Hi, I am a 15 year old Canadian and I have a $147.01 negative balance owing to PayPal. It has been negative for a couple of months now. I haven't contacted anyone at PayPal yet. PayPal has sent this balance to a collection agency -- NCO Financial. I was wondering, do I have to pay this money back? What would happen if I didn't? I don't have a job yet but I do have a SIN, would this affect my credit when I am age of majority? Please help, Thanks. Jason.
If you don't have the money, you don't have the money. Nobody can't take something from you, you do not have. Nothing is going to happen, really. They will badger you for what will seem like forever and then they will leave you alone. You will probably lose your PP account.
Absolutely. I don't know how bad it will effect your future bank applications, they will look into the details of who you forfeited and for how much, etc. But what's the point of dwelling on that since you don't have the money to pay? You'll find out when you try to take a loan, I guess. P.S. You can always say "I was only 15! I was dumb!" and they will probably let it slide. (I am not saying you are dumb, but you can always play that card in the future.).
You must do, after all that negative balance didn't come from nowhere. I'd be washing cars and mowing lawns like a madman until you've put things right. Credit agencies do hold records and yes, you're a minor which means they could, potentially, go after your legal guardians and affect their credit rating. In the future, you are going to want to go flatting and your future landlord is going to do a credit check and see that you have been impetuous/irresponsible/fraudulent/deceptive (take your pick) by opening a PayPal while still legally a minor and allowing the account to get a negative balance. Our family business credit checks people, right, and here's what we see: credit checks by people like Vodafone before you open an account or make significant changes short term money lenders doing credit checks reputable money lenders (ie banks) doing credit checks court judgements against the person repayment history for those court judgements Do you really want a court judgement against your name? Not saying it will happen, but what if your file gets randomly selected for the use of "making an example" of someone. Do you want to explain that to your future partner? your partner's parents when you can't buy a house together?
Think about it. The debt collectors buy debt Lets say they pay $50 to buy your $147.01 debt. That means they need to make atleast $50 to break even. They're not going to be interested in your closing the account until they have broken even on the deal they made when they bought your debt. But in the meantime they've incurred costs chasing you up, and they're going to add those costs to your $147.01 and they're going to want that money too. They are not going to trust you to pay them back in the future, by the time that happens you could be anywhere in the world and impossible to track.
Yes, it will affect your credit rating. However - I've been in... not the same situation, but I was being chased by a bookclub or something, which I signed up for, and forgot to cancel, and hence was told to pay say $100 or so by a collection agency. I simply told them they had no case, since I wasn't more than 14 years old at that point, and was not able to enter into a legally binding contract of the sort they set forth. It is not MY problem that they don't do proper checks on those who sign up. They forfeited the case. No gounds to go after my parents, since they would not be legally responsible for such an agreement. Not saying that would work, though. I would contact the collection agency. Come clean, tell them you do not have the money, but you're working towards getting them, and ask if they can postpone the collection fees for a reasonable amount of time, to give you some time to get the money.
Well, you already lied when you applied for a paypal account (you have to be 18 to apply), so at this point it makes no difference. I believe if paypal had found out that you were 15 they would have frozen your account anyway. By the way, collectors can't legally collect debt from minors in both the US and Canada (I am 99% sure), so right there you're off the hook. Honestly, you should relax and forget about all of it. It's not like you're owing $10K or something.
You have told your parents, I hope. As your legal guardians they're responsible for your conduct so they should be aware of what is happening.
You can't legally have a PayPal account at 15, so you are in a whole lot of legal trouble for that, let alone owing the negative balance. You must have lied when you set up the account --> that has consequences.
Yup. And it could affect your credit when it really matters (like trying to buy your first car or other such important stuff when you are young.) Your best bet would be to level with your parents, get them to pay it off immediately, and then work to pay them back. If you are too afraid to borrow from your parents, is there another adult family member or friend who could help you out while you work to pay them back?