Credit Card in Arrears from Ireland

KireMoney

Hello,

I moved back to the UK Feb 2017 from the Republic of Ireland, and I kept my Bank of Ireland credit card just in case I needed it as I couldn't get credit over here straight away.

Fast forward to now and I have received a letter from Bank of Ireland saying that my card has fallen into arrears of €20 resulting from government stamp duty from April of this year. There are late fees and interest on top of this to the tune of €70 odd presumably, I cannot even see as my online account is locked for some reason and their temporary password feature is not working.

What is the best course of action here? Simply pay it all off and move on, or is it even going to affect me? I had completely forgot that they charged stamp duty on credit in Ireland and that is why I did not cancel my card, but I did not think it would apply to me now living in the UK? However, I only updated my address with BOI in March this year, so perhaps that is why?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I just don't want to enter a phone call with them until I know what advisable courses of action I have.

Willing2Learn

Hi and welcome to the forum

Since the card is an ROI card, then I don't *believe* that it will be reported to the UK CRAs. I would just pay the account and close the card.

If you check your credit files with the three major UK CRAs, then you can confirm whether or not the debt is reported in the UK.

KireMoney

Well it hasn't been so far reported with late payments or anything so I don't suppose if it went further it would be either, as it would report everything or nothing?

Ben8282

I don't believe that this foreign card will be reported to UK CRA's.
Just out of curiosity, how does this stamp duty work? If it is on transactions and you have made no transactions then how come you are liable for it?
The amount is relatively small so unless you have good grounds to dispute the charges I would suggest simply paying it. You may actually want to use the card and/or obtain further credit in Ireland and/or have future dealings with Bank of Ireland (either in Ireland or in the UK) in the future.

boo_star

Ben8282 wrote: »

I don't believe that this foreign card will be reported to UK CRA's.
Just out of curiosity, how does this stamp duty work? If it is on transactions and you have made no transactions then how come you are liable for it?
The amount is relatively small so unless you have good grounds to dispute the charges I would suggest simply paying it. You may actually want to use the card and/or obtain further credit in Ireland and/or have future dealings with Bank of Ireland (either in Ireland or in the UK) in the future.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/money_and_tax/tax/duties_and_vat/stamp_duty_on_financial_cards.html

From the looks of it it's an annual tax and it's paid in arrears so the OPs charge would have been for the year up to April 1st 2018. It would appear that despite them moving in February and informing the credit card co in March, it has been levied correctly.

Edit: And the OP should be aware if they don't close the account they'll be liabke for another €30 on April 1st 2019.

KireMoney

"You are not liable to stamp duty if your billing address is outside the State for the entire accounting period in question."

From the Citizens Information website, that is something I would maybe dispute the duty charge with. I moved over here in February 2017 but like I said, I didn't actually change my billing address until March 2018 because I didn't think it mattered and a while after I moved I didn't even think about the card, again completely forgetting about the stamp duty.

The amount has risen though due to multiple late payment fees and interest. It is a silly thing and I do understand it is my mistake for forgetting about the charge and not closing the card when I no longer needed it (which I don't, I have credit over here now), but having read of people defaulting on thousands of pounds of credit card debts after moving from the UK, I wondered what credit card companies would typically do with a smaller case like this.

boo_star

KireMoney wrote: »

"You are not liable to stamp duty if your billing address is outside the State for the entire accounting period in question."

From the Citizens Information website, that is something I would maybe dispute the duty charge with. I moved over here in February 2017 but like I said, I didn't actually change my billing address until March 2018 because I didn't think it mattered and a while after I moved I didn't even think about the card, again completely forgetting about the stamp duty.

The amount has risen though due to multiple late payment fees and interest. It is a silly thing and I do understand it is my mistake for forgetting about the charge and not closing the card when I no longer needed it (which I don't, I have credit over here now), but having read of people defaulting on thousands of pounds of credit card debts after moving from the UK, I wondered what credit card companies would typically do with a smaller case like this.

Well spotted.

Good luck with that and I hope it works out for you.

Pablo2010

My advice is as follows:


1. Pay outstanding balance asap. All missed/delayed payments on Irish cards are definitely reported to Irish Credit Bureau and Irish Central Credit Register but not to UK agencies. Your UK credit history will not be affected in anyway,
2. Get in touch with BOI Online Banking support and get your online banking fixed, once it's done make sure to get your online statements every month,

3. Keep your card cause it's handy to have a credit card in EURO
4. If you have already changed your address to UK one in march 2018, you will not be liable to pay Irish stamp duty anymore.