Moving overseas, what will happen to debt?
Date: Tue, 12/18/2007 - 16:24
My wife and I will be moving to the UK next year. We fully intend to settle debts before we leave or keep up with payments once there. But there is one debt we would rather not pay - my wife had a promotional interest-free fincance plan for eye surgery. One year in to a 2 year plan my wife missed one of her payments and they slapped on all the prior finance charges amounting to over $700 in one go. We are tempted to pay off the amount we originally owed and leave the finance charges behind when we move.
What are the likely repurcussions of doing this once we are over in the UK and will not be coming back?
I still owed on some debts when I moved to the UK a few years ag
I still owed on some debts when I moved to the UK a few years ago, and fell behind on a payment here or there due to struggling to find a job. I actually had a collection agency track me down over there and they can still try to collect on the debt. They have or can forge relationships with collection agencies in the UK, who will then pursue you my all allowable means. Also, this will go on your wife's credit report here, and possibly on credit reports over there if a collection agency over there gets involved.
I would recommend explaining to the creditor that you are moving out of the country, want to settle the debt and offer to pay the original amount minus the charges that were thrown on. If they don't seem accommodating, advise that you do want to get this matter sorted before you move, as you are moving out of the US permanently. I don't know that I would mention where you're moving or any other specific details.
I got my remaining debts taken care of once they tracked me there, and it was never reported negatively on my credit report, so it is worth clearing up. I didn't plan on moving back to the US, but that is what happened, so it was a benefit to move back and have a good credit rating and clean credit reports.
