Shoot. And that's putting it mildly. I am in a giant, gigantic, huge mess and I've no idea what to do.

(By the way, hi everyone - I've missed you all!! I've been getting my "stuff" together as it were, sorting out bills and getting settled in the new house so have only been here sporadically, and for that I genuinely apologize. I hope everyone's doing fantastically and hope that some of the awkward situations that were happening with visas, etc when I last popped in are now sorted and people are hunky dory! )

So, here's my story: I left a couple of debts behind when I came here, and never expected anything to go wrong as I was still paying them - until I got married, and wasn't allowed ot work anymore (unexpected marriage on a visitor's visa - a long but thankfully now resolved green card ). So I let things slide for a little while, then as SOON as I got a job got in touch with various peeps, arranged payment plans and sorted things out. That is, until today, when I got a letter from an international collection agency based in Maryland saying that I owed my old mastercard money - a debt I thought had been rolled into another debt. Boy, was I wrong!

So I call them, hoping to make payment arrangements and reach a perfectly friendly guy who informs me that that can be done, and I "only" have to pay them $350 this month, then a further $690 per month for six months until the debt is paid...

Well I'm saying "holy crap - seriously - that's like 200 dollars above my mortgage payment - I cannot afford that!". I explain that Ben has been out of work the entire winter (he's a roofer and we recently moved to a rural location, basically stuffing him for job openings until a new plant openend up in town. He just last week got and started a different job, but until at least next month, I can't pay a damn thing on this card, and as for $350??? And then $690?????? I mean, due to our financial situation I've been borrowing money from the direct deposit advance to pay the bills on time, and the gas payment is the only thing outstanding - two weeks late. I don't even know how I'm going to pay the gas payment, and these people want me to pay all this money??

They're an actual law firm - Bluestone Law, Ltd. Now I feel like the world has come down on my head. I don't know what to do - can this go on my credit report? Can they put a lien against my house? The guy on the other end of the 'phone said he'd get in touch with my bank (they are representing the bank - they haven't bought the loan or anything like that) and see what could be done about lowering the payments but the most I can pay is like $70 TOPS per month, and that's pushing it. I don't even know if they will accept that. I've striven SO ahrd to make a good credit reference here, pay EVRYTHING on time and we just bought a house..this is such a nightmare. My hubby has bad credit, and I've always been conscious of this kind of thing happening.

To be honest, I'm really ashamed and I feel like (even though the guy was nice) I have law-wielding Al Capone people beating at my door. Now I'm wondering if they'll send bailliffs if I can't pay...crap...

Am I over-reacting (not unusual - I am a perfectionist) or what? Anyone else been in a similar situation? HELP!

Hi glad to see that up until today you were doing really well.
Firstly you have my total sympathy, I too left behind debts in the UK and have struggled to pay them both from a work point of view and transfer/exchange rate so I really do understand how hard that is.

As for your current predicament I wish I could offer some magic solution but I have none. Having googled Bluestone it's obvious they are a firm who are both reputable and mean business. but various thoughts come to mind

i) you say you thought the debt had been rolled into another, do you have any hard evidence (communication) to evidence this with which might act in your favour in getting them to lay off a bit?

ii) have you spoken to Mastercard in the UK and explained the situation it may be that you could negotiate direct with them and come to better terms for both of you dealing direct especially if you can explain to them how you were under the impression the debt no longer existed.

iii) anyone who could bail you temporarily geez couldn't we all do with a fairy godmother

iv) a long shot and I have no idea whatsoever if its possible or what effect it would have . what about declaring bancruptcy or the new Voluntary Insovency in the UK

I wish like I say I could wave a wand for you as I fully understand the worry, whatever you do do though DONT stick your head in the sand be proactive trying to reach amutually agreeable workable settlement.

And let this be a warning for all tose who frequently say on these boards that debt cannot be persued cross borders.

Good Luck

JayJay go and talk to a lawyer.... I work for a bank here in the US and I know we have no way of enforcing a debt outside the US.... Most banks will have a collection agency in other countries but they have no legal power.... they talk to customers in a way that makes them think they do... in the hope they will agree to a payment plan...

Hope you get this sorted out, but please go talk to a lawyer or debt councilor before you agree to anything.. as once you have made an agreement with them that may be enforceable here in the US..

Kez

There goal is to scare you into paying by making themselves look like a legitimate law office. Just because they have a fancy website does not make them decent. They are debt collectors and by law are required to tell you that. There are laws in the US protecting consumers from unscrupulous debt collection agencies. They are not allowed to call to hassle you, they can only call within certain times during the day, they can't call to harrass you at work. Credit card debt is unsecured debt, so they can't put a lien on your house unless they get a court order to say that. I'm not going to pretend I know the intricacies of international law, but my gut tells me that finding a judge in the US to issue a court order over something he or she has no jurisdiction is pretty freakin slim to none. Probably the absolute worst they can do is keep calling you. If you can't afford to pay them, you can't afford to pay them. You can't squeeze blood from a rock. But you also don't want this lingering. Be firm with them, tell them you can't pay and that you have no resources to pay them right now. They will try their hardest to scare you into coming up with the money. Don't freak out. They probably bought your debt for pennies on the dollar. If they get nickles on the dollar, they'll have made money. But if they feel they can't get anything out of you, they will sell your debt on to someone further down the food chain. They don't want to spend more money hassling you than they can get out of your relatively small debt. That's just pure economics. So try to agree on a settlement number. Good luck, and remember, don't freak out. Be confident.

Fromwhat you say here I would guess you owe about 4500 which isn't bad. Inorder to collect they have to sue. Until they get a judgment they can not attach anything or put a`lien on anything without first getting a court order which would b very difficult. Even if they sue their evidence might not be admissable since the hersay rules might just keep any records out of evidence. Even if they were to get a judgment it would be up to a court as to how mch a month you would have to pay and they ar verylienient to debtors.

It might affect your `credit rating though. I assume the interest rt is about 22% which on 4500 would be close to your 70 per month which means you would never pay it off.

I have heard of debts from other countries being sold to debt collectors in the USA. Whether or not this is enforceable I have no idea.

JayJay - I empathize! I had the same problem when I moved here. Had made regular payments uintil I couldn't work for 9 months and then wham!

I got a letter from a UK Collections agency stating that theyw ere passing the debt over to their International Branch and my only option was to pay in full or else! They also said if I didn't pay the costs would increase as I would have to pay for the case to be moved to the International Office and basically it was going to cost me twice the original amount. They were very threatening, even telling me I should take a second mortgage on my house, sell my car - the whole works. I knew this was wrong according to their code of ethics so I went about doing my homework thoroughly and sent them a very long detailed letter, copied to my original lender, the Office of Fair Trading, Trading Standards Office and anyone else who has regulatory oversight over such companies. They chose the wrong person to try it with.

Short story - I won my case against them. Trading Standards and OFT started an investigation into this company's practices. Two of the guys who had stated to me I had no choice but to pay in full, who were very intimidating etc now have "moved on". The rest of the employees in the company are nothing but nice now they know not to mess with me. From being threatened and intimidated with daily phone calls, demanding $$$$$$+++ they are now very accommodating and I pay them $100 per month.

Do your homework - show them you know what they are allowed to do and say by law. Make detailed notes and copy the Attorney General's office if you're relating it to a US company or Trading Standards and Office of Fair Trading if you're dealing with the original UK company.

I think you'll find they're blowing hot air and just trying to intimidate you. If you do your homework, show you are willing to pay whatever you can afford (we provided a monthly income/cost summary so they could see what we could afford), and communicate this effectively, you'll be good.

Let us know how it goes and if we can be of any further help!

JayJay
Contact a company called ameridebt http://www.ameridebt.org/ now http://www.mmiaccount.org/
i used them a while ago whne i was in college
i had more debt than you and they helped me out

what they did is contacted my credit card companies
i had to close the accounts so i wasnt allowed to charge more
but they negotiated and lowered the rate i was being charged
so i paid ameridebt the payment and they split it up to the necessary accounts.

i think i had to pay them a fee, but, they saved me much more with what they negotiated for me.
i think on my discover it went from 25% rate down to 4%. it was a huge drop.

recently i read online that ameridebt was sued for posing as a non-profit and charging hidden fees. however, i have to say that my experience was good. they saved me tons and i got out of debt in 2 years - while i was still making near nada since i was in school and had internships to do as well. and like i said, i had more debt than you did.

sam

Oh i am sorry to hear this:(

I am one of the lucky ones, i never even had a credit card in the UK and have never owed anyoneanything. Good luck.

I feel it's a scary tactics they are using on you jayJay, talk to a lawyer who specialize in Finances. The same way if you have good credit rating in the UK or any foreign countries it doesn't apply here, you have to start from scratch so I am sure the same would go for credit. But in your case since you kept in touch with them, and now they have your location in the US, I am not sure if they can report that to the credit bureau, my 1st thing would be to check your credit report

www.annualcreditreport.com : you can get a free credit report from each of the 3 major credit bureau annually, If anything from the UK appear in there, you can call them up and dispute it. I wish you all the best with this

JayJay,

Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 USC 1692g Sec. 809 (b),
you are allowed to challenge the validity of a debt that a collection agency
states you owe to them.

Debt validation is the ultimate weapon against the collection agencies.

Don't give them any money until the collection agency validates the debt!

This website explains it in great detail and is a must read:


Even if you suspected you might owe Joe (original creditor) some money, and
Bob (collection agency) came up to you and asked for Joe's money - would you
just hand over the cash? No. No one would. These might be some of the thoughts you
would have:

1. How do you know that Bob is actually collecting for Joe? What legal documents does
   Bob have to prove that he is legally authorized to collect?
2. How much is the actual debt? What payments have already been made on the account?
   Where is the accounting of the debt, including all interest and fees? Are these fees and
   interest amounts legit?
3. Do you really owe Joe the money? Or was it actually a third party, Sam? Where is the
   contract showing that you made a deal with Joe and not Sam?

Good luck!

Perfect and Mawilson..those were *great* posts! It's my opinion(having been in your position as the USC even!!!) that they are definitely using scare tactics....I would bet almost anything if you paid them 20.00 a month every month consistently, they would take it. Only downfall there is, like has been mentioned, unless you get them to stop adding on interest, you're never going to get it paid off because of that. See if you can get them to at least agree to that...sometimes, for the sake of collecting, they do agree to terms like that. They'd rather get the money slowly than not at all...at least in my experience! Good luck, JayJay!! M.

jayjay, these guys seem legit. i was wondering if this was gonna be one of those scams like we saw about 6-9 months ago, can't remember who it was that posted it though.

website for this organization

link

profile on this organization and contact info

link


i agree with mawilson on this one btw. if you rolled this debt in with another i certainly hope you have those papers still. good luck and keep us informed

It's an international debt, so if it's truly not enforceable, tell them to go pound sand

It doesn't matter who they are - if they are collecting debt, they must comply with the FDCPA.
Furthermore, if they are collecting debt in Minnesota, they must have a licence to do that.

As far as I know, EU organizations are not allowed to share any info about an individual's affairs outside the EU - this is what the Data Protection Act is all about.

Also, if you file bankruptcy in the UK then 1) you will get rid of all your UK debts and 2) it will not show on your credit file in the US as credit histories do not travel with u! However, it will show on your UK credit history for 10 years.

Have a look at this link, it's directly from the FTC and deals solely with fair debt collecting practices.

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/fdc.htm

UK collection agencies are covered by basically the same regulations.

It will show on your record in the UK for up to 7 year. I'm planning on going bankrupt in the uk before I get to the states as I know that there is no way I can pay due to the fact i'll be going to college and the exchange rate! And I would be scared to keep the debt because companies in the UK are using more and more ways to try and pass the debt abroad and to actually find people! It scares me! Good luck x

JJ,

Just a quick couple of thoughts.

1. As has already been mentioned, make sure they supply you with verification of the debt. If nothing else, this will probably buy you several months (especially considering the original paperwork is somewhere in the UK!)

2. Get yourself over to the Consumer Action Group website. If you have ever been charged a late fee or overlimit fee, you will have good grounds to challenge the amount of the debt (as these charges are unlawful - read about it on the site!) which will delay things even further and probably you'll have to pay less.

Obviously don't put this off forever, as it's going to catch up eventually, but it sounds like your problem is a temporary one and this could buy you the time you need!!

Adz.
xx