7barz:

I would like to know if

1. I can contact the collection agency and find a way to pay off the deficits or have some kind of a structured repayment plan.

2. As my husband and I are both coming to the UK this September, can this affect us from securing accommodation in the future, especially when they do a credit check on our documents?

I would really appreciate your response and I do hope to be able to clean up this mess I created.

It may affect some landlords giving you accommodation but NOT all landlords do a credit check before letting out their houses as most of them are just interested in the regular rent payments.

And yes, you can contact the collection agency (a lot of them allow you to even set up a payment plan online without any human contact) but ensure i) you don't tell them you relocated to Naija without paying the loan and ii) only agree a payment plan you can easily afford say for instance £40 a month and stick to it and iii) guard your credit after it becomes good again after 5 or 6 years as you most likely will want to buy a family house instead of wasting money on rent. Good luck.