Help! I desperately need advice about my final exit visa.

Greetings:

After over ten years in Saudi Arabia, I am leaving. However, my employer doesnt have a great reputation when it comes to paying out severance pay. They have been known to give people a quick final exit visa (like 72 hours) and tell those people that the check (e.g., final indemnity and/or overtime) would be in the mail. If these people did eventually receive their monies, I have no idea. However, this was back in the day when they, HR, held our passports. Now, they, Administration, not HR, have in the past few years let us keep our passports (why I have no idea). Based on this, my plan was quite simple. I would hold onto my passport until I got all my money. In fact, I even told HR a few weeks ago that my passport was at the Embassy for processing. They didnt like that at all and they told me somewhat angrily to get it back from the Embassy as quickly as possible! Based on this, I really thought I could hold onto my passport until all of final money was deposited into my bank account. After this, I would give HR my passport and exit the Kingdom as gracefully as possible.

However, today I was speaking to Pakistani-American colleague who is also leaving. He told me that the Ministry of the Interior/the Passport Office can now issue your final exit visa to your employer without your passport. He told me that everything vis-à-vis the Passport Office is now on-line. The employer brings up your MOI file, presses one button, and presto, the system issues your final exit visa. He figures that the guy at HR perhaps doesnt understand the system yet, but when he does, he will issue our final exit visas so fast, that our heads will spin. However, he told me next that he at least cant be issued a final exit visa without his passport so quickly because he has a car and he doesnt plan to sell his car until he has all his money. According to him, our employer cant issue him his final exit visa until he sells his car. Unfortunately, in my case, I dont have a car. My colleague has advised me to run up my credit card from Riyadh Bank as quickly as possible. He tells me that if I have a debt (bigger the better) on my credit card, my employer cant issue me my final exit visa. With a big credit card debt, they would have to wait, according to my colleague, until I paid it off to issue me my final exit visa. However, is this true? Also, everyone tells me, except for my Pakistani-American colleague of course, that HR still needs my passport to issue me my final exit visa. The MOI/Passport Office on-line system is brand new (I think) so does anyone understand how this new system works. Basically, who is right here?

Please note that I am a bit paranoid about using my credit card in the way my colleague has advised me. I only got it to rent cars and book hotel rooms. I have never run up any debt on it because I have never wanted to run up any debt in Saudi Arabia. However, now I am told to run it up to the max. Frankly, I dont know what to do. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for reading my posting and I look forward to reading your replies.