Hi,
I just got a letter from Danske Bank regarding the account closures going on and a letter about a loan I have with them.
I got a student loan with them back in 2008 whereby they made available €300 p/m every month from November 2008 until May 2012. Repayments were due to start around October/November 2013.
During this time, it began as National Irish, rebranded to Danske and shut down all branches. I rang in June/July 2012 regarding the loan but they didn't seem to know anything about either that or the current account I held with them (empty but used to draw the money from).
They said they would look into it and call me back. I never heard from them again.
After the loan account stopped supplying the €300 p/m, I stopped receiving any updates about the loan account and my bank statements went from displaying my current account balance and loan account balance to just showing the current account balance.
Each month since Summer 2012, I received an account statement with the balance of the current account and no mention of the loan.
From about March 2013, the Danske bank loan slipped from my mind and I never thought about it. I still received the statements but they were usually just opened and binned.
November came and went and no mention was made of repayments and I never thought of it.
Today, I received a letter from Danske regarding account closures and they mention the loan account. They require me to set up a direct debit so "repayments will not be interrupted". There is no mention of repayment amounts, loan amounts or anything, just that I have a loan account with them.
Having done the maths myself, this looks to be about €18,000, with the date to have it completely repaid being roughly November 2015 (the loan was to stop around the end of college 2012, with roughly a years grace, and payments due to start October/November 2013 with 2 years to pay)
Again, there is no mention of amounts and as I had put this to the back of my mind and more or less forgotten about it as Danske hadn't mentioned it in nearly 2 years, this has come as more than a bit of a shock to me. Repayments would roughly equate to €1,000 per month which is just unreachable for me.