Hi there,
My wife and I have both been unemployed since last November and we have just been struggling along with social welfare payments as income. Basically we were in no position to pay back our personal loans with AIB - we took interest only payments for a few months in the hope that things might pick up on the jobs front but my wife had an accident that set us back again, so I went to Mabs who told us to stop making any repayments and they did a budget with us which we sent to the bank showing that we couldn't affort to make any repayments at all (which would have been around €250 each per month for the loans). The bank wouldn't agree to a break in payments again or anything like that so basically our accounts are in the red and i've been told that my accounts are going to be shut in a few weeks unless i clear outstanding balances, and then i think it becomes a bad debt. I assume the same will happen for my wife shortly after that. We only owe around €11,000 each which in the good times was not that much to repay but now is not possible. I'm just wondering has anyone been in a situation like this before - what happens after it's written off as a bad debt? Do I have to agree to pay a small amount each week? How badly will my credit rating be affected? We both still have credit cards with outstanding balances on them of around €700 and €1700, both paying 5% of the outstanding balance per month, which at this rate we are never going to clear. I wonder should we stop paying them back as well and let the visa accounts be closed and written off too? My wife also has a small credit union loan of around €1,900 with arrears of around €200 which we will clear when things improve or when my wife's accident claim is settled (the third party has admitted liability so that should just be a matter of time). Will the credit union look at credit ratings for future loans?
Thanks for any help with this.
My wife and I have both been unemployed since last November and we have just been struggling along with social welfare payments as income. Basically we were in no position to pay back our personal loans with AIB - we took interest only payments for a few months in the hope that things might pick up on the jobs front but my wife had an accident that set us back again, so I went to Mabs who told us to stop making any repayments and they did a budget with us which we sent to the bank showing that we couldn't affort to make any repayments at all (which would have been around €250 each per month for the loans). The bank wouldn't agree to a break in payments again or anything like that so basically our accounts are in the red and i've been told that my accounts are going to be shut in a few weeks unless i clear outstanding balances, and then i think it becomes a bad debt. I assume the same will happen for my wife shortly after that. We only owe around €11,000 each which in the good times was not that much to repay but now is not possible. I'm just wondering has anyone been in a situation like this before - what happens after it's written off as a bad debt? Do I have to agree to pay a small amount each week? How badly will my credit rating be affected? We both still have credit cards with outstanding balances on them of around €700 and €1700, both paying 5% of the outstanding balance per month, which at this rate we are never going to clear. I wonder should we stop paying them back as well and let the visa accounts be closed and written off too? My wife also has a small credit union loan of around €1,900 with arrears of around €200 which we will clear when things improve or when my wife's accident claim is settled (the third party has admitted liability so that should just be a matter of time). Will the credit union look at credit ratings for future loans?
Thanks for any help with this.