# young family 2+2 with mortgage arrears plus other dedts on one low income



## areweoutofit (17 Feb 2010)

Age: 34
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 37

Annual gross income from employment or profession: €36000
Annual gross income of spouse: housewife, dole payment of €88 per week

Type of employment: e.g. travel agent fulltime

In general are you:  YES spending more than I earn.
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?

Rough estimate of value of home:   € 265000
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: € 295000
*What interest rate are you paying?*    3. ??? but actually only agreed to paying reduce amount of €1000 per month, about €600 below what bank are needing per month. this agreenment runs out end of this month.

Other borrowings – Credit Union loan of about €20000, paying €500 per mth to that.

Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month?  No
If not, what is the balance on your credit card?  € 5100

Savings and investments: about €6000 in CU but thats stuck due to loan there. 

Do you have a pension scheme?  NO

Do you own any investment or other property?  NO

Ages of children:  3yrs old, and a 2 month old

Life insurance: yes, included in mortgage payment, about 1200 for the year.


*What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you? *
Only found this website this week. Thankfully something to turn to.

Sorry to be vague but how the hell will we get out of this scenario. Wife cant get job as we have 2 young kids and living in dublin, creche fees are high if even she did. Already paying only €1000 on mortgage per mth, ptsb have reduced it to that for now, shoudl be paying €1600. Still cant survive on that. Ideally wud love to get rid of home and rent but wud probably only get €265000 for house that we owe bank €295000. no chance of job getting any better paid, lucky to have one I suppose. The CU repayment of €500 per month is crippling us but they wont reduce that at all. stuck with that for up to 5yrs.


----------



## dubrov (17 Feb 2010)

Your life insurance seems way to high at €1,200 per year. Shop around and you should be able to halve that. Also consider downgrading to mortgage protections as it is cheaper.

I make your income after tax to be about €40k including child welfare. 

After paying mortgage(€1,000) + CU (€500), that still leaves about €1,800 for food, electricity heating etc. Its not huge but should be livable on.

HAve you other expenses like a car, health insurance etc.?

The credit card debt could be big trouble and needs to be dealt with asap. Try switching to one of the providers that offer 0% interest for the first 6 months.

Lastly, I know it is difficult, but you could always start looking for a job elsewhere to try and raise your income. Even in a recession there are opportunities.


----------



## Buddyg (17 Feb 2010)

I wouldn't call €36K a low income at all, I'm fairly sure it is an average income.

You just have to live a lifestyle that matches your income which I think in the past you haven't so now you will have to live a lifestyle below your income for quite a few years.


----------



## GreenQueen (17 Feb 2010)

So monthly that's NET pay of €2,427, dole of €380 & child benefit of €300.

Total monthly income of €3,108.

Minus Mortgage (€1,600) = €1,500
Minus Credit Union Loan (€500) = €1,000

No childcare so you don't have to deal with that. You have €1,000 to live on for the month.

I take it that you are living in an average sized 3 bed house at the moment. Allow utility bills of €200 per month.  You are left with €800 per month to pay for your grocery bills, make payments off your Credit Card but you don't mention whether you have a car or not and what your annual running costs are.

How much are you spending on grocery bills per month? You should be able to do well enough on €100 per week.


----------



## TheBlock (17 Feb 2010)

How long have you being paying back the CU loan? How long are you a member? If you make an appiontment to see their Loan Officer/Committe and explain to them your situation regarding the Credit Card debt and that it is causing you severe difficulty they may be able to release some of your savings to pay off this debt. They will most likely want to EFT the funds directly against the Credit Card and will also ask you to cut up the card and not apply for a new one.What you could do then is gradually build up your savings in CU again by setting up a S/O for €50-€80 a week.

I know they have done this in the past for people. This should help to lighten your immediate load but as mentioned above you have to concentrate on not getting caught up in the cycle of easy credit again and live within your means. I'd watch every penny spent from here on in as it all adds up rather quikly, if you track everthing you spend over a month you'll soon see where you can make changes.


----------



## areweoutofit (17 Feb 2010)

many thanks for your replies all. And I am immediately taking your various points on board. 
My life insrance i see now is very high, checked that out and it has us down as Life Cover of 31.35 p/mth, Policy fee of 5.00, Gov Levy of 1.08, and then Accelerated Spec Illness of 71.24 p/mth. Thats the high part. Life Insur was taken at time we bought house. We obviously blinded by the fact we have new home and all the joy with that and thought bank doing us a favour and sorting out the other little things which i can see they are doing us on. 

Hope to contact a credit card company in mornig to transfer balance so that i can make a dent in that also. 
As for the CU they wont budge, have met them loads of times. We only been paying it for about 5 mths now so maybe they will allow more slack in a few more months time when we build. 
We have vhi, 90 for wife and 1st child per mth, but we stopping that in next month or so. just waiting until they have paid the maternity hosp for the bills their. 
We have car also,but all tax and insurance on that is paid for the next 10/11 mths. so just fuel costs hopefully for the 11mths. thats one saving grace.

thanks again, will hopefully beable to see a bit of light in a day or 2.


----------



## missdaisy (17 Feb 2010)

areweoutofit, what has been mentioned on other threads in the past is keeping a spending diary. This is actually really useful and after about 5 weeks you will have a very definite idea of where your money is going and where you can cut down on things etc. Good luck!


----------



## sadie (18 Feb 2010)

Also make sure you are claiming any other benefits like Family Income Supplement. Even if you only get a tiny amount on it, you may be entitled to other benefits on it like fuel allowance, possibly. 
Also Medical Card or GP only card - if you haven't already applied for these.


----------



## minion (19 Feb 2010)

If all else fails, insist on the credit union taking your €6000 and paying it off the loan there.


----------

