Hi,
Just read the horror stories on this subforum and my heart sank a lil'...
My story is the same.
Worked in UAE dubai 6 years ago, got a credit card and a loan, both secured with a black cheque, realized I won't be able to pay it back and, at the same time, found out that the boys down there throw you in jail for messing with their money so I panicked and got the hell out of Dodge.
Once back home in Bulgaria, I got in touch with the 2 banks trying to secure a method of paying it back somehow.
With one of them, I managed to establish some sort of monthly payment with the debt collector, some boys in the USA, although they are putting the squeeze on me every now and then to either pay in full or increase the monthly amount. The implied threat there is that if I do not, they will report me to the Interpol.
As you know and what I would have liked to know before setting foot in the dessert slave-land, UAE basically owns the interpol and they use it as their personal toy. The president is a human rights criminal from the UAE. But hey! That money has to come from somewhere.
Right. Getting too long here. So that debt was in the region of £7k.
Now, the second debt, the aprox £30k one, I have tried establishing a monthly payment form years, now. Got an account number from a bank representative and started paying small amounts just to see what happens.
And behold, after one or two payments got emailed by a debt collector, the far East nasty kind, asking for money and saying no payments were made. So I stopped those.
Now, since 2016 things happened and I moved to the UK with my wife and my two small kids. I did not update the bank on any address, they probably have my old Bulgarian one.
I did not get any correspondence from them anyway. In the mail, I mean. Only on email and mostly threats of the kind 'give us the money or you and your family up to the third generation will suffer'.
To my horror, I got an email from some debt collector in the UK, one of the ones mentioned quite often on this forum, claiming that they are the representative of UAE bank.
I explained the situation again, got an account number to transfer monthly sums into, again, did so again from my bulgarian account.
Now, I have asked these boys to present me with some written proof that the bank accepts these monthly payments, and they have put me in contact with a guy at the bank.
That guy however, avoided to confirm the monthly payment is accepted and just asked for the full amount, or a partial substantial payment. They even offered to cut the debt to £25k.
Normally, I would take that bet and have this wrapped up. But that amount of money is too much for my budget at this point. I came to the UK in 2019, late, then the pandemic struck.
The move here cost me a bit, to put it mildly. I was hoping to make that money back, but with the things being what they are, I can't see things improving any time soon.
Now, I have my car to my name,that is worth about 3k and that's about it. No other property in my name, anywhere in the world.
I honestly don't know what to do here...should I just pack up my family and go home to Bulgaria? Should I move to Scotland? My kids are at school here, they are doing fine.
Whatever I make, is better than what I had back home. Taking them from here would mean ruining their future for a stupid thing I am trying to fix to no avail...
as the many people that come here and try to find a way forward, I hope you guys can bless me with a piece of advice. A brother really needs one, right now...