W
WorriedSon
Guest
Hi all, I hope I have the right forum - I have never posted on the internet before, so this is all new to me - apologies in advance for any mistakes I make. To cut a long story short, I discovered over the weekend that my parents have accumulated a large amount of unsecured debt which they have been worried sick over. I arranged an appointment with MABS but we are none the wiser and would truly appreciate any advice that anyone could give - we are all up the walls.
Some details are as follows:
They have a mortgage of €60k approx, which is being repaid at €820 a month and there is 6 years left on it.
They have credit card debt of €30k (3 cards: 14k with MBNA, 9K with AIB and another 7k with AIB). There havent been purchases on the card recently but the interest the cards are accumulating is cruel.
They have a Credit Union loan of €12k, but there is a savings of €5k in the credit union, so debt could be reduced to €7k
They have a €4k overdraft which the bank has called them in over.
In total this makes debt of approx €42k.
Income wise, they have about €3620 gross a month, but until Christmas they will have €4220. My father is 61. When all living costs are paid, up to Christmas they would have maybe €300 a week to service a loan, but after Christmas they will be pushed to have €150-200 a week.
We postponed the meeting with the bank re: the overdraft, and went to MABS. Our initial thought was to try to consoldiate all debts into one loan and try to repay that every month for teh next four years, but MABS advice was to not pay the MBNA card for 7 months and ignore calls, when it would be turned over to a Debt Collection agency and all fees/interest would be frozen. Given that this was the biggest debt though, we are really frightened about how much interest would accumulate in the next 7 months, and my parents would not be able to deal with the pressure calls/letters.
They suggested turning the AIB cards to their insolvency department and taking and converting the overdraft to a loan. My parents are terrified of the word insolvency though, and I dont really understand it.
We are not experienced in this area at all, so I was hoping for a second opinion. Basically from my parents perspective, they would like to have all of these debts cleared in four years time when my dad retires. Their mortgage is not cleared until he is 67, so they dont want two loans when on a pension.
I know this is very long, but if anyone has gotten this far and can tell me if MABS advice makes sense (of has another suggestion), I would really appreciate. We are up the walls and I hate to see my parents upset. I am an only child, married with big mortgage and creche bills, so it kills me to say that I dont have any money to help them out.
Many thanks.
Some details are as follows:
They have a mortgage of €60k approx, which is being repaid at €820 a month and there is 6 years left on it.
They have credit card debt of €30k (3 cards: 14k with MBNA, 9K with AIB and another 7k with AIB). There havent been purchases on the card recently but the interest the cards are accumulating is cruel.
They have a Credit Union loan of €12k, but there is a savings of €5k in the credit union, so debt could be reduced to €7k
They have a €4k overdraft which the bank has called them in over.
In total this makes debt of approx €42k.
Income wise, they have about €3620 gross a month, but until Christmas they will have €4220. My father is 61. When all living costs are paid, up to Christmas they would have maybe €300 a week to service a loan, but after Christmas they will be pushed to have €150-200 a week.
We postponed the meeting with the bank re: the overdraft, and went to MABS. Our initial thought was to try to consoldiate all debts into one loan and try to repay that every month for teh next four years, but MABS advice was to not pay the MBNA card for 7 months and ignore calls, when it would be turned over to a Debt Collection agency and all fees/interest would be frozen. Given that this was the biggest debt though, we are really frightened about how much interest would accumulate in the next 7 months, and my parents would not be able to deal with the pressure calls/letters.
They suggested turning the AIB cards to their insolvency department and taking and converting the overdraft to a loan. My parents are terrified of the word insolvency though, and I dont really understand it.
We are not experienced in this area at all, so I was hoping for a second opinion. Basically from my parents perspective, they would like to have all of these debts cleared in four years time when my dad retires. Their mortgage is not cleared until he is 67, so they dont want two loans when on a pension.
I know this is very long, but if anyone has gotten this far and can tell me if MABS advice makes sense (of has another suggestion), I would really appreciate. We are up the walls and I hate to see my parents upset. I am an only child, married with big mortgage and creche bills, so it kills me to say that I dont have any money to help them out.
Many thanks.