I am an Australian Expat living overseas since 2016, I believed that I had paid off all of my debt in Australia in 2017 including credit cards, and had stopped receiving any statements from the credit card company (I had been receiving regular monthly statements up until then).
I have recently been contacted by a debt recovery agency in Australia that is now claiming that I had an outstanding balance on my credit card and demanding payment now (at the time of last payment on credit card balance was allegedly around AUD 2,600 now they are asking for approx AUD 4,500).
The first contact I have had regarding this debt was around April this year and have been seeking advice since. Since covid-19 I have been stuck overseas, the tourism industry that I work in has been greatly affected and I have had little to no work for the last 18-20 months. In the beginning, Australian borders were closed to citizens wanting to return, the waiting list for repatriation was quite large, and commercial flight options were very very expensive, so I decided to wait it out.
Things in tourism have started to recover, although very slowly and it will take a while before I can start saving again or making any repayments. I am currently not in a position to make any repayments and have no plans to return to Australia and would like to know what my options are in resolving this issue.
I have recently been contacted by a debt recovery agency in Australia that is now claiming that I had an outstanding balance on my credit card and demanding payment now (at the time of last payment on credit card balance was allegedly around AUD 2,600 now they are asking for approx AUD 4,500).
The first contact I have had regarding this debt was around April this year and have been seeking advice since. Since covid-19 I have been stuck overseas, the tourism industry that I work in has been greatly affected and I have had little to no work for the last 18-20 months. In the beginning, Australian borders were closed to citizens wanting to return, the waiting list for repatriation was quite large, and commercial flight options were very very expensive, so I decided to wait it out.
Things in tourism have started to recover, although very slowly and it will take a while before I can start saving again or making any repayments. I am currently not in a position to make any repayments and have no plans to return to Australia and would like to know what my options are in resolving this issue.
