# AIB credit card arrears



## marfsmal (20 Apr 2011)

Hi folks,

Really hope someone can help on this.

My credit card with AIB is just over 30 days in arrears and as this is the first time this has happened and I thought it was unavoidable I thought that as soon as this happens and your account is officially in arrears for over 30 days, they have to report this to the ICB and this then affects your credit rating.

But I found out today that Halifax/Bank of Scotland actually wait 3 months into arrears before they report you.

Does anyone know if there's any chance that this is the same for AIB? They didn't mention this on the phone to me when I spoke with them and I didn't ask cause I just presumed it was 30 days of arrears and that was it, you were blacklisted as such.


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## Guest105 (21 Apr 2011)

Google the [broken link removed]for your answer.


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## brenglee (21 Apr 2011)

no i know for sure that you must be 120 days in arrears before aib will charge off your credit card. call them again and they will tell you the minimum you can make to keep you from charging off. I found them very helpful


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## marfsmal (22 Apr 2011)

Thank you for that! It's worth a call to them for sure. I find it strange that they didn't tell me this when they called me last week about making payments.


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## Sunny (26 Apr 2011)

No bank will ever contact the ICB over 1 months missed payments because it could be something as simple as a direct debit gone wrong and the administrative work involved in fixing things is huge. Most banks will only make an issue of it if you are three months in arrears. My advice would be to take the account of arrears if you can and so your credit record should be left untouched.


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## marfsmal (26 Apr 2011)

I can't take my account out of arrears immediately but I should be able to within next 6 weeks. 
Does anyone know how much you have to have paid before the 3 months of arrears are up before you are charged off? For example say you have paid half of the arrears after having the arrears for 3 months, would that still mean you are charged off since you haven't paid the full arrears? Or is period extended again before you are charged off?
Sorry this is the first time this has happened to me and really don't want to ruin my rating because of this one difficult financial time in my life.


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## brenglee (3 Oct 2011)

the time is extended and any payment at all will delay the charge off time frame


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## john2010 (5 Oct 2011)

It will be recorded on ICB as a late payment. It will be indicated by a "1" on your history with AIB credit card. (meaning 1 month in arrears) If you clear it before next month and pay next months bill on time, everything will revert back to normal. This missed payment will remain on your record for 24 months but try not to worry too much, it's not a huge deal unless you continue to miss payments.


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## john2010 (5 Oct 2011)

If you miss next months payment and fail to clear the arrears from this month, then a code "2" will appear etc etc. Try not to miss 3 payments in a row whatever you do, you will most likely face a notice of termination from AIB. Once they cancel your card, you are unlikely to be able to get them to reverse their decision even if you bring account up to date - they take 3 missed payments as really serious.


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## marfsmal (17 Oct 2011)

The terrific news is that I finished my CU loan and have converted my AIB credit card to a personal loan with them (at graduate interest rate albeit variable) and I can make the payments no problem now. My credit card limit has been reduced to 500 euro but that suits me just fine. Never again


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## Bronte (18 Oct 2011)

Well done, and thanks for coming back with the good news.  It's great to see that people can and do tackle their debt problems successfully.


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## marfsmal (18 Oct 2011)

Bronte said:


> Well done, and thanks for coming back with the good news.  It's great to see that people can and do tackle their debt problems successfully.



Thanks Bronte. I made a huge amount of sacrifices to get this far but it's also about planning and playing the long game.

P.S thanks to you and everybody here for your advice here. It was definitely a great help.


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## Bronte (18 Oct 2011)

Don't remember giving you any advice but it is certainly good to know that someone is listing to the advice on AAM and that it is working. Any chance you would share how you tackled your debt on AAM for others in a similar situation. It's always interesting and we can learn a lot.


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## marfsmal (20 Oct 2011)

Bronte said:


> Don't remember giving you any advice but it is certainly good to know that someone is listing to the advice on AAM and that it is working. Any chance you would share how you tackled your debt on AAM for others in a similar situation. It's always interesting and we can learn a lot.



To be honest it was very straight forward and just a matter of cutting back on every last thing and searching for better deals, for example timing my shopping for when reduced items became available near end of day, shopping around full-stop (for necessities) and then cutting back on alcohol, going out, clothes and holidays (lol I couldn't even afford to go for a drive for the day never mind take a holiday). The fact that I didn't have a spare penny literally forced me to go out of my way to make savings and then I just put the money I had into paying back my credit card debt and the car loan. A key motivator has been that I want my life and freedom back, and I don't want to give the banks a penny more than I have to so the faster I pay the better. I also wanted to keep my credit rating intact which unbelievably I managed to do.


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