International debt collection by AIC

emmaf01

Hi, this is new thing I've never had to deal with before. AIC are chasing us for a relatively small debt from a US web hosting company. The letter is addressed to an old website my husband runs because we moved to a cheaper provider.

It arrived last month, completely out of the blue, we received a letter from AIC. My husband runs a small forum paying hosting for this and other connected sites. Not businesses, more hobby stuff. He took it over when the previous admin died suddenly.

So since about 2005 we've paid for hosting from an American company. We paid them a lot every single month. Many times we have said we would change hosts because of costs, but we put it off because of the work necessary to switch.

Lat year we couldn't do it anymore. It was a financial millstone round our necks . He just archived what he didn't want to lose and got a new hosting account elsewhere. The AIC debt is for a month's bill plus a load of charges, increasing the bill massively.

Has anyone got any idea about a debt collector chasing a US debt? They've sent two cheap looking letters addressed to the website name. This morning though I got a text message with a download link to a "secure letter" which looks incredibly dodgy so I haven't downloaded it.

How did they connect my mobile phone number to my husband's old website? I know I used my bank card to pay it frequently, but that does not include my mobile phone number! I sense a possible fishing tactic?

Any advice welcome.

emmaf01

Can anyone help with this? I've never dealt with AIC UK before.

[Deleted User]

AIC collect debts for RBS so they are at least a legit debt collecting company as for as legit debt collectors go.

To be honest I would just file it away and ignore it. I doubt anything will come of this other than a few threat-o-gram letters before they give up.

I had a dedicated server once as I was running some hobby forums and sites until I packed up and cancelled the server. They sent me a bill a month or so down the line that I wasn't expecting due to it being pro-rata payments or something like that but I didn't bother paying it. They then sent a couple of letters from some tin pot debt collector before they gave up a short while after. This was over 10 years ago.

sourcrates

Hi,

There is no reciprocal agreement in place between the UK and the USA so in order for a company in the USA to collect a debt in the uk they would first have to sell it to a UK debt purchaser, who could then take action through the UK courts to recover the debt.

There would still be an onus on them to provide proof you owed the money, so you would either accept or dispute the debt when written too.

It depends if they can be bothered to go through the process, mostly these kind of debts attract a few letters then get forgotten about.