[CanadianinKorea]

Hi all,

Question I have for the forum. Any help would be appreciated.

As my handle indicates, I am a Canadian citizen, living and working in South Korea. I've been there for 3 years, and am about to start my fourth year. I'm actually at home, in Canada, right now for my sister's wedding, then I will be going back to Korea in September (September 5th).
Just for a bit of background information, even though I live in Korea, I maintain a telephone number for messages and I have all my mail forwarded to me once a month, by family members.
Anyway, today I was at home and the telephone rings. I answer it, only to discover that it's a collection agency, calling on behalf of American Express Credit Cards, and they (AMEX) are claiming I owe them $3650 Canadian.
I was surprised by this for a few reasons. First and foremost, while I did have an AMEX card, I was sure it was paid off before I left for Korea (in August of 2005). I can't prove this now, as all my banking information is in Korea.
Secondly, this agency (the one who called me today) claims that they are the third agency that has been retained by AMEX to collect this money, and that they, (the agency I spoke to this afternoon) have tried reaching me for at least 6 months. Both of these are out and out lies as I haven't received one piece of letter, nor a telephone call, regarding this until now. Again though, this can't be proven, as it's a matter of me saying it VS them saying it.
So now I'm down to the bare facts with AMEX. They are claiming I owe $3650 CAD and the collection agency is claiming that AMEX is in the process of retaining a lawyer and are about to sue me.
The collection agency said that if I were to pay half the sum AMEX claims I owe ($1825 CAD), then the matter will be settled.
I can't understand why AMEX would settle this, if they are at the point of preparing to sue me, but that's what I was told.
This is all moot anyway, as I came to Canada with less than $1000 on me, and I can't access my Korean bank from here (really asinine banking laws in Korea). So, even if I wanted to settle for the $1825, I just can't right now. I tried explaining this to the collection agency representative, but he just told me to ask family or friends, and followed it up with "the has hit the fan for you here".
I was then told that I should call him back by Friday with whatever my next move is. Basically, I don't have any moves to make here, as I can't prove that I paid off my AMEX, since my banking information is all in Korea.
Now, taking the phone calls and letters out of the equation (since I can't prove they didn't contact me, but they are claiming they attempted to), what should my next step be?
Does anyone know if AMEX will really sue for, what is to them, such a small amount? If they do, how long of a process is that?
Additionally, if my math is correct on this, the debt they are claiming (which I don't agree with, but I need to check my own records to prove) is going back almost 4 years. Is this just a scare tactic or would AMEX be really at the point of filing a lawsuit against me?
Quite simply, at this point, I can't pay AMEX anything, nor do I want to, until I can check my own records. What, if anything, can I do to stop them from contacting me while I am here in Canada? I don't want to be spending the next 3 weeks dodging phone calls and letters from this collection agency regarding this.
Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Paul

[frostybabygurl]

Canadian debts before 2006 have a 6 year statute of limitations, anything after Jan 2006 is a 2 year statute. As far as settling vs suing, a company will usually prefer to settle to avoid the court costs, in Canada they have to prove that they did in fact try to contact you via mail and that they have every reason to believe that you DID receive the mail and that you didn't dispute it by filing a motion with the courts. The first step is write a letter of dispute stating that you believe that this was paid and that you want copies of the bills/statements sent to you for your review and that all telephone calls are to stop. This letter must be sent priority post. You will want to keep a copy of this letter and any other communication with them for your own records.
Do not settle or make payment arrangements if you believe that you paid this account off. Doing so will show them you are accepting the debt.
I am a collector, and have experience collecting for both Canadian and US accounts, I don't work for the agency that handles amex, but the laws in Canada are the same regardless.