You are right, this is easily doable. I knew a guy here in the States 6 years ago who did something even worst than this. He had many credit cards with total limit more than $80,000 which he gathered during the years he has been in the States. When it was time to go back home he bought a car from a dealer friend, shipped it to his home country, and left the States for good!! LOL

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Absolutely on the money there, but have you thought of this… you are an individual from a foreign country working in Kuwait having a salary bank account in a Kuwaiti Bank which has provided you with a credit card from said account based on the fact that there is a monthly pay cheque coming in to pay your monthly credit card bills. You dillegently pay the minimum required payment required by the credit card company as well as the standing order from the leasing /rental company every month and on all accounts keep your nose clean until the fateful day comes to skip town. Thats when you max out our credit card for cash & leave the account active with the minimum amount in the account to cover the credit payment and leave the country. What do you stand to lose?? Simple slightly less than you would have had you stayed in town. that is the minimum charge left in the account.
What happens next ?? The credit card company as usual every month deducts its minimum % charge from the account automatically leaving probably zero or probablly a couple of fils in the account and when the date for the payment to the leasing company to get paid by the standing order comes around they get zilch because there is no cash in the account to transfer in the first place so they revert back to the credit card and to the amount held as security to cover the bill for that month you miss out and lo behold it bounces back because your credit card has been maxed out and cannot support the transaction. Mean while you have allready left the country a month ago leaving behind an active account with no cash coming in plus a leasing bill that would have probably been paid by your credit card. Plus a car in some parking lot somewhere collecting interest in the form of dust :)

I can guess what your next question will be .. What about the final settlement that the employer pays to the individual? Good point .. However again usually whenever a company transfers the salary to an individuals account it comes in and shows up on your statement as a monthly salary however other payments such as bonuses or final settelments are handeled by seperate accounts that show up as plain transfers. Had it shown up as Final Settelement Transfer that would normally alert the bank to hold the amount until all bills.. be it credit card or standing orders be setteled. But since it does not show up this way the banks , credit card companies and leasing companies are none the wiser. Even if it did come that way there is a way around it an individual could always ask for the amount in the form of a cashiers cheque made out to the individual rather a bank transfer and most companies almost alway oblige the request.

So in the end we have monolithic 4,6 & 8 cylinder creatures collecting dust in parking lots and drive ways all over the country :-)

Last time I rented a car at the airport few years ago they require a credit card. They also place a hold on your card on the rental amount until you bring the car back. If you didn’t bring the car back and they could not reach you then they report the car stolen by the renter. So if they try to exit or enter Kuwait after certain time they will be flagged. It is standard car rental procedure world wide not only in Kuwait.

Talked with the kuwaiti guy in charge of the long term and asked him bout those cars vandalized, he admitted it was the ppl in charge of the car park that did it… He said the reason they did was coz they own the airport around 500-700KD in parking fees.

I would watch out, get the valet instead.. much better!!

Is it any wonder that car rental, phone companies and even ministries for that matter have become wiser & put travel bans on americans and europeans when the bill exceed a certain limit ? Mind you though not all American and European citizens are the same there are some really great responsible one out here as well .. Like they say ” Not all five fingers are the same” :-0)