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