Bank cancelling caedit card as bad debt - help!

I've been overseas for the last 9 months and in that time charged up 2.5k on my credit card, but I have been unable to make any repayments over the last few months. AIB called me to say that the card is going to be cancelled as of monday and referred to the Irish Credit Bureau for 5 years. I tried to explain that I will be home in a few weeks and will sort it all out then (Pay it off completely). She said that I can do that and arrange a payment plan when I get back, but there will still be a record of it on my credit rating.

Is this really bad news? Is there anything I can do to stop a big black mark getting on there? I didn't realise it was this late/bad, my own fault but I'm a bit freaked out.

Can you make a payment immediately to clear the outstanding amount? You can then start negotiating with them about the Irish Credit Bureau - Once you clear the debt, this will be reflected by the ICB. You can also put an expanatory note on your account to explain what happened. But until you get the account cleared, you really have nothing to negotiate with.

Making any payment will be a start.

Get in touch with them and arrange to have €50 or €100 or €500 or whatever lodged to the account and they will at least see that there is some chance of getting the account back in order. Make sure that you agree a payment plan - €50 every week or month or whatever so that they can see an ongoing commitment to paying off the balance.

All they have to go on is a series of statements and letters they sent which have (presumably) gone unanswered and have generated no payments off the account. Making a payment off the account at least shows them that you exist and their entire 2K hasn't disappeared.

Meanwhile, they are continuing to add interest to your account at a horrendous rate, so do endeavour to pay the entire thing off as soon as possible.

z

Thanks guys, thats really usefull I'll get striaght on to it. If this is on my credit rathing with ICB, does that mean it will lessen my chances of getting a loan or mortgage? When I get back i'm going back to my old job and i was hoping to take out a loan to pay off the card and give me some cash to get set up again etc. Will this cause me problems? I already have a property but in a few years I want to buy another one, could this be a problem when applying for a mortgage?

The short answer to all your questions is - yes, this will be a problem in the future.

Imagine you are a financial institution and someone asks you for a loan. You look at their ICB record and see that they have had problems paying back a previous loan. Do you get a good vibe about this person ?

It doesn't mean you won't get any form of loans or credit, just that you will have more trouble convincing the institution to give you the loan, or maybe they will give you less or charge you more.

z

I remember having a company Amex account.I got outsourced and so decided to cancel the card.I thought the balance was paid off.Several months later I got a statement showing that I owed 5 euro.The account was closed with the note that 2euro was discounted and 3euro was a bad debt.
I subsequently checked my ICB rating and it didn't show on it, although there is a big difference between less than 5 euro and 2500!