Money talks in Switzerland. If you have a Betreibung against you, it will be very difficult to get another apartment or a loan. The quickest and easiest way is to pay the debt! PLus the interest plus the fees!

I've received quite a high unexpected bill from a debt collection agency for unpaid bills from 2010. The first i've heard of it. Be grateful if any experts out there can help me get out of it.

1) Can they come after 4 years? In UK there is a cutoff time. (Hoping in ch there is and it is less than 4 years)

2) The bills were for cable internet for the period after I left ch. I'm pretty sure I cancelled the contract although can't find proof and cannot recall how I did since it was 4 years ago. I do however have an email response from the cable company that I gave my forwarding address. No bills were received there however, I just got the bill now by email. So If i don't have proof that I cancelled am I liable to pay?. If they had send the bill to the address at the time I would have picked it up and resolved it while fresh in the mind.

3) This thread (great thread!) says you don't need to pay the debt collection fees which is half the bill. What if I don't pay the rest?. Are they likely to go to the next stage? Given the fact I have proof I gave them my forwarding address, which i wouldn't have done without cancelling the contract, but as said i've got no proof.

Thanks in advance.

Are you still in Zurich as per your location?

Since when??

Cut off time in uk is 6 years for an alleged debt.

@donovaan - I believe a legitimate bill has to come by post, so it might be okay to wait a bit and not reply. You could also try contacting the cable company to work out a solution. Note: not paying a dime (if it is really owed) is not a solution.

@ Southern Star - Send them a registered letter disputing the charges, along with a copy of your lease with the relevant bits highlighted.

Oops, Now changed my Profile location to London. Thanks. Will there be a charge coming for that

Hi, looking for some advice, I moved from Swiss to France at the end of the year. Checking my records I forgot to cancel my personal liability insurance, is it likely I will now be in debt for this? and have a large bill to pay or does Swiss insurance lapse if not paid?

Nope. You have to inform them. Best course of action is to get in touch with them.

Yes I have done, dam, I had a long list of things to cancel and just forgot.. I guess I will have a large debt to pay.

I had a similar problem with Cablecom when I moved flat and hadn't realised that the contract was fixed for at least 1 year, so I had to pay the remainder of the year. Although I'd sent them a registered letter to cancel, they still wanted the remainder and had ignored the new correspondence address I'd sent them.

The first I heard about it was from the debt collection agency who were trying to ratchet up the pressure to get me to pay some ridiculous amount.

The thing that allowed me to resolve it quite quickly was communication.

Contacted cablecom to get an idea of what the problem was, and when they told me I offered to pay what they needed immediately. In my view if I pay that then no debt, no problem any more with cablecom.

I also had to call the debt agency - when I told them I'd been in touch with cablecom and had cleared the debt they were pretty unhappy - which cheered me up no end. They're leeches and deserve nothing.

In my view I had no business relationship with these people, so there was no way I wanted to deal with them at all. However, according to law they are due a portion of interest on the debt that they had bought - I can't remember the details but I wrote them a registered letter with my calculation of the due amount and paid them that.

Never heard from them again and I'm once more a customer with cablecom, so no harm in the long run. Also no betreibungs.

But communicate with both parties as soon as possible - and find out what the debt agency are legally due. They will probably keep upping the alleged amount you owe them and telling you you only have 10 days to pay before it doubles! But it's all pressure tactics to hide the fact that there's not much they can do to collect as far as I'm aware, but as long as there's an outstanding debt somewhere then I think they can slap a Betreibung on you. 2 reminders then a registered letter I think is the way that works - so you'll know when it happens.

out of curiosity-

-Will betreibung chase someone to collect the debt beyond CH border?
-What happens if someone has unpaid debt and left CH without informing Swiss Immigration Office and tries to enter any other schengen country after 1 or 2 years?
-"The person will risk jail" Where? (In CH or will they be caught and deported in their home country and punished )

Experts, Please put some shade on this

As far as I know,

It's a civil matter and Switzerland won't file am EU arrest warrant for some freaking mobile bills. Of course, if one tries to enter CH with an outstanding debt s/he might risk jail. However, this should not be a problem in any other countries even in schengen area. (SIS) schengen information system only agreed up on sharing serious criminal offense.

CH will risk it's reputation and money just like Poland and Portugal if it starts issuing EU arrest warrant for minor offences like outstanding debt.

If they can't recover the money from you, I'd expect them to sell the debt to a collection agency, who will rack up charges and pester you on an almost daily basis if you don't pay up. Depending where you are, you could end up with some sort of bailiff seizing your goods.

Just pay your debts.

I had an issue with Cablecom re their Bills - late/missing etc. and copied
my letters with relevant facts to the Ombudsman - Telecommunications.
The matter was solved in my favour.

Did you leave CH? How you came to know that the matter was resolved in your favor?

P.S.
by "late/missing" I assume that you were probably summoned for court hearing; however, you never showed up.

In Switzerland you don't go to jail for not paying debts. There are certain special cases, e.g. not paying your taxes - but that's usually not referred to as `debt` in the common case.

The very worst that can happen to you is that a portion of your salary is withheld or your assets in Switzerland liquidated (they can also block your bank accounts in extreme cases). They definitely won't lock you up when you enter.

As others have mentioned, you might encounter difficulties when trying to settle down after being naughty and leaving behind your obligations. You will get a permit and you can rent short term apartments. Mobile contracts, credit cards and any service that checks the debt registry might prove difficult.

Best thing to do is to drop by the Betreibungsamt, fess up to your sins and proclaim a desire to change your naughty ways. They'll give you a list of creditors. You can then get in touch with each and make good on your promises. There is a fair chance that they'll be happy to get the record struck off the list as well.

Can I please ask how you can check bills that you owe when you reside outside of Switzerland?

Is it via this website:
https://www.e-service.admin.ch/eschk...ngsauskunft_de

I don't understand the process - but I will give the local Betreibungsamt a call tomorrow.

Thanks a lot for any help! I appreciate it greatly.

I was wondering, what can happen in case like this.



Will this also apply if the person is living or planning to live in any other schengen country ?

As always try to put yourself in the creditors shoes.

How much is the debt? Is it worth chasing via an agency. < Debt O/S, What are the chances of recovery?

For some reason morons in NL still think I owe them a months health insurance from 2007 even though I paid it, I have a bank statement proving this which I have faxed x3 times, called them twice and provided proof I left NL in addition. Somehow they must have found the record I moved back to the UK. They send me a demand for payment for 120 Euros through the post every year.

Every year it gets shredded.

As someone said always pay your debts, you signed the contract for a period of time with the company will provide that service. = Your liability.

I guess it's more likely they will try to collect in the EU than India. Chances of recovery are higher.

It is not their fault that you have to leave CH for reason XYZ. Plus everyone else has to pay more to "service your debt"