# In arrears and struggling



## FTB1975 (24 Jan 2014)

*[FONT=&quot]Income details
  Net monthly: [/FONT]*[FONT=&quot]*840.00*[/FONT][FONT=&quot] 
  Income history: [/FONT][FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]Working part-time while studying, due   to finish May 2014[/FONT]
*Net monthly **income   partner/spouse*: N/A 

*Personal circumstances so we can calculate your reasonable living expenses   
*Single person, no dependents
  Have a banger of a car....only used for short runs[/FONT]
   [FONT=&quot]Having just completed my SFS for my lender I can tell you my monthly living   expenses as follows:[/FONT]
   [FONT=&quot]Utilities: 180.00[/FONT]
   [FONT=&quot]Life Assurance: 62.
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Phone/Broadband: 66.00[/FONT]
   [FONT=&quot]Mobile phone: 80.00[/FONT]
   [FONT=&quot]Food: 160.00[/FONT]
   [FONT=&quot]Petrol: 30.00[/FONT]
   [FONT=&quot]Car insurance/NCT: 62.21[/FONT]
   [FONT=&quot]Home Insurance: 10.00[/FONT]
   [FONT=&quot]Mgmt fees: currently being managed by Debt Mgmt Co: paying €50 per month   with arreas approx. 2,500[/FONT]
   [FONT=&quot]

*Home loan
*Lender: Haven
  Amount outstanding: 220,000 plus 9, 312 arrears
  Value of home: 160,000 if I’m lucky
  Interest rate: SVR
  Monthly repayment: Payment due is 921.43 but only paying €300 
  Amount in arrears: 9,312

   [/FONT]
   [FONT=&quot]Have been on interest only but period expired in April 2013, haven’t been   offered it since and have been paying €300 per month since June 2013.


*Other loans and creditors *[/FONT]
   [FONT=&quot]Overdraft – €2,506 outstanding: 
  Credit Card - €6113 outstanding 
  Credit Card – €100/mth payment agreement
  Term loan €4357 outstanding 
  Term loan term: 2 years left
  Term loan - €100/month payment agreement


*Other savings and investments 
  Do you expect any lump sums in the medium term future? 
*No
*

  How important is retaining the family home to you? 
*I really want to keep the family home even if it means having a large   mortgage and negative equity for years to come.  

*Any other relevant information
*I’m due to finish my degree (B.Ed   – I know I must’ve been mad!)  in   May/June 2014. The job situation has improved ever so slightly in the last 12   months but realistically I am looking at going to the UK or elsewhere to   secure a temporary contract for the academic year. [/FONT]
*[FONT=&quot]
  What is your preferred realistic outcome? 
  [/FONT]*[FONT=&quot]I don’t want to walk away from my home or debts but voluntary surrender   and other options have already been mentioned by Haven. I am expecting a call once   they receive my SFS and I need to be better prepared. In my view arrears of   approx. €10K isn’t the worst they’ve seen but their approach is getting more   pushy every time I speak to them.[/FONT]


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## Kerrigan (24 Jan 2014)

Your life assurance seems expensive. I would shop around. You might save at least €30.00.

Is your mobile phone ready to go or bill paying? If bill paying, change to ready to go and top up with no more than €20.00 per month. There are lot's of deals, whereby you get free calls and texts to your contacts who are also using the same network.

Phone/Broadband deal also seems expensive. Go for a regular internet package minus the phone. Try 3 or one of those companies. Again no more than €30.00

 Utilities also seem high for a monthly repayment.


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## vandriver (24 Jan 2014)

You spend 10% of your income on a mobile phone.Is this a typo?


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## dogfish (24 Jan 2014)

Can you rent out a room or 2  in the property you own.  Extra income and splits the bills in half.


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## dereko1969 (24 Jan 2014)

Cancel your life assurance, you have no dependents and are in financial difficulties, what use is it to you?


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## vandriver (24 Jan 2014)

Your outgoings add up to 1200 .How are you paying them?


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## 44brendan (24 Jan 2014)

Life assurance likely relates to the mortgage and is generally a condition of approval. having said that I agree that while haven might want it retained, cancellation is probably a good option, while funds are so tight. You can always take out a new policy when finances improve!


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## 44brendan (24 Jan 2014)

Also retention of mortgage is totally unrealistic on current level of net income. Unless you can considerably incease your income in the short term you need to accept the fact that you need to hand back this property.


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## Kerrigan (24 Jan 2014)

OP, I do not know how you are financially surviving. 

I am guessing your mortgage provider arranged the life assurance policy for you and that is why it's premium is so excessive. 

Email around some insurance companies, get a cheaper quote and assign the policy to your lender and immediately cancel this overly excessive policy that you currently have running.

It seems if you were in receipt of social welfare rather than being employed you would be far better off. Less travel, fuel etc, rent allowance . . .

I agree, hand back the keys, live your life and continue your studies. It's just not worth the hassle.

 PS Before you make any drastic moves, have you considered entering a PIA?  Again I am not too sure whether this will effect your job opportunities when you graduate (Civil Service).


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## Bronte (28 Jan 2014)

vandriver said:


> Your outgoings add up to 1200 .How are you paying them?


 
None of the figures make sense and they actually want to keep the house.


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## Gerry Canning (28 Jan 2014)

Bronte said:


> None of the figures make sense and they actually want to keep the house.


 .................
VANDRIVER;  What Bronte says is sadly factual.
I see no way that you can, or indeed no way that you should keep the house.
 On the figures supplied you are financially sunk, I  see no option other than Insolvency for you.
Please accept that I am not trying to (hurt) you, but in your situation suggest you go and listen and take the advice of an insolvency practitioner, and do it now. 

At least in that way you will get a plan to move on with your life. 

Good Luck.


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## Gerry Canning (28 Jan 2014)

Op was FTP 1975 , NOT Vandriver. My error !!! sorry


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## Janet (28 Jan 2014)

180 on utilities seems very high to me - what's covered in that?
Nearly 150 on phones and broadband is also really high - as others have said, switch to PAYG, get basic internet. 
If you really wanted to you could also probably get 160 on food down a bit, too - there might not be a lot of wiggle room but there's usually some to be found.

To keep treading water (which isn't really what you're doing but just for the sake of argument) you need to reduce your 1,200 of outgoings to 840, which means cutting 360 from what you spend somehow. If it seems overwhelming, try and think of it as ten chunks of thirty-six that you need to find somehow. (But, bear in mind that even if you had no mortgage or other debt, based on the figures you have given, you still wouldn't have enough money every month at your current income) 

You'll be finished studying in four months so you have lots of decisions to make. Will you get a job immediately? Presumably not if you need to wait until the academic year begins again. Can you increase your hours at your part-time job? Can you get a second job (can you do that now without impacting too much on your studies)? If you have to move to the UK for work, what do you plan to do with your house/apartment? Will you rent it out? Can you rent it out for enough to cover the full mortgage? If so, why aren't you already doing that and living in a poky little boxroom in a house-share somewhere? If not, how do you expect to be able to pay the mortgage and upkeep as well as living costs in a different country?


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## FTB1975 (29 Jan 2014)

Hi,
I have already cancelled my TV subscription, reduced my life assurance by half (it was €120 due to my family history unfortunately). I am already renting a room in my apartment so to be honest everything that posters have suggested I am already doing. My utilities are high as I'm in an apt with heating....not the most economical for heating a ground floor apartment given the recent cold spell!!!!

Maybe I'm sticking my head in the sand but I am pretty hopeful that I will be working full-time come June/July...either back in my old industry while I try to secure a temp contact in teaching in order to get my Dip done. The other option is to go abroad and teach with a view of clearing some of my debts.

I've managed to get through 2 and a half years of college without my lender breathing down my neck, for which I'm grateful, but I am concerned that now that there is light at the end of the tunnel their approach will become more heavy-handed.

Anyway I've sent off my SFS to them and I'll just have to wait and see what comes of it.

Thanks for the input,
FTB1975


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## wstn_promise (30 Jan 2014)

I make it your gross salary is about £10,700, yet you have a mortgage that is over 20x that. That is your problem right there - you are overborrowed. 

Did you elect, or have, to work part-time, after previously earning more full-time?


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## Bronte (30 Jan 2014)

FTB1975 said:


> Anyway I've sent off my SFS to them and I'll just have to wait and see what comes of it.


 
Does your SFS equal the figures you posted above?  You realise that you outgoings are more than your income and you have no clarified this.


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## vandriver (30 Jan 2014)

Does the €840 income include the rent a room money or is that extra?


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