I think you're getting confused about opening a UK account without a UK address... which is all about the prevention of international money laundering.

Most countries won't allow you to open a bank account without proof of residency.

Keeping a bank account open whilst you are overseas is not a problem at all.

Nick, if you have a few hours to spare, try Expat focus http://www.expatfocus.com/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewforum&f=173

Before CAG also took up the fight, that was pretty much the only place for unbiased, non-judgemental advice for expats with o/s debt (esp those in Aus & NZ) and there are many, many such happily resolved "tales of woe".

Enjoy.

Why do you have to close your UK bank account?

If you keep it open it's easy enough to transfer money back to the UK - I'd say that every UK expat working in Dubai or anywhere else will still have an open account with their UK bank.

As long as you don't write anything defamatory you'll be OK to name the DCA and their legal eagles.

The only reason that some of the Australian posts about one particular DCA in WA who, like Voldemort, is never referred to by name, is that they threatened to take legal action against another forum when things got a little heated and their somewhat curious business practices were openly criticised. The other forum rolled over and shut down the thread and so it moved to CAG.

Their lackeys then spent some time trolling on this forum and generally annoying everyone - mostly becasue they weren't very good at it and wouldn't play nicely when they were uncovered.

So just be aware that the power of CAG extends down under and don't give out too many of your own details as there are frequently a few "guests" reading the posts.

Melbourne Maggots?

So my understanding is if my debt has been sold onto a debt collection agency over here, they bought a shed load of UK debt via Canada for a very cheap rate.

That's certainly one scenario - the Canada connection relates to an earlier Australian DCA who was chasing a load of alleged UK Barclaycard debt who they had, in turn, bought from a Canadian company who no doubt realised that they were holding a proverbial pig in a poke. Then the Aussie DCA came up against a load of informed CAGGERS and it went pear-shaped for them very quickly. I assume you've read the first thread on this forum?

As you say, it's all about bluff and profits - if they buy 100 debts for pennies and manage to con maybe 10 of those people into paying them thousands, it's easy money just for making a few threatening phone calls.

Don't get scared, get informed and then get angry. Very angry.

Ahhh....Barclaycard.

Now I wonder if that one's got down under by way of Canada too!

This DCA wasn't out in WA by any chance?

Judging by past threads.. extremely stupid DCAs who are too greedy to realise that what they think is the key to mega profits is actually a sack of very old lemons.

Pie anyone? Beer?

Hi Nick,

OK - So what are you asking? You seem to have answered all your own questions already.

• Can the Aussie lawyers do anything to you in Aus without a valid UK judgement? No
  
• Can they try to make you bankrupt in Aus? No.
  
• Should they be contacting your parents? No - and they should follow the advice already given on this site to complain about this harassment to the appropriate body.
  
• Should you listen to your partner re the scare tactics used by debt collectors? Yes - that's all they are!
  
• Should you worry about this? No
  
  

Oh dear.

Is that the distant sound of police sirens?

I wonder what will be happening at Stevensdrake's offices when this hits the fan.

Presumably they must have known that their antipodean client did not hold a licence to ply their nefarious trade on England's green and pleasant lands? Or did they just turn a legally blind eye to such a minor detail?

With regard to Jurisdiction, it is possible that an Australian contract can be enforced in a UK court if the UK court is deemed to be the appropriate forum to hear the case. Given that the debtor is a UK resident, it could be argued that a UK court is the appropriate forum.

 

Regardless of Jurisdiction, any contract between an Australian financial institution and a (then) Australian resident, signed in Australia is subject to Australian Law.

 

A creditor would have to sue in a UK under Australian Law, which is not the easiest, or cheapest option.

 

As the alleged debt is covered under Australian Law, the creditor would need to be a member of an Australian financial ombudsman service (there are two: FOS and COSL).

Hi Newman,

I may have missed something in some of these posts, but bearing in mind that CC are not the Original Creditors but merely an agency, is there not also an issue of jurisdiction regarding an Australian DCA actively pursuing debts for a third party in the UK if they don't hold a UK Consumer Credit licence?

From reading the posts thus far, it seems as though CC are doing exactly what a UK DCA would be expected to do in similar circumstance, i.e. frequent communications with the "client" followed by threats of court action. The only difference being that a registered UK DCA would be entitled to carry out such actions whereas CC seems to be side-stepping such legal niceties by doing all this from overseas.

Fair enough if the OC was taking legal action in their own name or had assigned the debt to a UK agency (as in a reverse of the Pioneer scenario) but in this case that does not appear to have happened. Credit Corp are named as the claimant on the court papers.

I would also wonder if CC did have a UK licence, whether a debt first assigned to their Australian registered business could be re-assigned to the UK operation without falling foul of the cross-border data transfer legislation of the Australian Privacy Act. If the big banks can't transfer their clients' account information overseas, I'm sure that a piddly little DCA isn't allowed to do this either!

As a start, maybe someone can advise if Credit Corp has a licence to operate a debt collection business in the UK?

D'oh - of course!

It's Spain so it's the EU 3 month ruling Vs the 3 year rest of the world rule isn't it! Sorry!

Agree with all that's been said here but without wishing to hijcak the thread, can I just seek clarification on one of your comments cerebusalert?

You say that "They can't bankrupt you in the UK, you're not a resident" but I thought there was a minimum time limit of 3 years after leaving the country before one's centre of interest was no longer considered to be in the UK.

If the OP has only been in Spain for 2 years, does this apply?

Again, I fully agree with what has been said by previous posters that there is no way that with zero assets to chase, they would bother going down this route so please don't thing I'm scaremongering!

Sorry to disagree - but I'd guess that it's nothing more sinister than they've re-structured and have moved some of their EU activities to a central UK base.

I can't see that there would be enough French, Italian or German debtors fleeing the UK to make it worth appointing specialist staff to chase them.

Besides which, if they were leaving the UK, they would presumably speak English..so there wouldn't really be any need to employ anyone with language skills to chase them.

I think Barclays had / have their central DCA offices in Dublin but cover most of the EU from these one centre - so there are French speaking staff chasing French debtors with French debts in France etc all from one building.

Apart from the demands of actually being a DCA phone monkey, it is apparently it's an excellent place to work for anyone looking to develop a career in other industries where advanced language skills are the key to sucess.

Just picked this up from one of your previous replies..."EGG said they couldn't add an address outside the UK to their system which I thought strange as not everyone who takes out a visa card stays in the same country all their life. They also forced me to stop using it once they found out I lived outside the UK and said I had to continue to pay the balance off."

Doubtless someone who knows more can confirm, but surely EGG would be in breach of their own contract by taking this action.

I've never seen anything in any agreement that provides for the card issuer to terminate the user's account just because they move abroad.

If this is the case, and they are in breach, wouldn't the debt to EGG be unenforecable on these grounds alone?

I'd concur with the advice to ignore them.

Looking at it logically - if they did try to sell these debts to a UK DCA, one of them is already Stat Barred under UK law which isn't exactly an appealing selling point and the other's not far behind!

Any DCA will go after debts that offer the quickest and most profitable result. Buying up fairly small SB overseas debts that;

1 are unenforceable

2. will take time and money to get them into the UK system

3. do not guarantee any significant return on their "investment"

isn't going to be part of their game plan... especially if the OC hasn't been able to provide any proof that the debt actually exists other than a fistful of old statements.

If it becomes a problem for your employer that Credit Corp continues to phone you at work when you have asked them not to and provided an alternative means of contact, you should contact the ACCC to lodge a complaint. This behaviour is against the ACCC / ASIC guidelines and although you are in the UK, the offence is being committed in Australia by an Australian business.

William,

You've probably had a look for yourself, but all the info on Australian bankruptcy seems to confirm that you have to be an Australian resident to petition for bankruptcy.

Since you are in the UK that would seem to rule that possibility out.

At the moment it sounds as though your DCA is making all the usual fierce noises about this being a "serious matter" but ultimately they'll have to make the call on whether its worth trying to chase you through the English courts for around GBP16K which may well be stat barred back here in Australia anyway. (You don't say which state your were in which will significantly affect this SB date.)

Can I suggest that you read some of the posts on the expat focus forums - Especially those posted by Moc 2006. He used to work as a team leader for an Australian DCA and has some very helpful insights on their recovery tactics for chasing Aussies who've left the lucky country. He still posts on occasion you may be well advised to re-post your question there.

As far as stalling Credit Corp, you could always ask them directly what exactly they plan to do about pursuing you in the UK. Since it is illegal for them to deliberately give you incorrect or misleading information, asking them for an honest answer will throw up a raft of "probably" and "may consider" type responses.

As you have been out of the country for 5 years or so, you may wish to check what time limits there are on Australian bankruptcy and overseas residents.

For example, if someone has been out of the UK for 3 years or more, their UK creditors cannot seek to make them BR nor can they petition for BR themselves.

I don't know if the same thing applies here in Oz. Presumably Appletons will advise.

Do you want to have another try at that?

You say you left the UK in Dec 2010...that's in 6 months' time. What date did you actually mean?

Also, why is your parents' home at risk if you default on your mortgage?

I'm not sure that they wouldn't want to pursue the debts - American Express have a presence in Australia as does Egg (via Citibank), and HSBC

Don't worry about this - They may have the same names but as high street banks they have nothing to do with their UK counterparts.

They're all part of the same multi-national group but have no access to any of your UK account details.

Quite apart from the Data protection issue, all the paperwork relating to your account is based on UK legislation - they can't simply transfer all of this to Australia.

Try it for yourself - give Amex a ring and ask if you can relocate your account to Australia. I know what they'll say

Hi Aquila,

My understanding of TAFE funding is that if you have unpaid fees, they won't let you start another course unless they're paid in full.

Since you're an overseas student, I'd guess that they have to let DIAC know if you have an outstanding debt just in case you try to re-enrol for another course in Oz.

DIAC have no interest in recovering this debt as it has nothing to do with them and I would think that it only ever affect your return to Aus if you try to get a student, rather than a tourist, visa.

It may also be a case that since you've dropped out of the course you are obviously no longer a student and thus your student visa has become invalid...but since you're no longer in the country this is irrelevant

Hi yeasayer,

Welcome to the the forum!

If I were you, I'd focus my attention on getting a job and put this one right at the bottom of things to worry about.

Or top of the list of things not to worry about if you prefer!

Mozz,

I think you my have slightly misinterpreted my reply.

What cerberusalert and others are saying is correct - they cannot take LEGAL enforcement for this debt in NZ as it is covered by the UK's CCA which is very clear that no matter where in the world the debt ends up, it can ONLY be enforced by a UK court - the first stage of which is for the creditor to obtain a CCJ.

The "treadmill machinery that grinds on with litigation regardless of the sum owed" may well grind, but the lack of a UK CCJ is the metaphorical spanner in the works that will bring it to an abrupt and expensive halt.

The point I was making is that the DCA will not always understand (or admit to understanding) this basic fact and will treat it just as they would a native NZ debt and get it posted on a credit file.

This doesn't mean they're any closer to getting their money but it can and has caused problems for people whose VEDA credit files have been unlawfully accessed and trashed.

It would not be registered on his NZ credit file unless they obtained a judgement there.

You wouldn't have thought so..but just to add a word of caution, if an NZ DCA does decide to register this debt on the credit file, it wouldn't be the first time!

If you read through the aforementioned "UK debt being chased in Australia" thread, you'll see that this is exactly what an Australian DCA did with complete disregard to the laws of the land which say that unless a debt can be legally enforced in Australia, it may not be listed on a person's credit file.

Fortunately, the 'strayun ombudsman service took a very dim view of this and instructed them to remove all the listings. However, NZ does not seem to have the same rules governing the listing of overseas debt on their VEDA (credit) files.

There was a thread running on the Expat Focus forum on exactly this topic some while ago and as far as I am aware, the poster had hit a brick wall with VEDA NZ who had basically given him the finger and told him that they could do whatever they wanted with his file.

With no real regulatory body to turn to, it's quite possible that anyone who has an O/S debt listed on their NZ VEDA files by a DCA (even though it's quite possibly illegal to do so) will have a devil of a job getting anyone to help them have it removed.

Hi Skippy,

I think that one was sorted out a while ago via a few PMs between Greeno and myself. At the time, it was just surpring that a CC company would just suspend an existing and perfectly healthy account based on feedback from another company.

Just a minor detail in the ongoing P & B saga. Surely they can't seriously be still trying to say that the UK's CCA gives them any legal standing over here?

Mind you, like rats drowning in a barrel, they've nothing to lose. (Sincere apologies to any rat lovers for comparing these wonderfully clean, hard working and intelligent creatures to anyone from P & B)