Hello All, I am seeking some advice regarding a timeshare we stupidly bought into whilst on holiday in California in October. On the day, we were sold this amazing package, but since returning to the UK this amazing package has fallen apart - and simply isn't what was sold to us. I wont bore you with the details of why the package is different, but the package is significantly different to what we signed up to - and simply isn't what we want and doesn't work for us. We have tried to express all of our issues to the Timeshare company, even having it escalated up to Director level, but they seem to be reluctant to admit any wrongdoing and are completely unwilling to help us out. The timeshare is a points based system with our names on a title deed in California. We have paid our first two month mortgage payments on the deed, but we are now at a point that we want to walk away. We are debating what options we have and whether there is any risk to us being UK citizens, and stopping payments to a US based Timeshare/Mortgaged Deed? The major questions we have; 1) Will defaulting on a mortgage affect our finances in the UK? 2) Could a US Debt company chase us in the UK and could they force us to pay by UK law? 2) Will defaulting on a mortgage affect our ESTA/VISA allowance to visiting the US in future? When we signed up to the Timeshare, the company ONLY took our names and addresses and one credit card from us. They did not take any passport details. If we stopped the payments being taken from the Credit Card, would this affect our credit rating in the UK? Has anyone else been in this situation or have any ideas what we can do? Many Thanks for any advice!

Hi, I have a question about last wills and testaments. I am a dual French/British citizen married to a British citizen and we have lived in the UK for almost 20 years. We own a house in the UK (as joint tenants). We want to write a will that will say to whom we want our respective share of the house to go to once we are both dead. We have no children and won't be having any. In my case, I want my share to go to my husband but I want to make sure that when he dies, if I'm already dead, my share goes to my siblings in France, who are French citizens, and not to my husband's family or new partner for example. Could someone please help me and let me know how I can make sure that his happens? Are there specific types of wills for UK people who want to leave their assets to someone in Europe? I have received very conflicting advice from some solicitors. Thank you very much in advance! Sonia G

Hello, Thanks for reading. I am a 61 year old male and have been in this country for 55 years. My parents bought me to the UK, I kept my Australian passport as it was easier to visit Australia with my Family and the kids can get dual nationality if wanted. I spent 9 years in the British army and have always lived in the UK and always worked and paid Tax and ni. I have been on DLA for the last 5 years and am receiving my army pension since I turned 60 from the DWP (same people that do DLA and PIP) I have been applying for PIP and they want paperwork on my rights to stay in the UK. I was only 6 when arrived in the country and both parents died 10 years ago. the only proof I have is a stamp in a 40 year old passport that gives me the right to remain in the uk indefinitely. I have used this passport every time I have been abroad (100 times) and not had any problems. Does anyone have an idea how to get round this. Tony

Good Evening Guys, I've posted here previously and received some fantastic help so I am hoping the same can be done again. My partner has got herself into an interesting situation. She is an NZ citizen who lived in Australia for three years (where we met), before moving to Scotland with me when my Australian VISA expired - 12/14. When she left Australia, she left behind approx. $1500 worth of debt split between a credit card and a mobile contract. At the time we didn't have the finances to worry about it as the move to Scotland was priority. Since 12/14 she has had no communication from the credit card company, and only one email from the mobile provider asking/seeking payment which was early last year. However today we received a message from a family friend of ours in Australia advising that they had been contacted by a company looking to speak with my partner, they claimed they needed to speak with her or her family about a personal matter and wouldn't give any other details (apart from her fathers first name - which was weird). From checking the forums and contact number I now understand this to be Credit Corp. My questions to you brilliant people is - they clearly have limited info on her whereabouts, should we make contact with them and try and rectify the debt, or let it go away? Her main concern is that she is on a 5 year VISA here in the UK, after which she will apply for residency and we're not sure if that would affect it. Can they pursue it in the UK? I've read some of the previous threads on here however her case is a bit specific and I'm looking for a clear answer. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I 'm off to bed now (23:20, 3/5/16) however will be available to answer any questions tomorrow morning.

Citizen Advice are asking customers of rent-to-own companies to complete a short survey about your experiences of shopping at BrightHouse, Perfect Home or Buy as You View. Your responses will be used to produce a report about consumer experiences in the rent-to-own market. This report will be used to see whether more can be done to protect consumers such as yourself. https://docs.google.com/a/citizensadvice.org.uk/forms/d/1-exGdFfQaO9CiwOKicwroUQvh5bg0J2F1fCZHJBsL5Q/viewform?edit_requested=true

The following report has been issued today by Citizen's Advice: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/Global/CitizensAdvice/Debt%20and%20Money%20Publications/Thestateofdebtcollection.pdf

Hi to all, it is my first post to this forum since and I would like to thank in advance for your help. Recently, last January got myself in trouble with one of the Forex broker companies. The price on one of the pairs went down a lot and caused a lot of people to have negative balance on their account. I was one of the unfortunate ones, having woken up with -50k GBP on my trading balance (invested just few, since I don't have a lot of money). Next day the company went into insolvency due to poor risk management, etc... and huge negative balance (30+ million pounds) and a company hired by High Court of Justice have taken over to deal with the insolvency process. While most of the Forex companies are forgiving the negative balance, they say that they will not do that and everybody is expected to cover their balance. They are still looking over all clients accounts and once they are done, they will send an email to everybody in the next few weeks, with their current balance, giving money to those that have positive accounts and asking to pay from others that have negative balance. Now, I am not willing to give them full amount since I don't think it is only my problem, they should have reacted better as well, but their risk management were poor and now they are trying to put blame on customers. But, ... After they sent an email that I should pay, I heard if I ignored it after two weeks they can sell my debt to a debt collectors agency. And I would like to try to avoid that. What are my options? To send an email that I disagree with their balance? Do I need to give some reasons, or simply saying I disagree is enough? In that case they have to take me to court to prove that negative balance is accurate, is that so? Since I am not resident of the UK, but Slovakia, and I have never lived in the UK, the court they have to raise a complaint would be in the UK or in Slovakia? As well, at the time of opening of my account I lived in the Middle East. Since they had their office over there, I was contacted my that office to sort out papers required for an account. In the end, I got my account with them without providing half of the required documents for opening an account. Is it a valid point to use that argument and claim that my contract and everything else (negative balance) are not valid, even though I traded with it (never withdrew any money from it though.), since the contractual requirement were not fulfilled at the first place. Any advice is a great help. Cheers, idiom

Couple of weeks ago, a German friend and family came over to visit. I lent them my car for the weekend. Today, I received Notice of Intended Prosecution from West Midland Police. Apparently, my car was caught doing 70mph on M6 between J4 & J5 where there is a variable speed limit of 60mph!! The NIP asked for information of the driver. Should I submit the name and address of my German friend? What would happen to him? Will he be prosecuted in German, or call to face the music in West Midlands? I wonder if anyone had similar experience and can give me some advice, please. Many thanks.

My FLorida holiday home went into foreclosure in 2010. I had tried to negotiate a "short sale" with the lender but they would not agree to this. I have today received a very threatening letter from a uk debt collecting company threatening me with taking action through the US courts that will give them the right to take me to UK courts and seize my UK assets in order to settle the outstanding amount of the debt. Does anybody know if the UK debt company has the power to do this ? Does anybody know of a UK solicitor that is expert in this field that can act on my behalf if I need to try and negotiate with this company Thanks

Hello, I'm a US citizen who moved to the UK for graduate school, and built up some debt while there. I moved back to the USA right after the financial crash of 2008. I had every intention of paying back the debt, but there just weren't any jobs, and I've been struggling ever since. It now turns out that the best chance I have of getting a job in my field may require moving back to the UK. I have a credit card, HSBC, which started collecting here in the US through Bluestone Law, but I couldn't make regular payments, and finally couldn't make any. Now they have sold the debt to someone else and tried to contact me at my parent's house. I haven't called them back yet. I also have a British Gas and another electric company that I owed money to when I moved. I've been in contact with them sporadically since, to try to make arrangements to pay, but they don't follow up. I've been living in terror of being stopped at the airport as some criminal when I enter the UK or EU. Can they do that? And if not, and I can move to a new job in the UK just fine, what kinds of problems will I have getting a bank account or a flat to rent? I there anything else debt-related that I should think about before deciding to apply for UK jobs? US jobs sometimes do credit checks. Is this normal for UK jobs? Thank you very much!

The OFT are writing to 29,500 state Schools asking them to remove restrictions. Where parents are forced to buy from specialist suppliers. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2223168/Parents-lose-52million-year-uniform-costs-state-schools-force-spend-169-skirt.html

http://newsletter.citizensadvice.org.uk/display.php?M=27695&C=1e627837b9823e9d5f702f61519a3df7&S=608&L=52&N=347

Social campaigners Over a month what do you spend 10 minutes doing? Queuing for the bus? Waiting for the kettle to boil? Trying to figure out 4 across? If you’re like us, you probably spend a lot longer than 10 minutes doing these things. Why not sign-up to become a Citizens Advice social campaigner and give us just 10 minutes each month so together we can make society fairer for everyone? Social campaigners will use social media to campaign on behalf of Citizens Advice and help us make a difference for everyone in the country. What do we want? We know you’re busy so let’s get to the point. If you join us we’ll send you an email every month that suggests three super quick actions for you to take. It might be to share some of our advice with your friends, watch a video, tell your MP about our campaign, or fill in a survey. Whatever the action, it will always be making a difference for our campaigns and our clients’ lives. Of course, it’s always optional (you don’t have to click our links!) and won’t take longer than 10 minutes. You can see how easy it is from our previous campaigner actions. Why should you bother? Each year Citizens Advice Bureaux see millions of people who really need our help there and then. A lot of these individual problems reveal bigger collective problems which can hurt us all so we take what we learn advising people and change the causes of their problems. We do this through campaigning. And with your help we can change more lives for the better. But what if you don’t use social media yet? Don’t worry if you’re not a social media expert, the actions will be simple and full guidance will be given with each email so you don’t need to be, but if you do want to learn a bit more about social media we’ve put together some resources for our campaigners on what makes a good social campaigner. Social campaigner resources Sign me up! So you want to join? Congratulations on making this excellent decision we just need a few details. Social campaigner sign up And you can check out our previous campaigner actions if you're still not sure. http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/social_campaigners.htm

Hello all, I'd like to ask some advice and information on my issue. Last year I enrolled to a UK college (I'm from the continent), believing I'll find a job on time to be able to pay the tuition fee but that did not happen so I eventually moved back to my home country and informed the college I can't carry on my studies as I have no money for it. I wasn't told (at least, can't recall that happening) that even in this case I'll still need to pay the enrolment fee so I acted in the belief that there won't be any consequences (I know that's my stupidity). Early this year I received a bill from the college that I need to pay the enrolment fee (about 500 pounds, which is a lot of money for me, living in Eastern Europe). They said if I dispute that claim I can send them an e-mail etc. which I did but I received no response at all. Than a few weeks ago a debt collector company sent me a letter telling I need to pay that amount. I don't find this whole method satisfactory at all, but the main point is that I just simply cannot afford paying an amount that's way over my monthly income. So my questions are, what can I do? And what can they do? I really don't want to be locked up or something but I just have no means to pay this at the moment and it's unlikely to get any better soon. I appreciate any advice and information.