this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2026

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technopagan@lemmy.world

What would happen if you maxed out your credit cards and line of credit then fled to some village in the phillipines? (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world

66 comments fedilink hide all child comments

For the record, I have no intention of doing this, just wondering why I don't hear about it more often.

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[–] seathru@quokk.au 79 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

I kinda did that in the early 00's. Left the US and told creditors* to kick rocks. They basically just wrote it all off. I came back 10ish years later and it was like it never happened. I went to get a loan for a motorcycle when I got back and they told me that since I didn't have any credit history (wtf?) that it would be a slightly higher interest rate. Now some 15 years after that, I'm a model citizen, credit wise. I'll save the next time for retirement.

I do apologize to Gateway for not paying for that PC and causing them to go under.

[–] TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (4 children)

Wait what? Did you find out why you had no credit history rather than a bad one? Did you expect some legal issues when you moved back to the US?

[–] seathru@quokk.au 28 points 4 days ago (1 children)

No, I'm not sure how it happened. I found some default judgements against me searching threw court records; but it wasn't on my credit at that point. I did expect to be hit by a surprise garnishment or seized tax return. But they never came.

I'm guessing I fell through the cracks during some data migration. I doubt you could pull that off today.

[–] TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago

Ya I think someone really blessed you lol

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 22 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Everything drops off after 7 years.

[–] TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (4 children)

I'm not an expert on this obviously but that seems like a wild loophole? Someone can just flee the country and come back after 7 years with no repercussion?

[–] litchralee@sh.itjust.works 28 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

IIRC, there's a difference between entries expiring from a credit report, and whether a debt is still legally collectable. If the holder of a debt can prove the debt is still outstanding, or has it ratified as a court judgement (and renewals the judgement, as local rules may require), then it may still be pursued once someone returns to the personal jurisdiction of the court.

The thing is, though, since the original creditor will have wanted to get something rather than nothing, they may choose to sell the debt to a debt collection service, conveying the legal rights to pursue the debt. In return, the original creditor gets a fraction of their money back. But even the most prodigious debt collectors may give up and sell the debt to someone else, for pennies on the dollar. As the value of the debt keeps shrinking, those fixed costs to keep the debt collectable (eg maintaining paperwork, renewing a judgement) become disproportionate and thus skipped.

At the very end of the chain are debt collectors with such a huge catalog of bad, uncollectable debt, but they're hoping they can schmooze or bamboozle the debtors into paying one day. As with all debt collectors, they have no right to add renewed entries to someone's credit report, so the debt is essentially in limbo: unenforceable yet still on paper.

[–] tmyakal@infosec.pub 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

When I was 20 years old, I took everything I had and moved to New York City. I was unemployed and squatting at a friend's place. On my birthday, my grandmother mailed me a check for $100, and I realized I'd need a bank account to cash it. So I went to Washington Mutual, opened an account, and deposited my check.

Then the clerk asked if I wanted a credit card. I told him I was unemployed. He said that was fine, and they'd just give me a "starter" card with a low limit.

So that's how WaMu effectively gave me $1,000 for opening a checking account and all I had to do was not answer my phone for about a decade.

[–] litchralee@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

There's a fascinating piece of banking history embedded here, since for a fairly long time, the economics of USA banking meant that long-term banking relationships generated the most revenue for the bank. So they would go out of their way to establish new relationships that would hopefully endure for decades, thus keeping the bank in business. This applies even if a small percentage of those attempts would be losses, because the average was still mostly upsides.

Today, the banking landscape is much more transactional, where lots of people have no qualms jumping ship to an online bank. Sure, not everyone will go through that inconvenience, but enough will that it upsets the prior calculus that prioritized long-term relationships to achieve long-term value. That of course means that there's less upside to extending a $1k unprotected credit line and all the same downsides. Hence, credit issuers are more stingy now than in the past.

The obvious problem that this exacerbates is that people who never had access to banking have poorer chances of ever getting served once they do need banking services, because that first account needs to meet strict credit approval requirements or whatever. The very fact that a steady 4.5% of American households can't meet the bank minimum balance requirements, while "non bank" services like payday loans and buy-now-pay-later are on the rise, is a reminder that opportunities from yesteryear are disappearing rapidly, concentrating to those that already have plenty of opportunity.

Past institutions and past people did what made sense at the time, but it's quite clear that in the present, the situation is not serving the people's needs. The corporate desire to grow bank market share or shareholder value is precisely the opposite of what sustainable banks should be doing: right-sizing their scope to match what their clientele can afford. If a bank can only stay in business by having a $1500 minimum monthly balance, then they should close and a smaller, nimbler bank or credit union that only needs $400 to be sustainable should take their place. Banks grew to match the needs of the public. If the public's needs have changed, so must they.

[–] Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (5 children)

In the UK its called the Limitations Act 1980.

You cannot sue someone or enforce a debt 6 years after the event in question.

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[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 4 days ago

I think it resets after 7 years, but I could be wrong and don't know the specifics of how that works

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[–] Doom@lemmy.world 21 points 4 days ago (1 children)

-Unpaid debt gets sent to collections.
-Collectors would try to contact you.
-Your debt would be sold multiple times among multiple agencies, all of which would make efforts to try and contact you to collect the debt.
-After about 7+ years the debt is written off by the agencies and drops off credit reports.
-Once the debt dissappears your credit score would go up.
-You don't need to leave America, you can ignore debtors/change your number/avoid being served (obviously laws are state dependent). An attempt to reclaim what you purchased could be made depending on how much you owe/what you bought but usually it's not worth the hassel.
-If you leave the US and want to see if debtors are still looking for you pulling your credit reports will reflect it.

None of this applies to student debt.

[–] Crozekiel@lemmy.zip 17 points 3 days ago

After about 7+ years the debt is written off by the agencies and drops off credit reports.

*Is supposed to be written off, falls off your credit report, and they cannot take any legal action to reclaim the debt. This does not stop the bill collecting calls and e-mails and text messages, because the 7 year timer is from the last time you gave them money, so they will sneakily try anything they can to get you to pay them literally anything in order to re-open those doors, including lying to you about settlement discounts and the like. Debt collectors are a special breed of evil.

[–] ZkhqrD5o@lemmy.world 19 points 4 days ago

With a net worth below 1 billion, it's called a crime.

With a net worth above 1 billion, it's called a bailout.

[–] speculate7383@lemmy.today 40 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Yeah, this has been a known thing in the credit world for years-- they call it bust out fraud. These days they have computer statistical models watching for stuff like this, and will likely shut you down before you get to your limit.

https://www.transunion.com/blog/how-to-prevent-bust-out-fraud

[–] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 7 points 4 days ago

As someone with citizenship in another country I have to admit I have daydreamed about this lol. Which probably means I'm in their model somewhere.

[–] Crozekiel@lemmy.zip 5 points 3 days ago

Yea, imagine every transaction goes through except the plane ticket...

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[–] SaneMartigan@aussie.zone 26 points 4 days ago (2 children)

My friend did this twenty years ago. Sold everything, put a bunch of camping and photography gear on the credit cards then "disappeared" to become a nature photographer.

[–] abbadon420@sh.itjust.works 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

And now they're living the dream?

[–] FatVegan@leminal.space 12 points 4 days ago (2 children)

He died 19 years ago

[–] Archimedes@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 days ago

So living the dream.

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[–] KC_Royalz@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Isn't that how Kevin Smith made clerks? Just maxed out his credit to make a movie

[–] Crozekiel@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 days ago

basically. He also mentioned that he allegedly might have lied about how much money he made to get enough credit limit to afford it. If it didn't make any money, he was going to work at that video store forever. lol

[–] einkorn@feddit.org 32 points 4 days ago (1 children)

That depends. Does your country of origin have an extradition agreement with the Philippines?

[–] TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago (3 children)

So theoretically someone could actually take out a ton of loans and move to a country that doesn't have an extradition agreement?

[–] Dookieman12@piefed.social 12 points 4 days ago

Theoretically, yes. But then you would be a US citizen in a foreign country. Eventually, that country will make you either leave or become a citizen.

Also, even though extradition wouldn't be possible, deportation might still be on the table if you piss off the wrong people the right way.

[–] trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago (2 children)

You might also want to consider the chance of the countries having an extradition agreement in the future

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[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 6 points 4 days ago

What everyone is missing here is that you need a visa, and eventually your passport will expire and you'll need a new one. Regardless of the extradition angle, the local government will care about your immigration status.

What you'll probably want to also need to do is marry a local for residency. They'll want you to spend that money on them, so...

[–] RodgeGrabTheCat@sh.itjust.works 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Far more common is declaring bankruptcy. It's totally legal, no need to leave the country.

[–] Sly2@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago

[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 16 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You could get blacklisted for Visa, MasterCard and Amex, others too I'm sure. So you'd have to use cash from then on. Not sure about other penalties.

[–] CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You can still use a bank card, debit cards exit, it’s not like only paper money exists outside of credit cards.

[–] Sunspear@piefed.social 8 points 4 days ago

Visa and Mastercard

It doesn't matter if debit or credit, cards are overwhelmingly issued by one of these two

[–] disregardable@lemmy.zip 17 points 4 days ago

people generally don't like moving abroad because they get lonely and frustrated. but yeah you can skip debt by moving abroad.

[–] FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 6 points 4 days ago

I don't know but I think you'd enjoy the finale of 3rd Rock From The Sun. The aliens find out they're leaving earth forever. They're sad but make the most of it by maxing out their credit cards and having a party.

Although, the writers weren't sure if they were coming back for another season or not. Presumably, they would have had to deal with consequences next season if they returned

[–] mike_wooskey@lemmy.thewooskeys.com 11 points 4 days ago (11 children)

What's the credit limit on your credit card? I think $50K is really high. If you had 5 cards each with a$50K limit, and none of them had any balance, "maxing out your credit cards" means you'd have spent $250K.

Then you'd have $250K worth of stuff (or experiences ) but no additional spending money. Would it really be worth leaving your family, friends, home, culture, and still have to find a way to continue earning money to live on, for that amount?

It wouldn't be worth it to me. Maybe that's why you don't hear about it happening much.

[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 26 points 4 days ago

Would it really be worth leaving your family, friends, home, culture,

I myself had no plans of doing any of this, but when you put it like that, it's got me thinking.

[–] TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago

We'll use your example to make it easier. You max out your cards and loans on crypto, not stuff. Then you convert it back when you get to whatever low cost country and you'd be able to start a small business with it.

The move of course wouldn't be too enticing to most people but there are definitely people who don't have those ties to stay, it's not that rare for people leave their home countries.

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[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago (2 children)

They'll call you. A lot.

[–] banause@feddit.org 7 points 4 days ago

They can call me whatever they want.

[–] Dookieman12@piefed.social 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

They'll call the number you gave them. Numbers can be easily changed

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[–] BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Same question, asking for a friend too

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