Australia credit card debt being chased in Singapore

[gearmonkey]

Hi everyone,

 

I have read your postings with interest and I have received threatening e-mails from Credit Corp about the credit card debt I had when I was living there. I left Australia due to visa issues.

 

They are threatening legal action against me in Singapore through a local agent and have contacted my employers repeatedly requesting me to contact them. What do I do?

 

 

 

Edit: The last payment was made around October/November 2005 but they have waited until now to contact me. To this date I am only in contact with them via e-mail and I have not received any statements or assignments of debt.

Edited May 25, 2011 by gearmonkey

[cerberusalert]

If they haven't got your postal address just ignore them as it is very nearly Statute Barred.

[krios]

If you cant stand them contacting your employer then have a read of this thread http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?265807-More-AUS-debt-being-chased-in-the-UK

 

Take note of the complaints that william made and put them through the same process which will take months and months.

 

If you are sure they dont have your address and can put up with them contacting your employer then do as above and ignore

 

They waited untill now so as to add the maximum amount of interest before acting.

[gearmonkey]

I have fired off an email to them disputing the debt - they've given me this reply (excerpts below):

 

 

We have conducted a thorough investigation in relation to these former credit card accounts and have no doubt that you are the person whom these accounts belong to.

 

A few months ago my staff have attempted to discuss these matters with you on a number of occasions including writing to you at your email address however although you did respond initially, you unfortunately chose to ignore our subsequent communications after becoming aware of our involvement in these matters rather than addressing the matters.

 

TAKE NOTE: We are preparing these matters for immediate litigation to be taken against you without any further notice to you. At the moment your employer is not aware of the existence of these matters however if we are forced to engage our Singapore agents and initiate proceedings against you then it is highly likely that subsequent enforcement actions may involve court documents being served on your employer in order to redirect part of your wages.

 

I strongly encourage you to stand up and begin to address these matters before they escalate with legal costs, court costs and solicitors fees.

 

If we address these matters now then I am permitted to offer some discount however once we incur further costs in pursuing these matters through legal channels then my ability to discount the matters becomes limited.

 

If you were genuinely not responsible for these debts then I am sure that you would have responded to our many email communications before now. If you wish to proceed to initiate a complaint process then you are entitled to do so. Our company takes compliance seriously and works closely with the regulators in Australia to ensure we act within the relevant guidelines. I am comfortable with the actions taken by my personnel and you will only be delaying the inevitable and incurring more expense including interest and costs.

 

To date I still have not received any formal notices of assignment or statements etc, just threatening e-mails. They have telephoned my employers numerous times and e-mailed them trying to get them to make me get in touch with them. They have also sent another e-mail saying that they will be taking legal action in the coming days - and getting Global Adjusters(?) to take action in my jurisdiction.

 

As we have not heard from you, we will be initiating court proceedings in the coming days and may also take steps to engage our agents in your local jurisdiction (Global Adjusters) to handle the matter.

 

In accordance with your contract, the costs associated with appointing agents will be claimed and ultimately paid by you.

 

I'm pretty sure they don't have my mailing address. But does Singapore have a reciprocal debt agreement with Australia? Can they take action over here even if they have obtained a judgement against me?

[cerberusalert]

If we address these matters now then I am permitted to offer some discount

If they are so sure of themselves why would they accept a slice of the cake when they could have the whole lot?

 

It's all very well threatening legal action, but what they are failing to consider is the not small fact that any agreement you may have had with the original creditor was under Australian law and it's not an easy thing to pursue in another jurisdiction, even if there were reciprocal agreements in place.

 

They are playing blind at the moment, they cannot be certain your are the person they think you are, they do not know what assets you have even if they were to win any legal action there is no certainty that they will get any monies.

 

My feeling is this is all bluster and intimidation, emails & threats are free litigation is not.

[unclebulgaria67]

I just cannot see that a debt in Australia without any court judgement is Aus will be accepted by the Singapore courts for collection in Singapore.

 

This link may help. http://www.singaporelaw.sg/content/CivilProcedure.html

The other point is how did they find out your employers details in Singapore ?

[jellybinh]

You are so close to the statute of limitations, just grit your teeth and sit it out. I held off credit corp for 18 months till the statute of limitations had passed. If you make any arrangement, or any acknowledgement of the debt, the clock on the 6 years will be reset, and they have another 6 years to go after you. If this agreement was made under Northern Territory law, the statute of limitations (3 years) has already passed, and you can tell them to **** off.

 

If anyone from work approaches you, just say the debt is in dispute, the result of identity theft or something like that. This happens all the time, particularly with migrants moving in and out of the country. People understand and no-one will think the worse of you.

[embunbo]

I lived in singapore as a PR until 1997. i had a singapore credit card which had debts of 10000 dollars. i moved to australia in 2000 and the debt was not paid for varioua reasons. my PR expired in 2002. I am planning to move back to singapore this year. will this past debt be a problem to getting an employment pass to return to singaporw?