Thank you all for sharing your thoughts. It helps me to explain this to other people. To be clear, I intend to pay the courier service anything I owe them. It makes no difference if they cocked up when they took payment. The demand for payment isn't the issue. The problem I have with them is that they lied to my friend causing panic for them, their family, and for me. I was really worried until I found the receipt which I got on delivery saying I'd paid everything - I thought I might have imagined it! I remembered that one of my friends is a solicitor and I've sent him a message asking if we have a legal basis for redress. Does anyone know if there is an ombudsman for courier services?

I spend most of my time abroad. When I returned to the UK recently I received a package at a friends house. Before the package arrived I paid the customs/courier service fees over the phone. When I got the package a receipt came with it showing I had paid everything. I forgot about this until a few days ago when my anxious friend called me saying that the courier service had sent them a red letter saying I was going to be taken to court unless I paid what I owed the courier service in so many days. My friend called up the courier service, said I lived abroad, and was told that they were liable as the delivery was to their house and that the government would be after them. This has soured relations with my friend, as you can imagine. They are very worried that their credit score will be impacted. I found the receipt for my payment, which stated I had paid in full. But I checked my bank account and found they had taken less than the correct amount. The amount they asked for in the "red letter" is the difference. It doesn't correspond to duty/vat/service charge. It looks like they just screwed up when they took my payment over the phone. I want to pay anything which I owe, but I am very angry at what the courier service has done in this case. They lied to my friend and soured relations between us. They should simply said that they screwed up when they took payment from me and that a further amount was due. What recourse to legal action do I have (if any) and what sort of case do I have? I just recently "sold the family silver" to pay off my debts. So a "no win no fee" legal representation would be favorable.

I have lived overseas for many years. I tried to open an account on noddle.co.uk to see what my credit details were. I didn't manage this because they couldn't verify my ID with their online process. Could be because my card has a foreign address or it could be that the old UK address I used to register was so old they couldn't find a record of me there. Now I'm wondering how, or if, the banks are able to register my credit use. As I understand it, a lot of information is recorded with credit agencies including when you pay/miss a payment, take out a loan. I still have a British credit card, even though I have been out of the country for a very long time. I'm probably not going to be able to pay that back (change of circumstances) so this is why I'm interested. I wonder what debt collection agencies will have on me when they pick up the debt. I'm also wondering what my credit record will be if I ever go back to the UK, given the potential difficulty of registering the default against me. My card company DEFINITELY don't have my old UK address on file. I called them and checked. I've no plans to go back to the UK. I doubt I will even be going back to Europe in a long time.

That is a worry. All sorts of flights stop over in the UAE. It would be bad news to pass through transit and be picked up and thrown in jail. Not wanting to worry the OP, but it is something to research. Perhaps this won't be an issue if the debt is sold on to a UK agency, with the debt no longer being liable in UAE. Or perhaps you are a criminal from the moment you default. I am defaulting on debt in an obscure South American country. I contacted various debt collectors, pretending to be collecting the debt, just as the OP has done. They all say that they can collect the money no problem. I guess that is standard patter. Best wishes to the OP.

I tried to make an account over on noddle.co.uk but you need to provide a UK address and say how long you have lived there and give a telephone number. Perhaps they want to search through the council tax register to find you and confirm you are who you say you are? I tried my old UK address (from long ago) and two of my cards. No luck. There won't be any local credit records. I live in a backward country. Such a thing doesn't exist.

Thanks for your post. They definitely do not have a UK address for me. They only have my foreign address on file (I checked). How will the credit record be stored - my name against my foreign address? How do they know one person from another when there are potentially many people with the same name?

Hello everyone, I've been reading threads so I understand a bit (or think I do) but want to make sure I'm not mistaken. I have a UK credit card debt which, due to a down turn in circumstances, I don't think I am going to be able to repay. Until now, I made every payment. I have been living in South America for many years, but still have my UK credit card. Soon I'm off somewhere else, closing the business I have here. Although I will be back from time to time. I won't be going to Europe - too expensive. I'll probably be a bit of a nomad for a while as I'm trying to set up an business online.I won't be back living back in the UK again unless I have some sort of debilitating accident. The debt is less than ten thousand pounds. I last made a purchase with the card a few days ago. I don't want the merchant to be stiffed. Should I make another payment to "acknowledge" the debt so that this merchant doesn't get a charge back? I believe that a CCJ can't be issued against me (long time since I lived in the UK). The card company, I guess, will sell the debt and a DCA will come after me. I understand that the debt can't be enforced after 6 years. I have a couple of thousand pounds in one of the channel Island banks. Can the credit card company, or the DCA they use, grab that? What are the consequences of me not repaying this debt? Do I get published on some list of ne'er-do-wells? Do I come up as a rogue on internet searches? The card company is having financial difficulties at the moment. I won't mention the name, because I guess DCAs fish here, but you can guess. All the debt will be sold on whatever happens, so i guess that makes no difference.

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