# Coyle White Devine UAE debt



## Patssy (Apr 20, 2016)

Hi

After returning back to the UK a few years ago, we carried on paying the balance on our credit card. We never missed any and fully intended on clearing it off.

Having asked for the balance, we realised that not only it had not gone down, in fact it had gone up after months of repayment. Apparently the bank had decided to change the interest rates without telling us. 

We tried contacting the bank and were told that we had to pay a ridiculous amount. Our initial debt was around 5k and contacting the bank to get a settlement figure, thinking that after all the payments the balance would have gone down, we were told that the change in the interest rate had gone up from less than 1% a month to about 22%.

At this point, feeling angry as we couldn t resolve this and no notice had been given, I stopped the payments. 

Now six years later, I have received a letter from Coyle White Devine solicitors based in the UK with a letter of claim and a cut and paste point regarding an exoress term within the contract within the NBD bank alledgedly saying I had signed a contract stating that the bank could pursue legal proceedings due to a non exclusive jurisdiction clause within the contract. They had satisfied themselves of my indebtedness, the figure quoted in the letter had skyrocketed to £70000!

Attached to the letter of claim was "without prejudice save as to costs" and that the bank is willing to negotiate to the interest level and settle close to the point of default.

21 days have been given.

No contract has been sent of the credit agreement, no original terms of business signed has been sent, no proof of assignment has been given as of yet apart from claiming to be acting on behalf of the bank. Strong impression is that the solicitor is acting like a bonafide debt collector under the umbrella of being a solicitor, stating they are securing 30-40 judgments per month for such debts.

My understanding is CWD does not mention judgment made in Dubai, and I understand the limitation period is 15 years in Dubai. No judgemnet in Dubai means i think that this needs to be dealt with under English covil law, is the alledged debt statute barred as its over six years?

Finally, there has been several court rulings in Dubai on a particular case as of last year rejecting local banks seeking high interest on CC debts and stating they have a duty to inform debtors of changes in interest rates and ruling that the debtor should only pay back the principal sum owed at the time of default. 

Ps doesn't interest go against islamic shariat law?

I welcome your sensible constructive comments on this please.

Thanks


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

Hi,
Be careful when dealing with CWD - I believe that they might have issued County court summonses in other cases and if these are not defended (properly) - then they would get a judgement by default.
This is indeed a bit of a grey area - so firstly get your dates of when you last made payment or acknowledged the alleged debt absolutely straight.
If it is definitely more than 6 years - then under UK law it is deemed to be statute barred and they cannot pursue it through the UK courts.
You would then be at liberty to send them a "statute barred" template letter (you can find an example of these by googling it) - this would state that any alleged debt is statute barred and that you consider the matter closed and for the company to cease pursuing the alleged debt from you.
Cheers
Steve


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## Mr Rossi (May 16, 2009)

Please visit the Money Advice Forum, they are a wealth of information and legal advice. The can also provide templates for requesting information from solicitors so you don't incriminate yourself.


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## Armin_mne (Feb 22, 2016)

Yes interest is against islamic sharia law but in UAE is not sharia law. You have islamic banks like Al Hilal which does not have interest like in NBAD. My advice would be that if you can find initial contract that you signed in and read in very detail. They should not change initial agreements and probably they did not but that interest goes into 22% probably because some late payments. 
Most of people say how sharia is bad and look at this problem now how big it is and how in bad situation are you. Anyway, I hope you will not need to pay one more dirham to nbad. Good luck.


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## ChickenChowmein (Jul 14, 2016)

Hi Patssy, any news regarding your battle with CWD?


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