Can I be charged with misdemeanor for not paying back online payday loan?

[jimmydurant]

I obtained an online payday loan (which apparently are illegal in Ky, unbeknownst to me at the time) back in 2010, and after making 1 payment someone stole my checks and I closed my bank account that the payments were coming from. I tried to make a payment via money order after that but they wouldn't accept it, and I didn't get another bank account set up for some time. I honestly forgot about the loan for a bit, and then when I did remember, I was having financial difficulties and couldn't pay it. Now I have received a phone call saying they have charged me with 2 counts of misdemeanor bad check charges. So, my questions are: 1) I thought there could be no criminal charges related to payday loans...only civil charges. Is this not the case? Can they actually charge someone with a misdemeanor for taking out a payday loan and not paying it back? 2) If payday loans really ARE illegal in Ky, what recourse do they have if the loan isn't ever paid back? Does it even have to be paid back if the online payday loan practice is illegal in that state? Not trying to get out of paying my debts...just want to be able to have something to say back to the jerks who call and try to scare the crap out of me with these fake charges!

 

[justalayman]

You're in Denmark and you somehow took out a payday loan in Kentucky?

 

[FlyingRon]

They're probably illegal in Denmark, too.

You can't be charged criminally for defaulting on a debt. We don't do that in the US. What you can be charged with is writing bad checks.

First, a lender can not charge you with anything. They can certainly make a complaint to the police. Are we talking actual paper checks that you wrote on the closed account or electronic transfers they were making. In the latter case, they can't even make the criminal complaint. It's also likely illegal for them to threaten criminal action in an attempt to collect.

If you are in Denmark and not coming back to the US, I'd tell them to stop calling you (I'd put it in writing).

As for the legality of the online loan, we need more information. A lot of these are operating off Indian territory and using that as an excuse to ignore certain state and federal banking law.