Is it against the law not to pay my debts ?

[quicken]

these things have a tendency to catch you up when your unaware

[John]

these things have a tendency to catch you up when your unaware

 

With a massive interest to boot.

[Heyesey]

Intention is still the important bit though, hence very few (if any) convictions for theft in these circumstances.

 

Quite so. It's not as if you've borrowed half a million quid when your income is sixty pounds a week, and then written to say you can't afford the repayment.

[CottonTop]

Regardless of how it would affect my credit, etc, I don't think I would be able to sleep at night knowing I was running out on my debts. It is stealing, in my opinion, and I couldn't live with myself.

[CockneyMafia]

Regardless of how it would affect my credit, etc, I don't think I would be able to sleep at night knowing I was running out on my debts. It is stealing, in my opinion, and I couldn't live with myself.

 

There is debt and there is debt though.

 

If banks turn round to their customers and triple the interest rate on loan repayments overnight, or start charging extortiante and (frankly illegal) charges for payment defaults, then I would argue that the banks deserve everything they get.

[DaFoot]

I have often thought about trying to get my debt written off/running from it.

 

Then again I know I'd be annoyed at others causing my costs to go up (eg. fraudulent insurance claims pushing premiums up). So I decided that I'll stick it out and go through the long/painful process of paying it back, after all, I generated the debt through my own stupidity/naivety.

 

Ask yourself if you would feel at all guilty about the effects of 'escaping' your debt would be on others.

 

If you can live with that I guess it's an easy decision.

[Crayfish]

So this is the bloke responsible for the global economic meltdown!

[punk]

No it wouldn't. It would be theft. Theft is the act of 'intending to permantly deprive ...... '. Fraud is misrepresentation.

 

Don't be ridiculous, it's pure and simple fraud. If you arrange a loan without intending to pay it back you ARE misrepresenting to the creditor. It's not theft as the person is consenting to give you the money (albeit under false-pretences).

 

Intent has nothing to do with classing it as theft or fraud. If you deceive someone into giving you money it's fraud. If you take it from them without their consent it's theft.

 

Not that any of this has anything to do with the OPs problem/question.

[Ouija]

pay £1 per month to each creditor mate. it's a loophole and will go on for time evermore, until your creditors decide to make you bankrupt. it delays the inevitable for a good few years, gives you breathing space, but bankruptcy will probably be forced on you... if they can find you.

 

Would they do that, though, if you had nothing worth taking? I thought that was only a route they go down for businesses to get a share of any assets left. If it's just a person with no assets to speak of, it would just wipe the debt and they'd end up worse off as they'd get nothing, surely?

[happyhippy]

Don't be ridiculous, it's pure and simple fraud. If you arrange a loan without intending to pay it back you ARE misrepresenting to the creditor. It's not theft as the person is consenting to give you the money (albeit under false-pretences).

 

Intent has nothing to do with classing it as theft or fraud. If you deceive someone into giving you money it's fraud. If you take it from them without their consent it's theft.

 

Not that any of this has anything to do with the OPs problem/question.

 

No, it's not mate.

 

Fraud means things like pretending to be someone you aren't, like taking a loan out in a false name.

 

Obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception means using a real identity for your own devices (like using someone else's credit card), OR things like selling someone goods which you know are defective.

 

Theft, very specifically is the act of "intending to permanently deprive someone of property belonging to another".

 

If you enter into a loan, and have no intention of paying it back, it most definitely is theft, and not fraud.

 

Proving that would be a hell of a different matter though!