could write to them "from" there. Or would this just be inviting trouble too? Perhaps contacting one of the Debt charities is the way to go.

Fair do's. I have an interest in this topic because I was involved in setting up the UK's first online provider of GAP insurance back in 2003. That particular company is no longer around mind (went down the pan after I left! [snigger]), but I still like to keep abreast of what's going on in that market. I am curious as to who you bought your policy from. Let me know in due course, when you feel comfortable doing so.

Out of interest, who was your GAP insurance provider?

Does receiving a letter from Dryd3nsfairfax Solicitors, asking for me to respond to R0binson W4y within 14 days count as something more 'solid' ?

Now received a "statement" - I assume this doesn't count? ;-)

Can you define "solid"? The one letter from R0binson W4y, just says that they'll be handing the account over to their solicitors to deal with. The three letters from Low3ll Financial started with one advising that they'd detected the new address on my credit file and requesting confirmation that I am that same person, to the final one which is seemingly not much more than a "polite" request for me to come to an arrangement with them. I'm not aware of any PPI, but there's almost certainly charges that arose from me not being able to service the accounts anymore, would they count? No, they're both pursuing separate accounts. I'm not at home right now so I can't see the letters, but I think I'm right in saying that RW are representing Lloyds TSB and LF are representing Marbles. Between the two accounts we're talking about a figure >£7k I'm not that familiar with a SAR... once I've read up on it/one, should I write to LLoyds TSB and Marbles with a SAR now or shall I wait until something more "solid" arrives (see above) and whilst we're on the subject shall I write to each other company I owe money too with a SAR too (these two aren't the only companies I owe money too, but they're the only ones writing to me currently) or shall I wait until they contact me. If I am sending off SAR's to any entity now, would I suffer from writing from my current address?

OK people so we're now back in the UK, have been since December. We've not moved back to the house we own, but instead are renting a house that's more suitable (1 extra bedroom) than our own house, since we had an extra child whilst out of the UK. Not heard a peep from any of the companies we owe money to (of course they all still have our address in NZ) until approx 1 month ago when the first letters arrived from R0binson W4y (only the one) and also Low3ll Financial (three in total), both of whom claim to have noticed the "new" address on my credit file and have seemingly speculatively written to me here. They each represent a different company that we owe money to (Lloyds TSB and Marbles). Things are still very close to the bone financially and we live very much to our limits (which really aren't very extravagant at all) so if I was to squeeze out a regular monthly repayment as they each are asking for, I'd only realistically be able to manage a somewhat nominal amount. I'm looking for advice as to whether "the game is up" (for want of a much better phrase) and if the time has come when I don't really have a choice other than to start making at least some kind of repayment. Or, is it an option, if these letters are simply speculative and any further action is unlikely if I should either just write back with a "Unknown at this address" or "you need to write to [NZ ADDRESS]" or, whether it's a realistic option to keep my head in the sand and just play ignorant. Any advice/guidance would be very much appreciated.

Yes (or at least to my knowledge) the property is registered at the Land Registry in both of our names - it's certainly mortgaged in both of our names! Yes, the property is also managed for us by an Estate Agent. Up and until a about 6mths ago I used to subscribe to Equifax and I'd get alerted to changes on my/our credit file. I did successfully fend off one attempt at a "Gone Away" notice, because the CC Company claimed we hadn't been in touch with them, but I was able to supply correspondance that I'd sent to them advising them that we'd moved to NZ - prior to this they'd refused to acknowledge my NZ Address. The "Gone Away" entry was permanently removed. However I haven't been able to afford to maintain the subscription. I'll be sure to check our Credit Files and see what's been going on since. It's a long story, but we're receiving an unexpected lump sum of money in a few months that will be enough (should we choose to use it as such) to cover the costs of returning home, or we can use it as a deposit to buy a house out here - but we favour coming home. We should be able to raise a rental deposit and, through staying with family for the first month or two (whilst working), it's probable we could easily get 2 months rent together. A reference shouldn't be an issue because we've rented 3 houses in our time in NZ - all without issue. A Guarantor shouldn't be too hard either. At the moment I'm torn between landing in the UK and getting straight in touch with the various DCA's to offer repayment plans, or just sitting tight until they find us and then negotiating. The wife is very concerned though about people turning up on the door-step wanting to repossess stuff... given that the only secured borrowing we had/have is the mortgage, what are the chances of bailiffs coming knocking?

I'll dig out the various statements and start searching for Default Charges and PPI. Seems like excellent advice to me - thank you so much for taking the time! From memory, I'm fairly sure that with the exception of my Personal Loan, everything else are agreements incepted prior to 2007. All 5 of us would return to the UK at the same time. There are a number of family members who'd be able and willing to put us up for up to a month whilst we find our feet. In terms of our house, it's a difficult one because we have been very fortunate to find ourselves with fantastic tenants. We'd have to choose between giving them notice and moving back in to that house ourselves (though it was starting to get a little small for us and two kids when we left the UK in '09 - now we've got 3 kids!), or allowing them to stay whilst we find somewhere else to rent. However I'm assuming that if we apply to rent anywhere we're going to be credit-checked and that may well mean that we have no choice but to go back to our old house.

I guess it's the "...will act as they normally do here" bit that I'm trying to quantify. What will we be subjected to if we land back in the UK? Is it likely that it would be too late to negotiate a repayment schedule (assuming my new employment meant I could afford to - which I expect it would) or would they (Creditors/DCA's etc) just go straight for the jugular and pursue the house?

None of them. Overdrafts, Credit Cards, Personal Loans. Off the top of my head I don't recall, but I can look through the statements and check. Why do you ask? I don't believe so. Thanks for the link. I've just checked England & Wales Orders & Judgments for both myself and my wife and currently there's nothing registered. I remember Egg initially refused to do so for me but they eventually relented. I can't find any record that they did the same for my wife though and we haven't received anything from them for ages!

Hey All, So, as per the title, myself and my wife have unsecured debts (Loans, Overdrafts & CC's) in the UK, but we live in NZ and have done for 3 years. Our house in the UK never sold and so is currently rented out and just about covers itself. It runs at a loss of circa £25 per month. We have never missed a mortgage repayment. For the first 18mths or so after coming to NZ we successfully kept up with UK debt repayments, but then I lost my job and we weren't able to maintain those payments anymore - any of them. I spent quite some time repeatedly writing to the various companies advising them that we were in NZ (up and until that point we had our UK mail redirected out here), requesting freezes of interest and repayment holidays for up to 6 months, initially. Some of them complied without fuss and others either ignored my letters or point-blank refused to help. 6mths came and went and with me still out of work (and I remain so still) I was unable to offer any of of them any form of offer of repayment and with little in the way of help/support from those companies, I simply started sticking my head in the sand, "confident" (to an extent) that being in NZ meant we were somewhat untouchable. The debts have since been sold on to a range of DCA's and apart from perhaps two-or-three letters per month (and one recent phone call to my wife's place of work from an American company on behalf of one of the companies we both owe money to) we don't really hear very much from them. The letters range from offering us discounted settlements, to threatening to pass the debt on to a local firm to pursue us for it. I should though point out that some of the companies that my wife owes money to, continued to refuse to acknowledge we (she) are not in the UK and with them no longer writing to us I'm a little concerned that they're still working with our UK house address. An employment opportunity has now been presented to me/us, that would, if we go with it, involve us moving back to the UK. It's a great opportunity, given that it would get us back to both having a salary (we've been surviving on just my wife's salary alone for the past 18 mths or so and it's been far from easy, particularly with three kids under 7yrs.)... We're very concerned though that if we do this, what would happen once the companies that are chasing us, become aware that we're back in the UK? E.g. we don't want to move back to the UK to accept this job(s) and everything else that such a move would entail, only to then find that the companies we owe money force us in to bankruptcy and we lose the house etc. I figure my options (rightly or wrongly) are: Forgo this opportunity, stay in NZ and continue to ignore everything that comes through from the DCA's, whilst continuing to seek out employment here etc. Move back to the UK, but leave these companies with our NZ PO Box address that they're already writing to. But run the risk of being discovered and incur their wrath as a result. Move back to the UK, attempt to come to an arrangement with each of these companies over a nominal monthly repayment until such time as we can offer something more substantial. Either way, as exciting as this opportunity is, I can't help thinking that moving back to the UK would open the flood-gates to a whole heap of trouble! I can't really see the woods for the trees right now, does anyone fancy trying to shed some light on the pitfalls of us returning to the UK? PS. combined, our mutual debts (prior to whatever charges and interest have been added on since we were no longer able to service them) came to around £45k, split roughly equal between us.

Thanks 3tea, much appreciated.

I'll look in to that - thanks!

Thanks for the heads up about this program, I may start using it on our personal email accounts. The problem my partner would have is that they work for a Local Authority and don't therefore have control over their email account settings etc so wouldn't (I'm assuming) be able to use such a program. Frustratingly my partner's email address (along with many others) is displayed on the employer's website and with quite a unique name it's no wonder really that they found it. We'd like to be able to tell these guys not to contact my partner via work, but then I expect that ignorance is probably the best method because making contact is likely to encourage further contact from them... but equally would prefer that my partner isn't harassed at work. Reading up on their website they claim to specialise in Global Debt Recovery offering a no-win-no-fee service SO I'm not that surprised that it's been farmed out to them. As for my partner being telephoned at work. The nature of my partner's role there would make it particularly difficult to take a telephone call during their day, but then we're concerned that colleagues of my partner's will be left fielding continuous messages... it could get quite embarrassing.

Hey guys, a new development, my partner recently received an email from Blu3ston3 R3coveries in the USA (sent unannounced to a work email addresses that they've presumably found online). The email lists the amounts that we both have outstanding to a financial outfit in the UK and "politely" requests that we advise them how best to resolve the balance(s). We are in no position to be able to afford even a token gesture monthly payment. Clearly we'd prefer such emails not to be going to my partner's work email address. Any advice as to how to deal with this? Thanks

Thank you 3tea and steveab1

Excellent question, I'm interested in the same too...