Canadian Debt Collector

[macie]

Hi Guys, been a while since I have been on here. I have a HSBC debt that was terminated, and registered to the credit reference agencies around 2000. I moved to Canada (notifying HSBC in the process) and paid the debt down to a few hundred. A local debt collection agency in Canada is now threatening to report the debt to my Canadian Credit file if I don't pay the remainder.

 

I am aware that a UK default can only be legally issued ONCE on the same debt. It has a 'life-span'of six years and must come off the credit reference agencies files after this time - this is the law under the Consumer Credit Act. However,if they DO re-issue the default, it is NOT consumer credit law being broken, it comes under the Data Protection Act.

 

How does all this work with me being in Canada. Can I complain to the ICO ? The local Canadian Agency seem to think that if the debt is owing it can be recorded.

[cerberusalert]

A local debt collection agency in Canada is now threatening to report the debt to my Canadian Credit file if I don't pay the remainder.

They cannot register a UK debt on your Canadian credit file. You should make a complaint to the Canadian equivalent of our ICO.

 

Unless the Canadian DCA are acting for a UK creditor our ICO can't do anything.

[macie]

ConsumerprotectionBC which deals with this say the DCA can register the debt against my credit file if they can properly evidence the debt as still outstanding - the law in BC is pretty wooly.

 

The Canadian DCA are acting for an American registered company to whom the debt has been assigned, but ultimately this is the same debt I was already defaulted for in the UK 12 years ago. If they default me here I will have had the same debt on my credit file from 1999 to 2018. It occurs to me that HSBC have exported my credit information (held under the DPA) to Canada to facilitate the committing of an act, i.e. the re-reporting of the default, that would not be lawful in England.

[cerberusalert]

If the debt is older than six years & you have not made a payment or a written acknowledgement of the debt for that period then it would be Statute Barred and unenforceable & it cannot be registered on a credit file anywhere.

[cerberusalert]

Once a default has been registered and it drops off your credit file after six years it cannot be re-registered. You could contact the ICO in the UK to see what they say; https://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/contact_us.aspx

[macie]

Cerberusalert thanks for your responses

 

"Once a default has been registered and it drops off your credit file after six years it cannot be re-registered."

 

There was a default at around the time of termination of the account in 2000 and I have been making payments ever since until maybe last year. Can they default me now as I have stopped making payments against the previously defaulted account or, does my action in now not paying them represent a new cause of action for the default ?

[cerberusalert]

does my action in now not paying them represent a new cause of action for the default ?

No, they only get one bite of the cherry. Only one default can be registered, it can be updated monthly for six years then automatically drops off & then they cannot under any circumstances re-register it.

 

Have you considered contacting the two credit reference agencies in Canada, Equifax Canada Inc., and Trans Union of Canada, Inc, and asking them whether it is lawful to register a foreign debt on a Canadian credit file?