International Credit checks - will a default cost him his new contract ?

[bluedrop]

<reposting here for more opinions>

A colleague (contractor) of mine is undergoing background checks for a job with an insurance company in Manchester. He has been living in Scotland for 2yrs now and has a clean credit history here. however, he worked in India for a few yrs before and has a credit card default there. (The bank had put some insurance on his credit card without his approval and he refused to pay for it. That now totals to appx 400$). He has other loans (a mortgage and an auto loan since 4 yrs) which were always paid on time. He is worried to sick now and called me to ask if I think this will cost him his new contract...since they are running international background checks on him..... what do you think friends?

More info: He works a major bank in Scotland. They did some background/credit checks before he started the contract ...not sure if they did any international checks thouugh...He is due to start the new contract next monday...

[bluedrop]

Anyone?

[Sockpuppet]

Well there is nothing that he can do about it now so just wait and see.

[AussieDigger]

My advice would be he simply states this fact on his application and makes it known that this matter is currently subject to dispute. Credit checks are more to do with things like fraud and money laundering than they are small time defaults like a bill not being paid, as this happens all the time.

He should be up front about it, state its currently being disputed through the regulatory processes there (if this is indeed the case) and then go from there. They will look at his track record within the Scotland bank first before going to India anyway and assuming he has an unblemished record there I'd doubt it would matter.