Angry White Pyjamas

The OP clearly stated they require legal advice. The thread title even says so.
If you answer it you can be construed to be giving that advice, regardless of whether it is from personal experience or professional knowledge. You have no more of an idea who they are than I do.

You are guessing wrong.

dan_alford

And there is allways someone here who thinks everyone is an asshole when responding negativly to an ethically or legally dubious question.

My original post gave advice to the question without judgment but here is some background info. I had and still have some debts in the UK that I am paying off slowly. In my opinion it is the right thing to do. I borrowed the money therefore I need to pay it back. I also went through the full and legal immigration process.

Therefore when someone comes on here trying to "beat or cheat" the system it does tend to piss me off. I can't speak for everyone else but maybe it has the same effect on them.

franc11s

Forgetting the logic and moral question for a minute. On what legal basis would *any* credit agency be able to collect? Credit collection companies can only act on behalf of the original contract since it is ONLY and WILL ONLY EVER be the 2 parties to the original contract that have a right to sue/counter sue/claim against a contract.

All the scare mongering in the world will not change that legal fact.

I am not a lawyer but don't think I'm wrong on the above points.

In other words, if you completely IGNORE the "new" collection agency, they can't sue you or take you to court. PERIOD. SInce your legal contract is with a UK company, it is ONLY UK law that can apply. Period. No US court is going to be able to (or want to) interpret a foreign contract and thus, it's irrelevant.

If you want to take the Moral right ground and you owe the money in all fairness, you should pay it.

Jerseygirl

You sound proud of the fact that you owed money and got away without paying.

scrubbedexpat099

If you mean do they charge a higher rate to cover their default and recovery costs, well of course.

But not Insurance in the commonly used format relating to Credit Insurance.

fatbrit

If they do, the collection agency will probably buy the debt for pennies on the dollar -- so negotiation should be possible if she wishes to clear it both as to the amount and it's appearance on her US credit history. Especially given the legalities of passing the debt between two countries' jurisdictions, you could probably wind the poor debt collectors up for ever and a week with a little background reading and knowing your substantial rights here.

BTW, why the hell did you give them the US address?

Try a more specialist (and less Puritan!) forum such as CreditBoards for more insight.

Kate2112

If you borrow something, anything with the intention of not returning it, without the lenders permission, it is called stealing. While you may be able to "get away" with it, that doesnt change what it is.

If the OP had asked "can we contact a UK creditor and offer to pay off the outstanding debt at an amount we can afford on a weekly/monthly basis" A very different answer would have been offered.

Angry White Pyjamas

Depends. Certain countries have reciprocal treaties that allow the passing of debts by a legal process (basically selling them to the new country). In these cases the contract is sold and hence the debtor is now owing to the new debt holder. Of course there is no guarentee the courts will impose any penalty in this case. However, the biggest problem (beyond the moral one) would be that of returning to the original country. If the debt was civil then there can be no criminal charges however if they so chose they could attempt to prove fraud. Difficult but not unheard of.


A 3rd party offering advice on how to avoid payments is an entirely different matter though and is infact conspiricy to defraud.

fatbrit

I think not! Notes are traded all the time.

anotherlimey

So it's OK to borrow money and not pay it back as long as you've got a good enough excuse for the court?

If I were the OP, I'd call the creditors/debt collector, and organise repayment, even if it's only a few dollars a week.

scrubbedexpat099

Honour has a U in it.

But I doubt if there is anything honourable involved here.

Now if there the question was "I left the UK with debts that I wish to bring to a resolution, how do I best go about coming to an arrangement and settling my debts now that I am in the US?"

Well that would be a different thing, this as stated is all about doing a runner.

paddingtongreen

This is not entirely the case, mortgages are bought and sold routinely.
As to whether they can collect on a UK debt, I have no idea, but they can use the info to trash a credit rating here.

USBound

a good enough reason being... no money is available to pay it back.

in this circumstance its not only OK not to pay it back... its damned sensible.

does it have consequences, yes. Is it somehow immoral... no.

to do so on purpose could be construed as such but to prove it is very difficult.

franc11s

Of that I agree. The question though then arises re the juristiction of the debt, no? Most people are scared into paying to avoid further confrontation. I wonder if any ever get to courts...

Also, isn't there a 7 year limit on UK debts so after 7 years, the OP can return scott free.

I may be wrong, I ain't a lawyer but I do know how hard it is to collect debts from "within" the US !

fatbrit

No idea whether it is or isn't possible to collect in this case. However, I do know that debt collection agencies are pretty stupid, and it's quite easy to get a good result from them. Unless the amount is large enough to be personally handled by a competent lawyer, OP should be able to negotiate way out for little money and clean US record given a little background reading and huffing and puffing at them.

There's also a seven year limit on US credit histories (and --usually shorter-- state-specific SOLs) to play with. However, if you pay a single penny back after 6.99 years arguing about it, the clock resets -- beware!

One thing that would interest me about this case is that US companies get to hit you with the tax when they write off the loan. For example, say you default on $10k, then they tell the IRS your income has just gone up $10k year in the year they write it off, and the IRS taxes you on it! Tax is much more difficult to avoid! Would be interested to know if they could pull this trick as well.