Can Hong Kong credit card debts be recovered overseas?

I've been extensively researching this topic and don't have a clear answer, and I am not looking for opinions, or what anyone "thinks", or even what might sound sensible/correct ... I'm looking for the black and white authorative legal position.


The question is this: I owe significant amounts to two Hong Kong banks that were originally credit card debts (the cards now cancelled). For several years I made regular payments as part of an agreed repayment plan that would have seen the debts extinguished over a nine year period (ouch!).


However with the global financial crisis I lost my job and have now returned to my home country which has a reasonably robust legal system (UK/Australia/NZ etc). I've secured a new job but the reality now is that my income leaves me with no possibility of being able to continue to service these debts in Hong Kong; I have no assets to speak of that could be used (voluntarily or involuntarily) to reduce these debts; and I don't plan to come back to Hong Kong to live and work other than business trips related to my new job.


My question is simply this: For these unsecured loans which were incurred in Hong Kong while I was a resident, can the creditors legally force me to repay when I am now a resident (and citizen) of another country, with no intention to return to Hong Kong?


I need to have a basis of fact first before deciding whether this is something I actually will do.

As long as a creditor can show legal evidence of the debt incurred by you, they technically can sue you anywhere, especially in the English speaking world.

Whether they would do so is another matter.

First they have to be able to find you.

Second, they have to pay the legal expenses of suing you in that country.

So the legal answer is yes they can sue you. However, in practice, they most likely will not.

Thanks that's very helpful and also intuitively sensible.


Given the way they charged me (like everyone else) a scandalous rate of interest, then when I was in financial difficulty charged me penalty interest on top of that, and then capitalised the interest and continued to mercilessly charge interest on the compounded interest, and then charged an extra fee when they engaged a collection agency (which they subsequently rescinded after I was harassed and threatened by the collection agency and I pointed this out to the Head of Compliance of this multinational bank and compared it with their Code of Conduct that covers employees and contractors), and given the fact that I paid them a total of HK$100,000 (12 months @ $8000) up to the time I couldn't do this any longer last year and they have ignored this are are still seeking the original amount + compounded interest ....


... I think I will leave it to them to work out what to do next, and I'll concentrate on the things I can control and not worry as much about what I can't.


I appreciate your advice

Banks and other corporations don't seem to have any honor or dignity when it comes to paying their debts. Banks take big risks, make unbelievable profits and when their bets go wrong they don't pay their debts, they instead ask for bail out money. Corporations like General Motors go bankrupt but are resurrected with taxpayer money.


Funny how one set of rules applies to corporations and another to individuals.

Ahem...

I didn't advice you on anything.

I simply gave my opinion regarding the question in your original post.