Overseas Debt Recovery - Help Please !!

Gargoyle_2

My best friend has recently migrated to Australia with her family, on a Residency Visa. She has accrued several CC debts here, and just stopped paying them hoping that the creditors can't catch up with her there, with no contact details.

We know that the Oz authorities don't use UK credit agencies to check creditworthiness over there, but is the reverse true? I have heard of something called a 'reciprocal agreement' but don't really know what it is.

Has anyone any experience or informed advice about something like this? I am worried sick that it will all end in tears, both there and here.

I don't think that it would be too late to do the right thing, but need to put up a good argument to convince.

Kimberley

Thats like stealing money intending not to pay. It's wrong and they can/will find her. It's not a good start in a different country. I'm Migrating there in a few years time when my kids have left school, so hopefully my debts will be cleared by then. She should do the honourable thing and pay up.

DJ1UK

It all depends on the types of debts she has.

If it is with a large banking company (which most are nowadays) i.e. MBNA, Barclays, HSBC etc etc, they are more than likely to have branches out there and therefore will be able to trace and collect.

Working in a debt recovery dept of a large company (not a bank though), we have pursued and collected debts overseas before.

It also depends if it is economical to collect the debt (e.g. amount of debt Vs cost to collect).

DJ

creditcardking_2

Gargoyle wrote:

My best friend has recently migrated to Australia with her family, on a Residency Visa. She has accrued several CC debts here, and just stopped paying them hoping that the creditors can't catch up with her there, with no contact details.

We know that the Oz authorities don't use UK credit agencies to check creditworthiness over there, but is the reverse true? I have heard of something called a 'reciprocal agreement' but don't really know what it is.

Has anyone any experience or informed advice about something like this? I am worried sick that it will all end in tears, both there and here.

I don't think that it would be too late to do the right thing, but need to put up a good argument to convince.

I have seen this question many times and knowbody seems to really know the answer, I would think each case would be assessed differently. I would doubt that the debt collectors would be able to enforce the debt overseas however if it was with a company like HSBC which have offices in most countries then they would easily be able to take action against you. If the debt was quickly accumulated in the few weeks before emigrating then that may look like deliberate fraud and criminal charges could arise. It would be best to come to some arrangement with the creditors otherwise this could ruin a new start in another country.