Debt collectors. Will they follow me to a new country.

[Lily27]

So about a year ago I've left nZ to move back to my native country. In doing so I left my student loan debt and also I had purchased jewwelery on a credit. I owe a around 2k for my civil debt. For that amount will they try and find me? How long until they will stop trying. I remember putting down contacts for when I agreed to the loan. Will the people I put down be harrased? Or does nZ follow the fdcpa "Fair Debt Collection Practices Act" and only contact my friends only once and then leave them be.

[Bozeman]

OK, I'll bite... Have you considered paying off your debt? Spare a thought for the jeweller or even us taxpayers who are out of pocket.

[Fern49]

In 2013 there was $430 million of defaulted student loans owing. It had to happen with giving everyone a chance to study at Uni.No doubt very 'noble' but.!!
There was a time when only those with rich parents were able to go.
Pay your debts.

[Eco]

Take responsibility for your actions and pay your debt!

[jawnbc]

Please pay your debts.

[Hagabel]

Pay your debts like the rest of us..

[poppy10]

OK, preaching aside, what if she doesn't pay her debts?Is there anything a NZ debt collector can do if you have left the country? It's not like your NZ credit rating being trashed really matters if you are not coming back to the country

[chapwithatui]

$2000 seems an awfully small amount to mess up your credit rating for. There is bound to be an international database for credit fraud. Have you tried to apply for a loan since? As for your student loan, what makes you think New Zealand owes you an education? Defaulting on your student loan will preclude you from returning. Is it worth it?

[JandM]

For that amount will they try and find me? How long until they will stop trying. I remember putting down contacts for when I agreed to the loan. Will the people I put down be harrased? Or does nZ follow the fdcpa "Fair Debt Collection Practices Act" and only contact my friends only once and then leave them be.

That is allegedly the case in the UK, where I live. However...

Apparently, there used to be a woman lived in the same town where I do, who had the same surname as me, and who ran up some debts. "She got" a letter from a bank - only she didn't get it, because it came to my address, she's no relation of mine, and she didn't ever live there - stating that she must pay or they would send the bailiffs (court officers) to seize her goods to the value of the debt. The first time this came, I didn't open it and wrote on the envelope 'Not known here - no relation and has never lived here' but within two weeks a similar envelope with red print arrived, so I did open it. Then I phoned the bank and went through the situation with them - got them to look at the Electoral Roll to see that we're the only residents at this address, and not this other woman - and finally, the man apologized that I'd been troubled, and said he would make a note not to use my details in trying to trace their debtor. But it didn't work out that way. Within a few months, the bank had evidently sold the debt on to a collection agency, who didn't get, or else took no notice of, the note that she was nothing to do with me. I had several hassling letters and phone calls from them. And it got passed on to two more agencies after that, over the next two to three years, and each of them pestered me with it, several letters and several unpleassant phone calls, as a first try. It didn't upset me, because I truly DIDN'T know the woman, so in the face of them trying to bully me to give up her whereabouts, I just stood on my rights not to be bothered, and eventually, they each gave up. But I can imagine, if she'd been a friend or relative, it could have been quite an emotional experience, and I wouldn't have been a friend of hers at the end of it.

[Bozeman]

If we encouraged her to not rob liquor stores would you refer to it as "preaching"?