Hi I moved to the Uk from Ireland in 2010, when I arrived I owed around 4000 euro on a credit card with Visa. After failure to pay they passed the debt to a solicitor for debt collection based in Dublin At first I was paying 50 Euro a month. I then got myself into some trouble over here without a job and stopped paying as I couldn’t afford it. 2 years passed and I have since moved house and have been working hard to pay off my debts but I hadn’t heard a thing from them. I recently visited the previous address and found a letter was sent last month saying that there were starting legal proceedings. Question I have is will they be able to send bailiffs to my friends house or my house and what are the chances they will pursue me through the English courts if I ignore it?

Hi all, Been reading through all the highly useful threads but I didn't find anything that covered my specific situation and I was hoping I could get some advice. I have a UK Student loan from 2001-2005 which I've fallen behind with my repayments on. I left the UK to move to France in 2005 but I was unable to keep up with the payments, the last payment I made I believe was in 2008 or 2009. Since then I've moved to the US and if I'm honest I totally forgot about the loan. Out of the blue today I've gotten a letter to my US address from the SLC demanding that I repay the arrears on my loan in full (7,200 GBP) it's dated the 15th of March and they expect me to repay within 21 days, its also listed as a final notice. I want to do the right thing with the loan but it's tax season right now and I have barely enough money to pay my tax, let alone seven thousand pounds. The earliest I think I'd have any money would be at the end of April and it wouldn't be anywhere close to that number. I was wondering if anyone had gone through something similar and what my legal rights are at this point. I'm guessing I'll have to contact them to negotiate but would like to know what my options are before talking to the SLC. Thanks in advance, any help or advice is highly appreciated.

My wife was caught using a student oyster (from my son) instead of her one. TFL will prosecute her, and once she pleads guilty, she will get a criminal record. Will this affect our immigration process to the UK? I am using the tier 1 (investor) visa to stay in UK, this is my first year staying here.

Hi there, I have lived outside the UK for over a year now and now living in South Africa. I tried for over a year to keep paying off my UK Credit cards- Barclaycard and MBNA with debts of around £14k. In March this year I called the bank to let them know that I couldnt afford the monthly payments as I now have no job and also the exchange rate is so low my Rands wont cover much of the debt monthly. They said I could default for 7 months and then the debt would be sold on or I could pay but they said I had to keep paying with a minimum amount. As I had no job I stopped the monthly payments and its been 6 months now. I havent told them I am living here and have had no emails or anything from them as they dont have my number or address. I wanted to find out if they were able to chase these debts to SA and what the best option was for me to do? I am having terrible sleepless nights over this and the thought of it is making me feel sick to my stomach but right now I have no way of paying them back. Any feedback or advise would be much appreciated.

I have made an error, I know it's wrong and I feel really ashamed. I stole at Primark and HMV and the security caught me. It's the first time they do it. First I went to Primark and I took some clothes (36 pounds), I went out the shop without pay it and nothing happened. After that, I went to HMV and I tried to steal a headphones (30 pounds). In this case, the staff saw me by CCTV and they called to security. They discovered I had stolen in HMV and Primark. They asked me if I had any ID but, in that moment, I only had my credit card. I gave it them and they wrote down my name and I don't know if my credit card number too. They ask me where I'm from and I replied them I'm a EU citizen. And also I'm in UK on holidays for 1 month. They gave me a letter to advise me that I'm banned from entering at HMV, not for Primark. However, they told me I couldn't entry in the commercial centre anymore. I speak a little bit of English and I didn't understand well all what they were saying. I paid with my credit card the clothes in Primark, not the headphones at HMV because they didn't let me do it. The security man went with me until the door and the told me: Don't come here anymore. I was really nervous after this and, returning to my flat, I lost my wallet and, therefore, my credit card. To avoid other people use my credit card, I cancelled it via Internet when I arrived at home. My questions are: 1. What's next? 2. Do I have to pay any fine (I have read about RLP - Retail Loss Prevention)? 3. Where do I have to pay the fine? 4. How are they going to contact me? Remember they only have my name and maybe my credit card number. Moreover, my credit card is out of service. 5. Are they going to send me a letter to my home (in my country, not in UK) with the details? 6. About criminal records. Am I going to have any entry due to my thefts? 7. I hope to work in UK in a near future. Will this affect to my job search? 8. Will they demand me? Will I have to go the courts to solve this? I know stealing is wrong and NEVER AGAIN- I've learned my lesson, believe me I feel so ashamed and guilty, I WILL NEVER SHOPLIFT AGAIN. Please don't share your opinion on what I've done. It was a stupid mistake that I regret. Please, help me with the questions, I'm really worried with this situation and I want to solve it as soon as possible.

First of all, thanks to the providers and contributors to this forum. I am really worried and happy to have found somewhere where I can try to get some answers. Background: I have been living and working in the UK for the past four years. In 2007-2008 my father was going through what was at the time temporary financial difficulties (loss of job & divorce) so I offered to allow him to use my NZ credit cards, on the basis that he would make the monthly payments. In 2009 he had a heart attack and was only working part time so was struggled to pay and basically no payments have been made since late 2009. As a result I have credit card debt to two NZ credit cards - one for NZ$16k (approx £7k) and one for NZ$15k (approx £6k). I have two properties in NZ, but these are highly mortgaged and due to the credit crunch, the banks have refused me a second mortage to repay the credit card debt. I have looked at selling, but after paying the estate agent commission, marketing and paying the mortgage, there would not be enough left to pay the debt. I earn a reasonable salary in the UK but have quite a bit of credit card debt on 0% interest and would struggle to raise a loan to pay the debt in full. We have also had a ban on overtime since this time last year, resulting in an effective 30% pay cut. In short, I am treading water in the UK. My wife is due with our first baby in the next few days and I really don't know what to do! My father managed to raise some cash to make a couple of payments earlier this year and I have had a reasonable relationship with the credit management department at the banks (who know the situation) but the inevitable has happened and both have just been passed to DCAs in NZ. Current Situation: I got an email from one of the DCAs (EC Credit Control) in NZ a little over a week ago, asking me to call them. I should say that up until this point they had my UK phone numbers and email address, but most correspondence was still going to my fathers address in NZ. I called the NZ DCA on Monday and they said that they wanted immediate payment of the debt which was the original NZ$16,600 plus costs of NZ$4,700 making the total due immediately of NZ$21,300. I said that I would not consider paying the costs but had previously spoken to the bank (Bank of NZ) when I was trying to remortgage and they said that they would be willing to accept a full and final settlement of approx NZ$12k, so, if I could raise the money (and I didn't say I could), that would be the most I would be willing to offer. I asked her to send me the details in writing to my UK address (which I gave to her). She said that they had already sent a first demand (to my incorrect address), which they could not resend, but I would get a second demand in the next week. Two days later a letter arrived from EC Credit Control, but this was from their UK based office with all UK registration details on which states: "Our client has referred the above overdue account to us for collection, as you have failed to respond to their repeated requests for settlement. Their instructions are to issue legal proceedings unless payment for the total account is made to EC Credit Control" If the matter is taken to Court, out client will seek Judgement against you for their legal costs. The Court may also order that you pay their Court costs. Failure to make payment will result in court proceedings commencing against you which after obtaining Judgement will result in you being listed as a defaulter throughout the United Kingdom. This will adversely affect your credit rating. Payment must be made b cheque or credit card directly to EC Credit Control. A payment slip is attached at the bottom of this letter to be returned with your remittance" Obviously this makes me concerned, as I am trying my best to deal with the situation via the NZ DCA, and I was not aware that there was any jurisdiction for this debt to be legally pursued in the UK. After reading the forum regarding jurisdiction, and the Office of Fair Trading Debt Collection Guidance, final guidance on unfair business practices July 2003 (updated December 2006), I don't think that they can do this, but really want some advise on the following: 1. Considering that this has only just been handed to the NZ DCA (and has not reached court or anything), does the UK DCA company have any jurisdiction in pursuing me in the UK? 2. At what point (if any) of legal proceedings in NZ will they have jurisdiction to pursue the debt in the UK? 3. At what point (if any) could they register this debt in the UK and it go onto my UK credit record? 4. How can they pursue me for costs of 25% of the original debt. Does this not have to be in a reasonable proportion to the original debt, or is this subject to the contract that I had with the credit card company? 5. I have never admitted to the debt to the DCA (either in NZ or the UK), but may have in correspondence with the credit card company. Is there any reason for me not to admit the debt? 6. Can they pursue me to pay the full amount? No mention has been made of arrangements, or willingness to accept a full and final settlement. I am a bit at a loss of what to do, but was considering writing to the UK DCA basically disputing their jurisdiction and the claiming that they are using unfair business practices as per the Office of Fair Trading Debt Collection Guidance, final guidance on unfair business practices July 2003 (updated December 2006): Section 2.4g of the Office of Fair Trading Debt Collection Guidance, final guidance on unfair business practices July 2003 (updated December 2006) states that an example of an unfair practice is: "... g. taking or threatening to take court action in the wrong jurisdiction, for example, taking action against a Scottish debtor in an English court unless legally justified" As I am already being pursued by the New Zealand office of the company, and spoke to them on Monday 13th September, then I think that they are also in breach of the following: Section 2.6 states "c. using more than one debt collection business at the same time resulting in repetitive and/or frequent contact by different parties d. not ensuring that the adequate history of the debt is passed on as appropriate resulting in repetitive and/or frequent contact by different parties e. not informing the debtor when the debt has been passed on to a different debt collector f. pressuring debtors to pay in full, in unreasonably large instalments , or to increase payments when they are unable to do so" " i. disclosing or threatening to disclose debt details to third parties unless legally entitled to do so". Collection costs: Should I also ask for evidence of the contractual obligation I have with the creditor, to pay collection costs and that collection costs of 25% are fair and justified in line with obligation 2.10 b which states that such charges must be "based upon actual and necessary costs". I fail to see how they can claim to have spent $4,000 on collection of this amount so far (in issuing one email in NZ and one letter in the UK). I think that these charges are disproportionate to the original debt and in breach of section 2.10 e. Or should I have this argument with the NZ DCA, and just dispute the jurisdiction of the UK DCA? I really would appreciate some advise on this subject. I am now looking at how I could sell one of the NZ properties privately (to reduce the costs of sale) to try to raise some money. I cant afford to let my father bankrupt me in two countries!