Does your good or bad credit follow you around the world?

I understand that, and I don't think anyone said bad credit = bad character.  But I think that a case could be made that deliberately abandoning your debts and/or just out and out refusing to deal with them = not good character.

Agreed.  Certainly bad credit = bad character.  But in this case, the OP is deliberately abandoning debt.  She is going as far as not changing her address, considering having her parents return all mail as return to sender (versus, you know, forwarding it to her) and completely being oblivious to what debt she even has.  Under the guidance, she can be refused.

I think everyone who is posting in this thread is urging her not to ignore her debts in the US.

I think everyone who is posting in this thread is urging her not to ignore her debts in the US.

I think we can all agree on that.

I think she'd know if she had been brought to court.  Do they actually do credit stuff in absentia?

Not necessarily.  One of the main tactics of collection agencies is to serve court papers to the bare minimum standard, in many cases simply a first-class letter in the post or a notice in the back of a newspaper.  Then, when the debtor fails to appear in court, a default judgment is entered against him or her.  In fact, one of the best defenses to consider when faced with a lawsuit over a debt (after statute of limitations) is improper service, simply because it's so common.

Also, I don't believe the SoL clock stops if you're out of the country, since the creditor can file the claim with the court prior to the limit, the court just won't enter a judgment until you've been properly served.  If the creditor doesn't claim before the limit, they're out of luck AFAIK.  They can still sue, but you have an absolute defense if the SoL has run out.  Of course, it all differs state-by-state.

But, I'm not a lawyer, just a well-read layman.

The USPS forwarded my mail to my UK address without a quibble and didn't charge a fee. It surprised me, but they did.

I think the best thing to do would be to contact these companies you owe money to directly, explain your situation, and give them your updated contact info in the UK. These things won't go away just because you're out of the country, and it's best to at least make your intentions clear that you will deal with this once you're earning an income again and you're able to start working out a payment plan. I'm having some issues too with a debt that I still owe in the UK, I had worked out an arrangement before I left the US, and then later found out that the debt was either sold to another company, or they had filed a claim with some legal group anyways, but they were sending letters to my old-old address (even though I had given them my address in the UK, and before that my mom's address, so even if they had sent it there at least it would've been forwarded to me) and I never knew until my mom got a call for me at her house that I was going to be taken to court. These things can turn into such a mess, but at least if you're making some sort of arrangement with them, then it shouldn't affect any future visas you apply for in the UK.

The USPS forwarded my mail to my UK address without a quibble and didn't charge a fee. It surprised me, but they did.

I tried to get the USPS to forward here, but they said they didn't forward mail internationally. (This was spring 2010.)

If the OP is considering bankruptcy, it can have repercussions here. My first job here had a contract that included a clause that basically stated that I could be made redundant immediately if I had a bankruptcy, and that the company wouldn't be required to pay me any redundancy pay in that case.

I agree with the above posters that it could also affect ILR (if the rules change to include character checks) and citizenship (since they do involve character checks). The OP might get away with ignoring debts/declaring bankruptcy, but might not.

I've read a lot of personal finance blogs, and standard advice for when you can't pay your bills is to contact the creditor and work out a payment plan. If necessary, include a budget for them to show how much (or little) you can afford. As long as they agree to it, you can get payments as low as $5/mo, and as long as you make all your payments on time, they can't complain. If you got your creditors to agree to a plan like that, you could afford to make (low) payments for now, while still avoiding more bad credit, until you get more financially stable and can pay off the debts.

With some exceptions, generally your good or bad credit does not follow you around the world.  

In general, this.  However, I don't think anyone on here can say with any certainty whether/if/how much bad credit will affect your immigration process over time.  If we knew of actual cases where it has happened, that would be one thing.  But as far as I know, we don't.

online_girl, if I were you, I wouldn't be asking a forum like this for advice on this particular matter.  At best, we are armchair advisers on it (any advice to be taken with a grain of salt), and if you want to address the issues with your debts in your individual situation (none of us know you, your circumstances, what brought you to this point, etc!) - you would be best served with some specialist advice for it, for debts in the US.  The court process for debts in the US is different from that in the UK, and the US is still more complicated, because there are 50 different states involved - each of which may handle things a little bit differently.  So anyone giving advice, it's important not to muddle the issue of what goes here in the UK may not be so in the US, in the relevant state.  The court systems are different.  And the credit reporting agencies are different - at the moment these systems are not joined up from one country to another.  Whether they will be or not in the future, who can say?

For specialist, confidential, non-judgemental advice for debts in the US, I highly recommend this organisation:

http://www.nfcc.org/

It is a non-profit (charity) in the US specifically for providing debt advice to individuals such as yourself.  The service they provide is either free or very low-cost - depending on what services you might utilise.  The general ethos behind the organisation is one for repayment of debts, but they do look at what is the most practical & reasonable solution for the individual - be it a repayment scheme (self-administered or an organised debt management plan), bankruptcy, or some other alternative.

However, in order for anyone (a trained & qualified debt advice counsellor or otherwise) to best help you, at some point you are going to have figure out exactly who you owe & how much, etc.  That would be one of the first steps.

It's tough with medical debts if there were a lot of them (which can easily happen in the US even with a single hospital stay - owing to the fragmentation of health care provision in the US) and they have since been passed from pillar to post, one debt collection agency to another, so on & so forth.  You would not have been the first person who maybe didn't feel able to cope with such a situation at one point in time or another.  At one time, medical debt alone was a huge portion of the bankruptcies filed in the US - and I would imagine that's probably still the case.

If you haven't been getting the mail & you're not sure who and what you owe, getting a copy of your credit reports in the US (all three of them - there are three credit reporting agencies) would be your first line of action, IMO.  Someone posted a link earlier for that.

Good luck!  

With some exceptions, generally your good or bad credit does not follow you around the world.  However, if your creditors end up suing you (in the US) and winning civil judgments against you (because you won't be there to defend yourself), it can cause visa and naturalization complications down the line.

Do they actually investigate such matters in other countries for immigration and visa purposes? Esp now with all the public service cuts, are those resources still available??

Do they actually investigate such matters in other countries for immigration and visa purposes? Esp now with all the public service cuts, are those resources still available??

Do they investigate?  Probably not.  But, if they ask about civil court judgments and if you lie and they discover it later through whatever means, they can revoke your leave to remain.

And your citizenship if it comes to that.

The USPS forwarded my mail to my UK address without a quibble and didn't charge a fee. It surprised me, but they did.

I tried to get the USPS to forward here, but they said they didn't forward mail internationally. (This was spring 2010.)

I had no trouble getting them to forward my mail in May 2010.  You have to do it my mail though - you can't use the online form for international address.  There's no place to specify that it's international, but as long as you make it legible and make it fit, you should get your mail just fine.  I'm still getting the occasional letter more than a year later.

From the USPS website:
How do I file a Change of Address for an International address?

If you are moving to an International address outside of the United States, you will need to fill out the same Change of Address (COA) form (PS Form 3575) that is filed for a domestic move at your local Post Office™.

If you forget to submit a COA prior to moving to an International address, you can write a letter to your old Post Office in the United States and the Post Office now serving your new international address explaining the situation.  Provide direction on how and where you need mail forwarded.  The letter should also include as many details asked on the PS Form 3575 (Change of Address Form) as possible.

Please Note: If you are filing a Change of Address from another country to the United States you will need to contact the postal service of the country you are moving from.

Not encouraging anyone to ignore their debts, but the fact is there isn't really anything creditors can do if you leave the country and don't give them your address or any way to trace you. They can't get a default judgment from a court unless you've been personally served with a summons. They can't serve you unless they know where you are. There's not really any getting past that. And unless the debts are HUGE, they aren't going to try too hard to find you. It costs too much money, especially if you've left the country. All they can really do is send letters to your old addresses.

I wonder about this too sometimes. While I am making every payment on my credit card and student loan interest in the US, I'm finding it incredibly difficult. It takes such a big chunk out of our money that we barely have anything left after rent, council tax, these debts etc... I just wonder what happens if you pay what you can instead of the minimum payment? Do you get in just as much trouble? Does that influence your citizenship application? Technically you've not abandoned your debts right? I wonder if the OP can just pay whatever tiny amount she can manage and if that would make things right?

The best advice in that case is what has been advised above; get in touch with your creditors and try to work out a lower payment plan based on your circumstances rather than paying below the minimum without informing them, as that will just lead to worse credit and higher payments in the long run.